I hear a lot of the first half of your post but not a lot of your second half of your post (I agree with both). Most people look back and remember how hard/dum

I hear a lot of the first half of your post but not a lot of your second half of your post (I agree with both). Most people look back and remember how hard/dumb/boring/useless that one class was and how they never use it in real life. Barely anybody looks back and remembers how something that they learned in their math class was integral to their ability succeed later on in their career. For example, almost everybody complains about how hard/useless calculus was. These same people are able to take a volume integral in cylindrical coordinates no problem. There is a fundamental disconnect here. And anything you don't remember? Well, being familiar with a concept makes it a hundred times easier to learn the second time.