Math in the real world Basic Math is the subject I teach at a small community college in western North Carolina. I call one part of the curriculum Practical Applications for Living in the Real World. The day after I presented a lesson on simple and compound interest, one of my older students approached me in the hallway. ""You really taught me a great deal about my life yesterday,"" he said. ""I realized I've been struggling with a lack of interest, compounded daily, for thirty years.""