Comment by bbor

As a self-proclaimed cognitive engineer (it’s really easy to proclaim stuff these days!), I absolutely agree with you, for two basic reasons:

1. I don’t think the author was just saying that math is hard or “a struggle”, I think they were specifically pointing out the unusual nature of math(s) as a collection of meaningfully novel cognitive tools rather than facts or recombinations of existing tools. AKA “feel stupid” means “feel embarrassed you don’t understand earlier because now it’s obvious”, not “take a long time to understand” or other synonyms for struggle. We all agree on the vague shape of the proposed improvements to pre-graduate math education, I would guess!

2. That’s not how first language acquisition works, at all: the rules of grammar—not to mention etiquette-are far more complex than most laymen imagine, and intentional parental involvement via correction or the occasional picture book is absolutely the exception, not the rule. This is the core insight driving Noam Chomsky’s lifetime of scholarship, and I think he would agree that childhood linguistic development is more similar to mathematics education than practically any other activity, if we’re talking about “feeling stupid” like the author is.