I do think that
some things about modern pedagogy in mathematics COULD be very good. It is mystifying to me why it isn't a better state of affairs there, honestly. Because what was done in 1970
wasn't terribly effective for a huge segment of students who had learning challenges or differences, and the pedagogy exists (in spades) to
reach that segment now.
Yes, it's very strange. Stranger still is the idea that if any of these books are trying to reach that segment of students, they're probably making things a lot harder for them. That mishmash of random ideas I mentioned is primarily responsible for that problem. And there's more; the school's book also uses terms with exponents casually in the absence of any instruction about them. That kind of thing must be crazy frustrating for students (who probably blame themselves for not understanding any of it).
The pre-algebra book foisted on my second son last year was even worse than the one I described. Chapter 2 (!) had students solving thorny inequalities with variables. The book was full of out-of-place stuff that required a huge amount of background knowledge that hadn't been taught yet. The students were just given recipes to follow.
DD9 picked out ... [an] earth sciences textbook. She flipped it open to a random page, and as I looked over the disjointed mass of colors, images, and text boxes, I was prompted to say, "It looks like somebody barfed all over the page."
Yes, the problem definitely isn't restricted to math books. It's pretty much everywhere. Multiply-nested text boxes, indeed.
