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I still think it is terrible because the way that you teach math in early years directly impacts how children will develop their mathematical thinking, and, in my opinion, someone whose mathematical thinking is weak enough that they don't understand pre-algebra, algebra, and basic geometry ( 7th grade or 8th grade math) well enough to teach it when they have a textbook available to refer to, has no business professionally directing the mathematical development of children, period. How well you teach children first- through third-grade math directly affects how well they will do in 7th and 8th grade math, and if you don't know where you are going and how to get there from where you are, you can't possibly build a decent path to travel. Early childhood education is critical, and it is scandalous that we allow people who aren't equipped to do it in the classroom as the primary instructor. The people who teach your children to add, subtract, multiply, and divide teach them how to understand and conceptualize those basic operations, which are fundamental to everything that follows. For example, children who understand that you can only add and subtract things that are of the same type typically have no problem grasping operations with fractions, decimals, adding and subtracting polynomials, and other procedures that are great sources of confusion for children who didn't get that understanding early on. Weaknesses in early teaching don't necessarily impact performance right away - it is only later, when the concepts that should build on the early foundation have nothing to stand on that the problem becomes evident, so teachers who are doing grave damage to the children in their charge continue on and on with no accountability.

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