Real-World Applications for Math

This happened a little while ago, but I was looking at the newspaper, and it was talking about applying math to real world situations. I have often wondered when I am ever going to use anything I have learned in math in the real world. Turns out, I'm not alone. The article said that America is a country in which many of its high school students do not know how to apply what they learn in the classroom to real world problems. Apparently, out of 25 or so countries, America ranked about 12th in how well its students could apply what they learned in real life (this is high school). I find that very interesting because, after all, the whole point of taking such advanced courses is to know how to solve real problems, is it not? Some of the top ranking countries were Japan, Germany, and France. That was just a few of the top ranking countries, but the point is still this: many American students don't know how to use what they have learned. That's not to say, however, that American students don't learn higher math, like calculus, it's just that they don't know how to use it. Disappointing, very diappointing.