Most people (and Simon Pegg) hate math...

Simon Pegg has had a rant at a plan for the UK to have compulsory math education through 18 (It is currently 16). To be honest it made me sad. I think the quote “I hated math, I dropped math as soon as I could, and I’ve never needed it other than the skill set I acquired at the age of 12” gets to the point of it for a lot of people. Given his success, (quote from movie web “Actor, writer, producer, musician — is there anything Simon Pegg can’t do?”) perhaps it is better that people choose for themselves what they want to do in life, but there is no idea that it might perhaps be interesting. So what is it about school that makes most people hate math? The problem of course is that all too many of us are mathematically literate to a point of ridiculousness. Can we solve this by age 16? (He’s right about the tories though)