Strayan,
People have to practice anything to become good at it, but I would think there has been a move away from mental thinking towards verbal expression within education.

That does advantage young girls (who are generally more advanced in verbal expression than boys at the same age, while boys are generally more advanced at spatial type exercises) Even at an older age, women will tend to choose areas that require much verbal communication (eg sociology) over areas requiring more mental thinking (eg maths)

With an imbalance of females to males in many areas of the education system, (eg the primary school system) I believe the system is being converted into a system that requires more verbal type exercises, rather than thinking type exercises. (ie “soft science” as compared to “hard science”)

I’ve experienced this system myself when doing a statistics exam a few years ago. I knew the statistics, but the questions on the paper were worded in such a way that they could be interpreted in 10 different ways. The exam was not on statistics, but on interpretation of English

The Thieving Magpies comments are most important. They show clearly the pathetic condition of school Maths and a justified contempt for what passes for Maths in schools. Maths is in part a set of tools, hence practice is essential. But children are not trained to become proficient either in Arithmetic in primary schooling or algebra (the gateway to higher mathematics) in lower secondary schooling. That outcome is inevitable because the various state Boards of Study (for TTM the Queensland Studies Authority)produces syllabi that poorly define what is to be studied and contain handwaving non-numerate 'assessment' systems. Because ALL schools have to follow Board syllabi it follows that no improvement can occur until the Boards are compelled to write syllabi/assessments that emphasise the importance of Maths as a tool and assessment systems that are not based on 'on balance judgements'. Until syllabi meet the criteria of being defined, validated and reliable then both maths and the numerical sciences can never improve.