Agree!! The attitude that is passed on from parents/teachers to students is very important!
Another big problem is the practice of breaking down math into a large set of a few dozens of elements that a teacher can check off on a list. The math work that my kids do in elementary and in middle school is so mechanical and procedural, that it misses the whole point of math as an organic system of thinking and problem solving. I have heard so many parents and educators say (in the media and in daily life) that the US education focuses on creativity and not rote memory. Yet when I look at how math is taught in our supposedly really good district, and when I recall how I learned math in a country that is regarded by the US educators as focusing on rote memory, and my reaction is "you've got to be kidding me!"
