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chas, did you watch the video? He is not suggesting scrapping arthmetic and algebra but substituting statistics for calculus in hs. He also acknowledges that calc is necessary for those students studying scienc, engineering, econ, etc,
What he suggests make total sense and anyone wo has read Innemeracy will agree with what he is suggesting. Stats&probability have usage in many facets of everyday life whereas calc rarely does so. One of Innumeracey's main points is how ignorant we are to place common news into proper perspective. A cursory knowledge of probability would help enormously.
For example many environmental disasters send people into a panic. But even a carcinogen such as PCP's poses little individual risk. That is not to say that the risk should be ignored or that there will not be some community wide consequences. But an individual should not panic and merely take reasonable precautions to minimize or eliminate the already minimal individual risk. Calc would be of no value to properly understand this.
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