1) If math was not applicable to real life it would not be as heavily studied.
2) If math made you smater as a person it would be reserved to elite's kept away from middle/lower class plebeians
3) the limited knowledge of math you are allowed to have is only to be a cog in a machine which is built on the belief you're able to add and subtract numbers, at higher levels understand algebra and measure triangles
4) The one subject, which was common among classical schools which is being withheld from modern (free) education is bible study

think what you want.