[runesoerensen]

This remind me a bit of my elementary school math teacher who’d usually answer any question or curiosity with a dismissive “you don’t have to understand it you just have to do it”.

That didn’t help spark any particular interest in the field. It’s very difficult to learn something that doesn’t interest me.

I later ended up failing high school math, which made it difficult to get accepted for my college education. I was accepted on the condition that I’d take the math course again, and pass the exam within 6 months.

Incidentally (and fortunately) I studied philosophy and business administration. Philosophy (and particularly the ancient Greeks) got me much more excited about math, and I got an A in my exam shortly after.

Just a personal anecdote, but thought you might find it interesting.

[Matticus_Rex]

Oh, I'd love for kids to understand it -- it's far more important than doing it, and if we were teaching that understanding it would likely all be worthwhile. I'm saying that we know from the data and qualitative studies that we don't teach kids to understand most things we teach them, and they forget how to do them very quickly.