I’m not saying this to be confrontational, but I can’t say that I sympathize as much as you. I used to think like that, but the older I get the less I do. A little algebra, statistical awareness at the level of Darrell Huff’s famous book, and some basic problem solving skills is what I want the bulk of the population to have. Beyond that? I don’t know that it matters that people be “math people.” I’m not a “geography person” but we don’t have this weird expectation that everyone love geography and if the majority of humanity doesn’t like geography it’s being taught wrong. All my life I’ve been told math is taught wrong, but I find that most people don’t have a clear idea of what “right” looks like.
There’s a lot to unpack about math education that I’m frankly not qualified to. Most people aren’t. I find it interesting that teachers go to school to be teachers but everyone and their brother knows what’s wrong with schools from personal experience. But, I’m not impressed with most ideas about “teaching differently” that I hear from laypeople. Teachers do work, constantly, using evidence-based study to improve pedagogy. The way we teach math has changed in my lifetime but no one notices.
