In Oklahoma, the requirement usually is up to “algebra 2” - this is mostly domain and range, finding roots of polynomials, and logarithms.
IMHO, the world would be better if calculus was a required part of the high school curriculum. Like yeah, most people aren’t going to need the product rule in day to day life, but the fundamental ideas about rates of change seem like they’re something that everyone human deserves to be exposed to.
I agree… Simple way of putting it is that it just makes you smarter. The same way that solving puzzles as a kid (well, at any age) makes you smarter.
Maths is really just a series of puzzles. I think people mainly despise it at school when they haven’t engaged enough with puzzles as a youngster.