good points, Shootingstar.
Neither of my sons ever completed the "timed addition tests"
that the teachers were constantly giving them. Instead they were chewing their crayons or annoying other children. All of my sons' teachers knew us personally, and i was always acquainted with the principals and vice principals of each school. More than once my sons were punished by not allowing them to partake in recess; the one thing they looked forward all day, many days during their elementary education.
Much later, both of my sons loved calculus and one of them is now a grad student studying pure math. I feel sorry for teachers who have to teach a curriculum that bores children to tears.