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# NYTimes: The Last Time You Used Algebra Was... : The argument often surfaces, not only regarding math but a lot of the other subjects taught in school: why did I bother to learn X if I never needed to know it?

The problem with this kind of thinking is that it assumes that from an early point in their lives, we can know exactly what knowledge and skills a child will or will not need in their lives to come. While it is true that, for example, a lot of us grow up to never need to use the math we learned in school, learning math has enabled many of us to go on to work in the sciences, etc, etc. The same can be said for any other topic.

The point I'm getting at is that the educational system should provide all students with the widest range of opportunities for their future lives. A student who doesn't learn math, biology, music, english, etc... well, they'll never know what kind of lives they could have had, since they would have been frozen out of so many options from early on.

Of course, if your goal is to produce a subservient, dependent population who are able to do little more then perform minor, machine-like tasks within heavily automated, de-skilled jobs, well, you really don't need to be too concerned whether John Q. Public learns math in school. No, your kids will learn plenty of math at their private school, and they'll tell John Q. Public what to do. They'll do the math for him.