Quote Originally Posted by Airget View Post
The issue is how it's taught, most math is just taught as "learn this because you have to" they rarely teach you the real world implication of mathematical ideas. If one were to understand why certain concepts are important people may retain the information better but when your school system teaches you that the multiplications are 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20, 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30, 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40, 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50, 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 72 80, etc etc, it just leaves most peoples minds because they don't understand why it's important to learn.

Utility of learned information should be part of an education system curriculum but many just regurgitate information to you without explaining why it's important.
In fairness, most subjects require significant groundwork be laid prior to interesting applications being readily apparent.

Reciting the alphabet and learning how to spell and write basic sentences, for example, is critical to reading. Prior to having some of the basics down, you can't easily jump into a book. Once you do get the basics, you can begin reading, which then reinforces skills and builds new ones, which leads to more complex reading... and then a whole world opens up for you.

Mathematics is like this too, but unlike reading, there aren't a lot of useful applications for math right off the bat. It's more of an art form than anything else, and much like teaching art, it depends to some extent on inborn interest from the students. You can present neat tricks, you can demonstrate math 'magic', you can leverage puzzles as learning aids, but if there's no interest in learning for the sake of learning - if the student doesn't value the abstract - math tends to be a struggle. The concrete examples are either too contrived, or too advanced. At least, that's been my experience.