Math and science are taught extremely poorly in our schools. It's mostly a matter of memorization (often of trivia rather than fundamentals), plug-and-chug, and rote busywork.
Funny, that we have movements like Where's The Math lamenting that math education is collapsing because classes are doing "discovery math" (AKA goofing off and chit-chatting), instead learning fundamentals and practicing to memorize basic skills.
