> Then again, how many people will ever need to know how to compute the 
> integral of a polynomial?

This is why it's not taught to everyone, and is reserved until when people 
*choose* they want to do maths (when you're 16 in the UK).

> If you can't add, you're going to have a bit of a problem doing your 
> weekly shopping, but there's not much need for higher math unless you're 
> working in some specialist industry somewhere.

You'd be surprised how many industries require specialist knowledge :-)  For 
example, I suspect the structural engineer that designed your building did 
plenty of calculations using calculus to estimate stresses based on the 
loading (simple cases can be looked up in tables, but anything unusual needs 
to be worked out manually).  Ditto for an electrical engineer who designed 
the power supply for your computer, the DCDC converter in your mobile phone 
and numerous other circuits - without an understanding of calculus you're 
going to be totally lost.

Of course computers can simulate and calculate stuff for you, but you're 
going to look a right idiot if you need to run ten 12 hour simulations to 
decide the correct structure or capacitor size when your colleague can work 
it out exactly in a few minutes with a piece of paper.

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