There are professionals and researchers out there whose job is dedicated to this issue of improving math education (and the same with physics education, computer science education, etc.). You can find great ideas and sample lessons and great educational software.

Math is taught out of context, or completely decontextualized - that's why people hate it, and that's why it's hard to motivate people to learn it. Math knowledge is both situated and embodied. Look at mathematics education research for ideas on how to teach math more effectively.

For example Jo Boaler's work. She is teaching a MOOC on this topic of how people learn math next month: https://class.stanford.edu/courses/Education/EDUC115N/How_to... http://joboaler.com/

NCTM - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics http://www.nctm.org/

RUME - Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education http://sigmaa.maa.org/rume/Site/News.html

As someone else mentioned, the app DragonBox helps with understanding algebra: http://dragonboxapp.com/

The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury taught math in context, in the form of complex challenges: http://viking.coe.uh.edu/~ichen/ebook/et-it/ai.htm