It really bugs me that someone highlighted and circled this as if they found this ironic error when it was written as a joke headline in the first place and it went clear over their head. The equivalent of red circles and arrows on thumbnails
Part of the problem is academics sticking to the rote lecture-lab model of teaching mathematics, which sucks and has for centuries.
Learning science has developed some alternatives, including more increments between here are the expression transfigurations you need to memorize and here are some homework problems that require you to apply those formulas at mastery and take some intuitive leaps in the meantime.
I'm a failed Computer Science major, and math is, as I've experienced it typically taught by professors who love and breathe mathematics, and struggle to imagine how it can be so unclear for the rest of us. While I have great respect for math nerds, they are trying to show their work for the rest of us, when it happened too fast in their own heads to cleanly break it down into steps.
So yeah, some day when education isn't as politicized and gets some funding, we'll get easier math. But not today.
I'm a comp sci major and many of my classmates do not write anything down. They just scribble some stuff down to do some minor calculations and finish the problem. When I ask them for help and to provide their work, they tell me they don't write down their work.
women and girls are actively discouraged from engaging in math & science by:
teachers (dont sweat it honey, you'll make a smart man very happy with those looks)
men (i dont want to be with a smarter woman because it makes me feel inferior)
women (ew who wants a dorky nerd girl, borinnnng)
you get all that in math class as a 12-year old girl and yeah you start to associate math with unhappiness
Plus "math skills" is one of those areas where stereotypes and self-fulfilling prophesies have incredibly influential power.
Math is difficult for everyone, and emotional factors like, "having the confidence of yourself and your peers" are important in making it through difficulty.
This is a Republican majority. It's the new math they use to make it so that when the Senate vote is 51-49 and Republicans are the 49 they win, or when they lose the popular vote for president they still win.