if I didn't know how good I was at math, would I have been as good at anything?

I'm drinking coffee and reading Scientific American - two of life's inestimable pleasures - and I came across the article "Numbers War: School Battles Heat Up Again in the Traditional versus Reform-Math Debate"

Imagine if they stopped teaching algebra, geometry, and polynomials in high schools - would it be a real detriment to society?

Imagine the fun we could have if we looked at the topics which have reference to real world situations? The wave function can be made fun to learn with the right teaching!

My personal beef with mathematical education is the lack of choice. By age 12-13 families and students are mostly sure which broad path to look forward to: academic or applied. Aren't they?

I cannot however, underestimate the ways of thinking that only became my tools to use after bashing on through some difficult concepts - and only by repetition.

I'm not in favour of simplifying education, but in teaching children what they need to know, and how to find out what they don't yet know.

Teach them to learn.