Too many math teachers are themselves bad at math. I was recently telling my wife about an incident in my 7th grade math class. The teacher was working sample problems on the board. One of the solutions she wrote was incorrect. Hands shot up all over the class.

We told the teacher the solution was wrong. She refused to believe it, because the answer on the board matched what was written in her teacher's edition that she was using for reference.

We told the teacher that if that was the case, then the book was wrong, because that was not the right answer. We finally made the teacher re-work the problem on the board, and showed her that was the wrong answer. Then they wonder why kids hate math.