Albert Einstein once said he didn’t believe in mathematics. Some Utah educational leaders beg to differ.

There’s a movement in our state to boost a student’s college readiness by requiring high school graduates to take a higher math course in their senior year. They, like philosopher Bertrand Russell, see math as a “cold, austere beauty” along with something students should better grasp before walking the college campus.

My own experience with math is conflicted. I liked the idea that math was unchanging and factual. Due to an excellent junior high teacher, I excelled at algebra; the next year, however, I failed geometry. Along the way, I concluded that an ease with numbers was adequate for most citizens. Not many of us work for NASA.

And that’s the problem I have mandating more math (or, for that matter, more Shakespeare). Mandating a particular class means one less course a student can take for his individual interest, and I question how much math is really needed for the future job market.

Not all of today’s students will become engineers or work in computer technology. For every “math-oriented” professional, there will probably be 15 teachers and salesmen and customer service representatives and retail clerks and truck drivers and culinary workers. When my automobile needs repair, I don’t give a hoot whether or not my service technician can define an acute triangle.

But if we are going to require anything math-oriented, it should revolve around personal finance, where all students can benefit.

Students, for instance, should be able to estimate addition, subtraction, and sales tax percentages so they won’t get ripped off by calculation errors.

They should understand the differences between whole life and term life insurance, noting the advantages and disadvantages of both.

They should understand the pros and cons of auto purchasing versus auto leasing.

They should understand the basics of preparing a personal income tax form including what most people commonly use for deductions.

They should understand the benefits of a Roth IRA when compared to a traditional retirement account.

They should understand how stocks are traded, the risk and advantages of trading and the role of corporate and public bonds.

Personal finance is useable math, giving people a greater confidence and control over their own well-being. I’d venture we’d see a lot less bankruptcy if men and women understood basic financial principles and the relative value of different financial products being pushed by marketers.

For most of us, balancing a checkbook has more real-time use than understanding trigonometry. In a society where a good share of people can’t figure a 15 percent tip at a restaurant without a calculator, a knowledge of physics is raising the bar too high.