Hungry 9

My math teacher (at a private school) was just a random students' mom. She had no higher degree and only taught the book. If you got the right answer by using a method not included in the book, it was marked half-credit because she didn't understand and wasn't interested in hearing your logic, because "that's not what the book says".

Being taught by people who have no drive for knowledge and just want to teach the standardized test answers SUCKS.

I had to memorize multiplication. We weren't taught any other way. 3x3 = 9 because it just is that way, memorize it. I had stacks of flash cards. My mom struggled so hard for weeks to teach me my multiplication tables at home. In the end, I (somehow) passed the multiplication quiz or whatever and did my best to do as little multiplication as I could for the rest of my life. As a result, I still have never learned all the multiplication tables, and have a deep dislike of math or numbers in general.

I bet my education would have been a lot different if I could have learned how to multiply effectively from a young age.