I was a victim of New Math. Somehow I labored through Algebra and Geometry and I’m terrible at math. Every kid should get at least an introduction to it. If they never use it at least they can grouse about it for the next 40 years. LOL!!
A few years ago, I found a math textbook from the 1930s at an antique mall. I bought it for 25 cents. Reading it was a revelation-the concepts were described clearly without confounding shortcuts and were carefully linked to real-world application. The formulae and tests were plain and clear, not omitted or embedded in methodology. It was as if scales were removed from my eyes.
When I was a boy, the old-timers beleived that the New Math was a communist plot to ruin American schoolkids. I used to laugh at them. But today, I wonder.