Really appreciate the article. Especially from someone that is still in school and hasn't left education behind. I had penned some thoughts on mathematics education in the post: https://ali-a-hussain.medium.com/a-tale-of-two-subjects-67bff8fcae05 . Would love to hear your thoughts on it. I can relate to what you're saying. I was curious about how fast the squares of numbers grow in 9th grade. So I put thought in it, and visually imagined an n by n square and adding an extra strip of 1 to it. I came up with (n+1)^2=n^2+2n+1. Which my dad pointed out is just a form the formula for (a+b)^2. Suddenly, I realized what that graphic in the textbook was trying to say. I had a similar experience in linear algebra when I used matrices for computer graphics. It's sad how much information they try to protect us from in math education that ensures it will be boring.