> That being said, I think the biggest problem with math education (in the US) is that many Elementary teachers would probably rank their Mathematics skill as o

> That being said, I think the biggest problem with math education (in the US) is that many Elementary teachers would probably rank their Mathematics skill as one of their lowest skills. Absolutely yes. I'm a secondary level math/physics teacher, and I've come to the conclusion that the problem truly stems from elementary level teachers who don't understand the math and just teach rote steps. Then, when things diverge from those rote steps (usually around fractions, negatives and variables, from what I've seen), that's where you really start to lose students. The teachers themselves have no underlying grasp of the material and what it actually means, so of course they can't really impart that to the student (especially multiplying/dividing fractions and doing operations with negatives). Then it just compounds in middle school and by the time they get to high school it's a huge mess.