Do you want to travel to Mars? Design houses or create computer
software? Do you want to discover a cure to cancer or protect
rivers and oceans from pollution? If you do, be sure to take
lots of math in school. Many challenging and rewarding careers -
not just engineering - demand a strong background in math.
Classes like algebra, geometry, and trigonometry may be
difficult, but they will open the doors to many exciting
opportunities in your future. Of course, you can catch up on
your math when you get to college, but like a language it is
much easier to really learn it when you are young, and you’ll
have a hard time catching up in college without taking extra
years if you don’t at least have the basics. Since you have to
take most math class in a particular order, it's also important
to start early so that you are prepared to take the right
classes when you need them. Besides the inherent beauty in
mathematics there are lots of other reasons to take as much math
as you can, even if you don’t want to be an en