[nardi]

Read "Lockhart's Lament." It's written much better than this rip-off: http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/mnewman/LockhartsLament.pdf

His point is that you're not doing "math" in Algebra class because "math" (as practiced by mathematicians) is actually a highly creative process, and there's nothing creative about, e.g., word problems.