Yes. I discovered this when tutoring an 8th grader. It wasn't just clumsy - it was diabolically designed to utterly confuse and deny understanding. Whoever the people are who created it, bought it and administer it, are evil.
Exactly! Your description is so exact. And not just make it so kids can’t understand math, but so they can’t think at all, and can’t trust their own wits and reason.
I taught many kids to read and totally gave up on readers, I made my own reading books and vocabulary etc. I taught many kids to read using my own stuff. Mostly phonetics. And I”m a high school dropout...