Knowing chemistry is not really important in the world today.
In order to be an educated person, I’d say one should have a rudimentary understanding of acids vs bases, the periodic table, metals vs organic compounds, solubility and titration. That’s about the extent of what will ever have any applications at all outside of a chemistry class or related profession. Maybe a basic understanding of orbitals.
This is alongside a similar understanding both of biology and of human anatomy, math through calculus and basic set theory and linear algebra, Newtonian physics and basic electromagnetism with a basic grasp of the principles of relativity if not a firm grounding in the math, at least 1 programming language and proficiency in a foreign language, a thorough knowledge of your nation’s history, principles of economics up to basic game theory and supply and demand, and learning a musical instrument, as the basic prerequisite requirements to being an educated person who can fully understand the world he lives in and can creatively solve problems as needed.
That being said, the solid majority of 80-90% of people have no need to be educated as they will never do much besides going to do mindless labor at their jobs and sit and consume at home, and if you’re not going to bother being educated or understanding the world, there’s no use at all for learning even basic chemistry.
