I’ve been very impressed with the “awful” common core math. It teaches kids to think about numbers the way my friends and I do. (Context: I’m not a mathematician, but won lots of state math contests in high school. I didn’t choose to specialize in it but neither do I suck at it.)
It’s very different from the dreadfully boring memorization-based curriculum I had to endure.
A lot of the short comings of new math came from the fact that it assumed that the fundamentals of math were simple and easily understood.
Doing real algebra without something like the Kunth Bendix algorithm is somewhere between pointless memorization and the equivalent of a mathematical lobotomization.
That it wasn't invented until 1970 shows us just how poor we are at mathematics.
The problem is you shouldn’t be thinking deeply about addition and multiplication when you’re just number crunching or working through algebraic manipulation.
Understanding is well and great, but instant and effortless arithmetic recall is table stakes.
I've yet to find anyone who hasn't written part of a CAS that understands what algebraic manipulation even is, let alone how to do it outside of hand picked artificial examples.
I find it astonishing that term rewriting systems are considered esoteric mathematics that you don't see unless you work in a very specific and niche fields of mathematics or computer science.
Much less than 98% would fail that, why do you think that? Do you really believe that almost all STEM college students are that dumb?
Likely you misunderstood something here, not the people you talked to. Do you mean they get confused with that notation? Not understanding specific notation doesn't mean you can't do the thing.
It’s very different from the dreadfully boring memorization-based curriculum I had to endure.