"the convoluted, nonsensical way they're supposed to teach it."

True, but good teachers will find a way around the nonsense. They didn't write the textbooks and should have no problem pointing out to students, "Whoever wrote this has made this concept more complicated than it needs to be. Let's start with a simplified approach and once you are comfortable with the concept we will come back and have another look at how the textbook explains it."

Unfortunately, many people in the education sector (Ministry bureaucrats, textbook writers, publishers and especially education theorists) think they need to impress others with fancy terminology (esp. if it's a new & in-vogue term). Probably the worst examples of this are found among the computer-generated Comments banks that teachers use on report cards: some are unintelligible, even grammatically incorrect.

The most important thing in teaching is to build confidence. Kids gain confidence when they learn new skills, gain new insights, etc.