There's a story that an American football coach, after gathering the best players he could, would start each season just working on the fundamentals, saying you cannot do the simple easy you can't do complex.
One of his Hall of Fame players said that he woukd begin with "Gentlemen, this is a football"
This is true but players understood the goal - play better football.
With math it's what exactly?
If someone worked backwards from code on DAY 1 of high school math, I'd have been engaged... Instead it was mindless repetitive drills. Later as an advanced thing they'd ask you a real-world question: "Let's say you wanted to circumnavigate the Earth and you started here and had to blah blah". I think they should start and not end with that type of thing.
One of his Hall of Fame players said that he woukd begin with "Gentlemen, this is a football"