It is not impossible that our current system is making people less mathematically inclined than a different system.

The narrative when this comes up always seems to be about defending the current system as if everything is going so great as is.

In the piano analogy mentioned, it does feel like we spend time drilling scales and tuning the piano at the expense of the average appreciation for music. A good system for producing a small amount of future piano virtuoso while most end up not wanting anything to do with music at all.

Personally, being forced into some specifics topics only made me less inclined to put any effort or have interest in them.

Some people have an innate interest in some topics. Some don’t. Some that don’t can develop one if properly prompted at different times in different ways. Others never will.

I fail to see how forcing anyone is supposed to help. It’s only a symptom of an earlier failure.

I for one am glad that some preferred playing the piano, and were given the freedom to, to solving n-degree polynomial equations. Because I sure can’t be bothered to learn to play, and I definitely like listening to some of them.

Why do you think giving people more choices would lead to people being less mathematically inclined? I think the opposite might happen.