That probably has more to do with the classroom setting than the material. This boy is engaged because he’s learning from his father, one on one. The classroom disengages kids because they don’t get enough attention.
I homeschooled my son in math and I found he was fascinated by the way repeating decimals formed cycles. I'm sure that this reinforced his skill at long division.
I think may be more fun to do than to watch somebody else do it.
In my experience some people just love numbers, myself included. I could spend all day looking at various patterns of prime numbers, server metrics, etc.
Other people just.... don’t care numbers at all. Which is really disheartening when you find something really cool and everyone else doesn’t even listen. :(
