As an education major who is specializing in math, this makes me cringe. Yes you will not use a lot of what you learn in math class in your daily life. You can just learn basic arithmetic and do fine. The bigger picture is that a lot of wonderful successful career options are math based. We need to get students inspired in math so they will dream bigger for themselves. In a technological world math is important, if you want to be a mover and a shaker! Math and science are the backbones to success.

Oh and you shouldn't strike out against a students for asking questions. Some teachers take it too personally when students have issue with the education process.