My biggest issue with math education is that after we learned the theory we never went back and developed an actual plan for solving the problems. For example, we learned a dozen different ways to approach integration, but after all this we never really put together a workable strategy for approaching a problem and deciding what tools to use.

It's like trying to teach someone to swim by just throwing them in the water over and over and expecting them to eventually figure it out.

As a result, the primary emotion students learn to associate with math problems is fear. Instead of the sense of confidence that comes with having a plan, each problem feels like "will things work out or will I get lost and waste hours without actually ever finding a solution".