Do you remember that time when you couldn’t pay for gas because you couldn’t remember if tangent X was equal to sine multiplied by cosine, or sine divided by cosine? You probably don’t. Now how about the time you had to fork over your paycheck to pay for a class that has absolutely nothing to do with your major? For most students, this sounds far more familiar.

Math is useful, but it is force fed to every student from the time they can finger paint until they graduate from high school, and yet there is an inexplicable mind set in education that more math is necessary for every major.

In a world where both the size and number of classes are shrinking, while fees for tuition, books and gasoline grow higher and higher, can we really afford this obsession with math?

One common claim is that math will be necessary for almost any job in the market today, but when was the last time you used anything more than basic algebra outside of school?

If real world applications of math are so common, why do most of the problems in textbooks seem so arbitrary and artificial? Even accountants, people whose entire job revolves around math and numbers, rarely use anything more strenuous than high school math.

Another common claim is that math “trains your mind” to think analytically. While this argument is valid to some extent, it centers on the fallacy that math is the only way to learn those analytical processes. Literature, Psychology, History, and any number of other classes teach those very same skills.

Math is a useful ability to anyone, but it shouldn’t be a burden upon college level students whose major has nothing to do with math. As more students spend extra time at universities, the cost of mandatory math to students is growing heavier.