Having taken hard science in university/ during my PhD, it's hard for me to say that calc presents itself more than stats. Perhaps in engineering but only in the early years of uni, physics same thing- year two is an exposition to quantum mechanics... In chemistry and biology I would say stats/prob definitely predominates. In chemistry calc begins to appears in physical chem.
Why most people don't understand the math they learned and what it is used for, I would argue has much more to do with how they are not taught to interpret what they see around them mathematically- granted that takes years of practice, but we do not care to teach this to children.
Now streamlining math is all well and good, but we may loose some of the greatest mathematical minds by doing so. Many famous mathematicians (Euler, Lagrange for example) were slated to be someone else- professionally that is. And it took other great mathematicians to notice them.
Why most people don't understand the math they learned and what it is used for, I would argue has much more to do with how they are not taught to interpret what they see around them mathematically- granted that takes years of practice, but we do not care to teach this to children.
Now streamlining math is all well and good, but we may loose some of the greatest mathematical minds by doing so. Many famous mathematicians (Euler, Lagrange for example) were slated to be someone else- professionally that is. And it took other great mathematicians to notice them.