complex vector algebra must be taught in pre-college curricula

Complex vector algebra (with the generalization of dot product, the inner or scalar product) should be taught in preparatory school curricula , following vector algebra.

This is addition to other absolute necessities in science such as affine geometry, topology , group theory (feasibly one step up from set theory which also are already in pre-college curricula), conditional probability and so on.

It is true not everyone will set out to work in the theoretical physics of fields. Significant patterns in information processing however involve analogues of physical measures (i don't know why they don't call them metaphors) taken in abstract spaces such as data spaces, search spaces, associated weight spaces, etc.

So thus far, complex vector algebra is seen in first in modern physics then in informatics with the myriad applications of its methods in nearly every field.

Sociological research for instance needs to resort to population sampling methods less and less as more comprehensive data is generated state and citizens (societies).

The more creative a researcher can get with what information to induct from and what to search for in the data would depend on how well they can study the input data space. Even though such skills are largely taken up by the software tools they use, the emphasis is on "creative", as in what more information is hidden and not revealed by the classical battery of statistical tools.

In any case, whether all pupils grow up to enter science or not, we all learned real vector algebra in preparatory and secondary grades, and the same should be affored for complex algebra and topology.

So why in prep. grades rather than freshman year at college? Because as is known, the earlier the intake of a technical dialect the more solid its foundation becomes.