I did really bad in math in school and I remain convinced that it was entirely because the way American public shools taught math at the time was really bad. It was kind of like teaching a foreign language but only teaching vocab, without grammar or conversation.

And when it wasn't just memorizing vocab (e.g. 2x2=4) it was learning stuff without context. For instance, there was no explanation of data analysis related to teaching mean, median, and mode. That's super useful stuff rendered worthless by being taught with a lack of context.

And I was interested in data and analysis in high school. I was reading econ books at the time. And my mind is kind of mathematically inclined, so I would have excelled at math if someone had told me what the fuck it was for at the time.

And foreign language was taught in the same sort of bad way. Four years studying a foreign language, you should be reasonably fluent. No one got there though. They just taught linguistic "multiplication tables," vocab, and grammar, with little focus on conversation or talking.

I'm glad public schools are getting better now, but I can't help but feel that I was failed by them. I'm glad there's apps like Khan Academy that can help catch people up on what they didn't get to learn in school.