1. It is ridiculous to tell somebody not to learn something in his spare time. 2. Atwood says: "at least high school level math are fundamental to performing

1. It is ridiculous to tell somebody not to learn something in his spare time. 2. Atwood says: "at least high school level math are fundamental to performing the job of a politician. Or at any job" Do you know what is high school level math? It is a seemingly randomly selected subset of mathematics in fact based on mostly the scientific and engineering needs of the 19th century. What is included in 'highschool-level math' should be evolving. For example basic programming knowledge is more fundamental in today's society than trigonometric equations, coordinate geometry, logarithmic equations, etc... (all of which is high-school math). Very basic programming could (and should) be part of basic math education.