I was reasonable at maths at it when I was doing it. It's extremely useful and I have a lot of respect for mathematicians and I still like to learn a little every now and then. However, I have mostly forgotten my mathematics as my job does not require it. I still need to use some basic algebra and a little calculus, but apart from that, I don't need to know anything else. As a result I've forgotten almost all my geometry, I've forgotten anything to do with geometric sequences, much of my trigonometry (although not all of it since it is related to calculus) and almost all the stuff to do with calculating really complex 3D volumes, which I actually could do once upon a time.
I still have my old textbooks and workbooks. Every now and then I start thinking about all the stuff I forgot and feel the need to learn it again. It's honestly not that horrible a subject, it's that most maths teachers are fucking TERRIBLE at their job. There are three types of Mathematics teachers:
1) The reluctant teacher: This is a teacher that can teach maths but doesn't want to and doesn't like the subject. They know how to solve the problems because they read the textbook. They have no intuitive understanding and they don't really know why the formulas are set up the way they are. They present maths has a route step-by-step program of "Do X then Do Y then plug it into formula Z and then whatever you get is the answer". This form of teaching gives the student no insight into maths, and no capability to understand anything else that isn't directly spoon fed to them, and of course it does not equip the student to solve any problem which requires even a little bit of creativity. 80% of all mathematics teachers I've had during High School were this type of teacher.
2) The "It's-so-simple-why-should-I-tell-you" teacher. I had this guy for my Maths C (advanced maths) class. He was a jerk. He was a smart guy - a really smart guy and a professional mathematician. He was also the type who never taught you anything. He was of the opinion that the stuff in the textbook was "trivial" and so he felt that he didn't have to teach the students how to do it because it was "obvious" (to him, a 50 year old professional mathematician who held a Masters in pure maths). Oh he could explain it to you... if he felt inclined to do so. This was almost never. If you were stuck, he'd only give vague, cryptic hints. The test he designed was so hard, that the faculty forced him to allow students to take the textbook in with them, much to his dismay.
3) The genuinely interested, helpful mathematics teacher: You'll almost never find this guy in a High School. Teaching mathematics effectively requires a combination of understanding, a genuine love of teaching and good speaking skills. Such teachers are rare and almost exclusively found in Universities. Oh, I'm not saying all mathematics lecturers and teachers in University are good - my stats lecturer was awful at his job. But I met some who were excellent teachers. I had one high-school teacher who could explain mathematics effectively and clearly: and he was my PHYSICS teacher.
The main reason why people hate maths is because without a really solid understanding of the basics, the rest is incomprehensible. The basics are taught poorly and the advanced maths is taught even more poorly - leading to situations in which kids shun maths. The "make-or-break" period is usually in 7th grade, where mathematics starts to get slightly harder. If the student isn't prepared or confident after the age of 12 or 13, odds are that they'll hate maths for the rest of their life and never fully "get it". I was lucky - I had mathematics drilled into me from a young age by relatives and I was given many books on mathematics that strove to make the field personally interesting. One of the best books that I was given was "Fermat's Last Theorm" which I was given when I was 11 years old. I didn't understand most of the book, but I did learn enough to follow the story and it was fascinating.
If you are bad at maths, take consolation that it was probably due to your crappy teachers. The subject itself isn't accommodating: like with science, those who write the textbooks are so familiar with the basics that they believe it to be self-evident and they never bother to explain them. They're so deep into their field that they assume everyone else understands what they're talking about, when they don't. It's starting to get a little better, but it's still a big problem.
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