Most pupils in a mathematics lesson in elementary school swiftly learn that "getting the right answer" is the point, and some check out and soon begin to doubt

Most pupils in a mathematics lesson in elementary school swiftly learn that "getting the right answer" is the point, and some check out and soon begin to doubt their own ability to REASON to the right answer. It's been some years since I was in K-12 (I'm in my 30s), but I remember the opposite being the case: almost all the points on homeworks and exams were typically awarded for "showing your work". A correct answer with no work shown got few to no points; meanwhile an incorrect answer could get close to full credit if it showed the correct reasoning but ended up with the wrong result just because of a trivial addition/etc. error. People tended to criticize this from the opposite direction, arguing that "in the real world" getting the right answer is all that matters, and that giving kids near full credit for incorrect answers was coddling them.