I remmeber in high schooo they were like, prove that x=5 or w/e anf i was jusy likr what thr fuck do you mean just look at it you koron. All i remember from that was they had all these papers with boxes on them and were like oooohhh whatre the steps, i dunno dumbadd jusy look at it
Realization I recently had: I’ve always been shit at math but recently started trying to re-teach it to myself and learned that I was so bad because how I was taught is completely inconsistent with the way I learn. Because during the time I was in school (and probably today as well) teachers operated on the fact that you either got it or you didn’t. Can kinda see why it was taught that way because in math there is one correct final answer, but they could’ve emphasized that there are many different ways to “get there” (if that makes sense).
I’m curious to see how many other people had the same experience
I think you're right about the importance of matching teaching and learning styles. I was actually good at maths, but my approaches were often quite different from the curriculum's, and I always resented having to follow the prescribed paths for the sake of exams' marking schemes. It drained me of enthusiasm for the subject for years, so I can imagine how demoralising the mismatch might be for anyone who isn't getting right answers either.
There was a criticism of maths education I read years ago, so I can't remember the source, that a focus on calculation, which is easily tested, over imagination and understanding, which are not, but are more useful particularly at the research level, especially in the age of computers, was one of the central problems. So, yeah, there are educators who think people are being failed by this kind of thing, too.