The average person is never going to have to use anything but basic arithmetic in 'daily life',
The average person may only have to use basic arithmetic in daily life, but I'd argue that pretty much everybody could benefit from using more math (including calculus) in everyday life. I mean, just think of anything in life that can be counted/measured and can be described by a function that can be optimized. Boom, there's an application for calculus - minimization and maximization.
This is why I disagree with the recently popular narrative about how "we don't need to teach all kids calculus" and "math isn't all that important", etc. Me, I wish I'd studied more math when I was younger. I feel like you almost can't teach too much math. If anything, I'd say the problem is a combination of pedagogy and not spending enough time on applications when teaching math.
The average person may only have to use basic arithmetic in daily life, but I'd argue that pretty much everybody could benefit from using more math (including calculus) in everyday life. I mean, just think of anything in life that can be counted/measured and can be described by a function that can be optimized. Boom, there's an application for calculus - minimization and maximization.
This is why I disagree with the recently popular narrative about how "we don't need to teach all kids calculus" and "math isn't all that important", etc. Me, I wish I'd studied more math when I was younger. I feel like you almost can't teach too much math. If anything, I'd say the problem is a combination of pedagogy and not spending enough time on applications when teaching math.