Does everyone really need to know about recursion?

Does everyone really need to know the basics of calculus? Or how about genetics? Does everyone really need to know French? I had classes for the above in my high-school. In fact I can't think of any class I took in high-school that isn't useless to a large portion of high-school graduates.

And I can't think of many examples that are more useful than grasping the concept of recursion.