The elementary math is the entering path to the domain of the language of the Universe. The numbers (1, 2, 3, 444, 0, 1/7, -2) are concepts that represent a quantity, and you can count to ten here or over mars, in our Milky Way or far away in Andromeda; you will always have the possibility to count, since the quantities (planets, stars, people, rocks, lakes...) are everywhere to find. So, basic math is the entrance to the mastership of the pure conceptual world.
Thus human intelligence has a very valuable tool to use when the time comes (if it will come any day!) and we discover (or are discovered by) other form of intelligence from outer space.
A good math teacher should motivate his students by telling them how it is possible to construct a language, based on math, which eventually could help to communicate different forms of Universe’s intelligences. That way math lessons would be absolutely more interesting than they are, and perhaps by teaching math that way (stimulating the fantasy of the kids) would there as a result be more postgraduated students interested in the concepts that rule our Cosmos.
Note, for instance, that the string theory has still a lot to explain (altough it has done very well till now); and scientist and mathematicians write lot of math books on physical topics for which there is no mathematical development at hand. There is a lot of work to do. The string theory assumes that what we know as universal forces, are just manifestations of the space geometry, a space between 11 and 26 dimensions... Well... concepts...
