In Which I Blame the K-12 Educational System for the Mathematical Shortcomings of My Students

A decent number of students in my gen-ed class were unable to write the number 8 as the product of prime numbers. (In class I had done the example 1050 = 2x3x5x5x7.)

For some of these students, they didn't know the difference between a "sum" and a "product."

It's not like I'm expecting Descartes' Rules of Signs.