they think it's great to have some basic knowledge in a wide variety of subjects -- history, literature, music, etc. But when it comes to math, they'll just shrug and gleefully say "i'm not really a math person!"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivium
In contrast, "Quadrivium" - arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy - was a follow-up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrivium
These constituted the "seven arts". But it was perfectly fine just to be educated in the trivia, if math wasn't your cup of tea.
See the "Yes Minister" clip where Sir Humphrey vehemently denies being so low-standard as to be educated in the sciences - he was good enough to study the classics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckgt4VWIsf4
(edited for better grammar, logic and rhetoric.)
I’m always shocked that people aren’t embarrassed to say that in public.
"Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear his shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house." -Robert Heinlein
Although the whole "innumerates are terrible" thing appears all over his books.
Aren’t K12 schools teaching “new math” or whatever fad, to students and focusing on teaching to a test due to no child left behind?
I wonder what studies have been done to measure how many students are math deficient in general population.
Furthermore, what are approaches that could remediate such issues?
Edit: OP deleted it now, and I wish I saved it, but he originally posted a long spiel on how math is undemocratic because anyone can prove anyone else wrong.