Definitely. Math is typically taught really, really poorly until at least university. It's not uncommon to find STEM phds who "hated math" before making it to o

Definitely. Math is typically taught really, really poorly until at least university. It's not uncommon to find STEM phds who "hated math" before making it to or even past calculus. It's really funny how helpful the "_" or "cloud" trick is for kids. Even high school kids in AP Calculus find it helpful. There is a "hump" where "_" vs. "x" doesn't seem to help much, e.g. where we start working with polynomials as more abstract things and so on. I think the right approach there is to make a lot more use of computer algebra. The point is "here's a generic tool that's useful in lots of specific circumstances", but students get lost during hours of practicing the "useless generic tool" before seeing why that general tool is useful. Computer algebra systems can help there.