I saw a first grade math book and couldn’t makes head or tails out of it and I am teaching a 10 year old homeschooler algebra. There was a story in the local paper about common core and an engineer (he designed pipes) who couldn’t make sense of his daughter’s third grad math work.
What people don’t get is that for a very long time people learned math by actually putting forth an effort. In fact, putting forth an effort, one is more likely to retain the material being taught. We are told children get discouraged by hard work and failure, yet they can fail time and time again at some video game without giving up. You learn more from your mistakes than successes. Getting students comfortable with mistakes can be difficult.
One thing I do is to have my student try a problem she has not seen before. At first this seemed like a complete waste; she wouldn’t even come close and simply get frustrated. Now I give her problems that are a step or two ahead of where she is at in algebra and she more often than not figures them out and looks at me like an idiot for giving her such easy work.
It’s like going to the gym; you need to stress that muscle a little, easily at first and then rather hard when you are in shape.
And there you have it. Separate parents from children and teach children to depend on the State instead of their know-nothing parents.