This is the thing that really baffles me. My kids went through K-12 when Common Core was a thing, and there was a huge backlash about it, so I decided to look it up and to see how it was being used in our school district.

A few states published their Common Core guidelines. I looked at one state, and the curriculum goals looked no different than the things that I learned when I was a kid. It seemed completely ordinary. I remain baffled about why it was so controversial.

The way they teach math is stupid

Math education has always been a failure, or a "crisis." The number of people who come out of school with any functional math ability has been fairly constant over the decades, and depends a lot on family background and economic class. I'm not even sure that differences across countries are all that significant when people reach adulthood.

Don't get me wrong. I was one of the successful ones, but I think math education is in need of reform. In fact I would reform it quite radically.

I like the common core math curriculum. I think it makes a lot of sense. I prefer it to how I was taught.

I have a kid in school and a math degree so I have some knowledge of this.