There are a couple of takeaways, the main one heartwarming. But one that jumps out is the idea of a literate US adult who can't do third-grade fractions. I'm not criticising those people. I'd be willing to bet that a majority of US adults would struggle to add 7/3 and 3/7. We spend years and years and years teaching kids advanced math skills which the vast majority forget almost completely as adults and would rather google 'do my assignment for me' to help their kids. It's a cold war, sputnik thing meant to ensure a constant supply of scientists and engineers. Seems to me that, once they've learned basic arithmetic, we could do something better with all the umpteen person years of all those school kids who show no particular bent for STEM.
