(Copyright © 2000-2001 --
this item revised 17 Feb 2001)
Sometimes this question is really another way of saying, "This is too hard. It's not fair to make me learn it!"
But you might as well say that about drawing, or music, or literature, or a foreign language, or anything really. Yes, it's true: anything can be hard while you're learning it. Mark McGwire wasn't born hitting home runs, you know. It's true that different people have different talents. If you're good at something, it will be easier for you; of it's not one of your talents, you'll have to work harder for the same results as someone else.
But trust us, this is not too hard for you. Anyone of normal intelligence can learn all of high-school math, and perhaps some college math too.
But perhaps you're honestly wondering, what good is this math? There are three answers, at least:
It's practical. We can do a little better than the usual lecture about you never know what you're going to be doing in the future. Suppose you have the life that you want to have, and you're the editor of a highly regarded literature magazine. Now you'll have to deal with budgeting issues, press runs, salaries, etc. You won't always have hard and fast pre-canned answers to questions like "How much should we charge for the magazine?" "Can we afford to increase our fees to the authors?" "Should we accept advertising? What should we charge?" Most of these questions have significant unknowns. But if you have at least some familiarity with math, specifically algebra, you can face these questions with less fear. You can do a better job at what you want to do when you're in The World After Graduation.
It's part of being educated. Over the past couple of decades, students have focused more and more on particular specialties. But there is still a basic minimum that we all need to be able to be part of the same culture. Literature is part of that: you're not educated if you haven't read some of the "greats". So is art, and music. And math is part of it too. This is not just some abstract 1960s liberal b.s. Public-policy decisions every day -- things you'll be called upon to vote on -- depend on math awareness, and so do ordinary consumer decisions. See John Allen Paulos' very readable book Innumeracy for lots of examples.
It's beautiful. Not beautiful in the same way as a painting, but then music is not beautiful in the same way as a painting. What makes a work of art beautiful is its structure, how its parts work together to create an overall impression. Crazy as it may seem, math has some of that same sense: various little bits relate together to make a harmonious whole. (The same is true of physics theories, especially the "standard model" of elementary particles.)
Most people aren't Mark McGwire, but we can almost all enjoy a pickup game of baseball. The same is true with math: we're not all Gauss or Euclid, but with an open mind we can all get some enjoyment, and we can all improve our math abilities.