Remember sitting through high school math class while the teacher droned on about polynomial equations and thinking there wasn't a chance you'd ever use any of it in life? Well, if you're like most Americans, chances are your 17-year-old self was absolutely correct.

As it turns out, less than a quarter of U.S. workers report using math any more complicated than basic fractions and percentages during the course of their jobs. 

You might be surprised by who's doing the most advanced math day-to-day. It's not white-collar workers. Rather, it's high-skill blue-collar workers.

"It's clear that some of the best blue-collar jobs do in fact require a level of mathematical literacy on par with what you'd expect a student to know if they were college bound. To me, that hints at an argument for more high level vocational programs: It might help if students actually knew that those boring equations really one day would earn them a paycheck."

Well said!