Math: Who Needs It?

As my girlfriend prepared to take the GRE's (the standardized test used for admissions to graduate study in the United States) using the Princeton Review's text, she came across and interesting sentiment held by ETS (the creators of the GRE). As the Princeton Review relates it, it is the view of ETS that the mathematics section of the GRE can not test any math knowledge above and beyond what was taught during high school, because it would be unfair to assume a college graduate took any courses relating to mathematics after high school. I think this statements does a good job of revealing the view of mathematics in America.

Now remember that the students taking the GRE are those whom plan to become the most educated in America through their graduate studies. What does this imply? It seems that it is the common held belief (since most graduate schools in liberal arts require the GRE) that it should not be the responsibility of the most highly educated, the academics, the intelligentsia to understand anything about mathematics but the minimal algebra skills gained in a high school curriculum (not even Calculus!!!!). This is the embarrassing state of the mathematical educational philosophy pervading throughout the country. How could we, as a nation, possibly be surprised that all the other industrial countries outperform us in math and science?

Furthermore, if it is truly the viewpoint of ETS that it would be unfair to expect a college graduate to take a math course, then extending their logic, why would it be fair to expect a student dedicated to mathematics to take an English course? It is very clear that the verbal section of the GRE is at a higher level than a high school graduate. As someone who reads quite often, I have not seen more than half the words they expect me to know in order to score well on their exam. However, I have spent four years learning a profound vocabulary in mathematical terms. Why do they not test me if I can define the terms metric, continuity, or manifold? It would seem to me, that through using ETS's own logic we can determine that their test is unfair as it currently stands, so they mine as well make a math section that requires the intellectual elite to at least understand calculus, a tool that our understanding of the world is built on.