Inspired by a friend and Mrs. Johnson, my Algebra II/Pre-calculus teacher
It has occurred to me that over the years, more and more people begin to dislike any form of mathematics (mostly when it gets into more advance stages, but then again what qualifies as advanced since each year is more in depth and elaborate on the things you learned the previous year? It seems as though everything is advanced compared to the last). I myself used to be one of those people, until I took physics anyway, and can still empathize at times with the confusing equations, formulas to memorize for different applications of math, and most of all remembering to do the basic math and not over look it in that jumble of a mess we call “showing our work.”
All through elementary school I was a genius at math. Though, then again most kids in elementary school besides the bullies are genius (mommy and daddy must be so proud! *sob* Our baby is four and can repeat that 2 + 2 = 4)…(unless of course we have larger values of two, and get an answer of a lesser value, or one equal to, of 5, such as 2.5(2) = 5…that’s the same as 2.5 + 2.5, ftr). For some people, you’re already lost. Ok, for most people, but I am not here to confuse you…well, not entirely. But getting back on track and avoiding tangents (which tangents and variables in math are when everyone gets screwed), I was a genius in math back in the good ol’ days of grade school, on the elementary level. Math and English (of course, back then it was divided into reading and writing) were especially my forte. I had a 9th grade vocabulary and reading level in 4th grade, though was lazy and hated A.R. as a requirement, but that’s another story. In math, I was rather advanced and often times got bored with class because it felt redundant and lacked any reason why I would ever need it except to show up the next kid. Now, before I’m called a show off and made to seem like I’m bragging, this is just background information to give you an idea for what’s coming, and nothing more.
Through teacher recommendation and parental approval, I was placed in Advanced Math courses in Jr. High. So after the first week, when you virtually have no work and you are just getting accommodated with your classmates and teacher, we hit the books and reviewed our basics we learned all through elementary. That was maybe two weeks of class. After that, I was lost. THEY PUT LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET WITH THE NUMERIC SYSTEM!!! What…The…Hell?!?! That is just straight up, classic WTF with a side of ZOMG, Really?! This, ladies and gentlemen, confused the hell out of me. Now everyone has heard the classic saying of “letters and numbers were created in two different systems for a reason” to justify why they suck at math, well I have only one thing to say to this: IT’S TRUE! I mean, honestly, have you ever wondered what ancient Greeks, Romans, Turks, Egyptians, etc etc did for entertainment, or rather to pass the time when there was lack thereof? They sat around and thought this shit up. Pythagorean Thorium, Pascal’s Triangle, and every other formula, simple, advanced or wtf out there.
However, slowly through the three years of Jr. High I was able to understand and learn bits and pieces of things, but not quite the genius I was when letters got thrown into things. Understanding formulas where letters were simply variables for numbers you get out of the problem itself--that was fine and dandy, but solving for X? I was still a goner. Finally, somewhere during my sophomore year it finally clicked, just to figure out that solving for variables was to be added into my basic math essentials. The problems would get much more difficult, and require certain laws and techniques depending on which aspect of math this particular problem applied to. Right triangles, squares, circles, some other abstract concept that you still wonder why you needed to learn this and use it in the real world where you’re job isn’t relative to math (unless of course it is, where even then we have computers, calculators and software that will do virtually everything for you). Needless to say, since I understood the basic variable solving, the rest started coming just as easily to me as it once did as a young kid. Now, I did have a few places where one method I was taught didn’t stick, but I eventually learned it another way and caught on. I was starting to like math again, but only when I was in math class, because outside of class it was just too much work for no real reason. But as soon as a person gets used to one thing, it almost always changes.
My senior year in pre-calculus was rather easy. Not sure if it was because I had the same teacher the previous year for Algebra II, or because she is just a damn good teacher either way. There were two, possibly three sections I didn’t fare so well on, but made my way through it. Towards the very end of the year, when things were supposed to be getting easier and I was getting closer to graduating, the worst possible thing that could happen, happened. They added punctuation to math. I had the same WTF episode as before and nearly flipped out. Was this a math class or a 1337 (leet, for those of you who don’t know) learning class? What, are we making sentences now and learning how to be undetected with hacking and sharing that information with other hackers from the bots from the early days of the interwebz? What is this, really? But alas, I was lost then, and never really had the motivation to get unlost. To this day, I only have a brief understanding of that particular section, and am still a bit confused. This is why math is such a wonder, joy and enemy of mine. It’s rather like women—confusing as hell, never really get it but you can grasp a brief understanding and spend your whole life trying to figure it out, but it only gets more complicated. A joy because I understand most of it, a wonder because of how complex but simple it can be, and an enemy because of how advanced and puzzle like it gets the more I learn.
…Yep, exactly like women.
-T'Ford
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