I think the claims that X is not necessary for everyday living ignores one of the purposes of education, which is to expose you to a diverse array of subjects and teach you ways of thinking about things.
Maybe you took algebra and calculus, but you never actually use them as you did in math class in your everyday life. But you learned problem solving in instances where you don't have all the data, you learned things like limits, infinite sums, and the relationship between lines, equations, areas and sums.
Although you don't use the explicit rule based symbols, perhaps your brain got wired from the overall experience to think somewhat differently when encountering certain situations.
Perhaps you'll understand your mortgage a little bit better because of your exposure to geometric series. Perhaps when looking at your finances, the concepts of slopes and tangents will re-emerge.
The same goes for learning history, or philosophy, or english literature. It's not that you have to "use" your known of the Civil War or of Shakespeare in everyday activities, but as a functional citizen, having been exposed to those things, perhaps when you are asked to evaluate what's happening on the nightly news, you will have a deeper perspective to draw on?
Personally, I use math all the time. I was a math major and I love it, so of course, it's my standard tool. But I don't just use it in coding, I use it thinking about art and lots of other things. I tend to "see math" all throughout the universe and human experience.
Maybe you took algebra and calculus, but you never actually use them as you did in math class in your everyday life. But you learned problem solving in instances where you don't have all the data, you learned things like limits, infinite sums, and the relationship between lines, equations, areas and sums.
Although you don't use the explicit rule based symbols, perhaps your brain got wired from the overall experience to think somewhat differently when encountering certain situations.
Perhaps you'll understand your mortgage a little bit better because of your exposure to geometric series. Perhaps when looking at your finances, the concepts of slopes and tangents will re-emerge.
The same goes for learning history, or philosophy, or english literature. It's not that you have to "use" your known of the Civil War or of Shakespeare in everyday activities, but as a functional citizen, having been exposed to those things, perhaps when you are asked to evaluate what's happening on the nightly news, you will have a deeper perspective to draw on?
Personally, I use math all the time. I was a math major and I love it, so of course, it's my standard tool. But I don't just use it in coding, I use it thinking about art and lots of other things. I tend to "see math" all throughout the universe and human experience.