See my other post, but I have to agree stats is incredibly hard to teach at the high school level. I also see the problem with grandparent's failures at applying math.
The huge problem as I mentioned elsewhere is that stats is really applied math. You do learn a lot of regurgitation-style stuff - formulas, proofs, blah blah, but it's all useless without applying it. Moreover, stats draws from so many different areas in math and requires analytical skills that are closer to many of the things scientists emphasize in learning to conduct studies and experiments. This makes it almost unsuitable to teach the more valuable parts of stats at lower levels because the students can't possibly be prepared.
At best, I think you can teach some general things about stats and the mentality I described of being analytical and skeptical. Unfortunately, stats is just really hard for anyone to properly and comprehensively learn who isn't going to be able to invest a lot of time both learning pre-requisites and then all the different areas of stats. It's like learning to be a carpenter and only understanding how to work a hammer, but not a saw, measuring tape, or anything else.
The huge problem as I mentioned elsewhere is that stats is really applied math. You do learn a lot of regurgitation-style stuff - formulas, proofs, blah blah, but it's all useless without applying it. Moreover, stats draws from so many different areas in math and requires analytical skills that are closer to many of the things scientists emphasize in learning to conduct studies and experiments. This makes it almost unsuitable to teach the more valuable parts of stats at lower levels because the students can't possibly be prepared.
At best, I think you can teach some general things about stats and the mentality I described of being analytical and skeptical. Unfortunately, stats is just really hard for anyone to properly and comprehensively learn who isn't going to be able to invest a lot of time both learning pre-requisites and then all the different areas of stats. It's like learning to be a carpenter and only understanding how to work a hammer, but not a saw, measuring tape, or anything else.