The education system is like a low pass filter follwed by a high pass filter. The people who really enjoy school math, doing sums, applying equestions, get to university and find it's really hard and abstract and switch courses or drop out. The ones who might be really good at university style math get bored, disengaged, and don't do math at university, never suspecting that it's completely different.
The problem is that school math is trying to accomplish two things at once, and they're at odds with each other.
On the one hand, regular people who go on to regular jobs need numeracy and some facility to understand graphs, sums, and to follow a line of reasoning.
On the other hand, anyone going on to the sciences needs a good background in (school-type) algebra, some geometry, a little calculus, and some statistics. Way more than most people need in everyday life.
The latter group also needs a glimpse of some cool stuff to keep them interested. That's why in the UK there are math masterclasses, "Maths Inspiration", Further Maths, and other groups that try to get kids interested.
The problem is that school math is trying to accomplish two things at once, and they're at odds with each other.
On the one hand, regular people who go on to regular jobs need numeracy and some facility to understand graphs, sums, and to follow a line of reasoning.
On the other hand, anyone going on to the sciences needs a good background in (school-type) algebra, some geometry, a little calculus, and some statistics. Way more than most people need in everyday life.
The latter group also needs a glimpse of some cool stuff to keep them interested. That's why in the UK there are math masterclasses, "Maths Inspiration", Further Maths, and other groups that try to get kids interested.