I came out of Algebra I with a C or a D and didn't feel like I understood any of it. Geometry came next and it was fun, I really liked proofs and somehow by th

I came out of Algebra I with a C or a D and didn't feel like I understood any of it. Geometry came next and it was fun, I really liked proofs and somehow by the time I got to Algebra II, everything made sense. From that point forward, however, math just seemed like rote memorization without any meaning or elegance. I shied away from it for years, only just returning to school to learn more math recently, in my 30s. I still feel like there's something fundamentally lacking in the way the whole math curriculum is set up, as I didn't see much that I really enjoyed in the period between 9th grade Geometry and Calculus II. I understand the need to build a solid foundation before learning more advanced material, but it seems very one-sided when there is such a breadth of interesting material out there.