No, we're not trying to figure out the answer to a math problem, we're trying to figure out what idiosyncratic way the curriculum wants us to express that answer - and all of the available answers seem wrong, even though we understand the concept they want us to learn.

So once again, my son is paralyzed and frustrated by his math homework.

I, by comparison, loved math because it was easy, obvious, and I could be 100% objectively correct, every time.