[stormer]

I have an advanced degree in a hard science. I've taken more math classes than I ever wanted to - some of them I struggled with and still can't quite determine why they were relevant. I have always thought that the main reason for the overall lack of success was the quality of math instruction in primary school; it perpetuates the fear and loathing of math - would you want to learn how to swim from someone you know is floundering themselves? That said, you've hit on something I had not considered: instructors who “used to be engineers and cannot remember ever learning math”. You hit the nail on the head - my father was an engineer and I distinctly remember asking for his help on some middle-school math problem over 40 years ago. He was a man at the top of his field, but simply couldn't relate to the fact that I wasn't able to get from Point A to Point B - I never asked him for math help again. The problem is in the teaching - not the learning. Anyway - most folks aren't going to need to factor equations or understand quadratics, but the basic arithmetic, the Cartesian System, how to understand a table of values, a^2+b^2=c^2, y=mx+b, and some familiarity with probability and statistics are essential.

[bboop]

The kids I tutor are always confused by the instructors and always afraid to ask. Often the instructor ‘used to be an engineer but now is a mom’ or has come from engineering and now is teaching. My dad was a Shop teacher, engineer-brain: I seldom asked him for math help, either. I got way too much information, he was impatient with my basic math level, and I always ended up in tears.