What if we taught math the way we teach music — daily practice on real problems, not a race through 120 topics a year? In my daughter's 7th grade class, the teacher covered ratios in three days because the pacing guide said so, and half the room still couldn't tell me which is bigger, 3/5 or 5/8. I'm not sure the fix is fewer standards, since kids who move fast need somewhere to go, but the current sprint through algebra feels like it optimizes for test coverage rather than mathematical thinking. Would spending a whole month on proportional reasoning and probability actually produce stronger high school calculus students, or would it just leave them behind on the test that decides their track?