News stories inform us that retailers cannot find clerks who can make change without a computer to assist them. Political leaders bring the latest technology into the classroom, but there is no corresponding jump in understanding. Parents are caught unaware. Unless they are mathematicians themselves, they don't know how to tell if their children are mathematically strong or weak, if their learning is deep or shallow, if their children are thinking their way into problems, or just going through the motions. And parents aren't the only ones caught unaware.
Most students are, too.
Part of the reason is the odd nature of mathematics itself. It is not, for any of us, an easy thing to learn. Every student, no matter how gifted, reaches a point of complete confusion. That's the norm. That's how it looks when it's working.