Omg, I hate math!

This is exactly how I see math now.  Had I been taught the way some teach it now, I am sure things would have made more sense.  We were taught to memorize and not use logic, just repetition. It isn't always how fast you can do the problem as much as how the numbers work together to give you an answer.  These concepts work with other math concepts, so learning the new concepts is generally faster.  When parents looked at the way their kid learned it they usually complained, but those kids can explain it better than their parents.  

I taught multiplication using the traditional way and the distributive way (using a grid).  When we broke it up using the lattice method, some adults lost their minds.  The "new fangled"or standards based math was awful.  No, they used it hundreds of years ago (some say back into the medieval times).  I think if things work for you, you believe that is the way it should be taught, but as a kid who struggled with math, I knew as a teacher that showing kids multiple ways to learn a concept was very important.