The Walk: Don't know what a slide rule is for*

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Don't know what a slide rule is for*

I am in my office working on math. I hate math. In fact, in our math class yesterday, our teacher mentioned something about an electrical smell and the possibility of us dying in that classroom. I whispered to my friend beside me.,"Yeah, we would be leaving hell and going to heaven." Now we are on all this geometry. Ugh..Good news is its my last math class ever. The bad news is I have a test on Monday and then a final.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
~Albert Einstein~
Yeah..thank you Einstein, you are not totally convincing. Is Einstein dead? That would have been interesting to meet him.
Well, to make it even weirder my distant relative..(Hilbert)..made up one of those ignorant formulas that all those math majors get excited about. Where is that gene..? I mean maybe if I hadn't had that Algebra teacher, who looked like a werewolf, tell my entire class that we were stupid. I know if I ever teach math I am going to make it fun and make everyone think they are little geniuses...

So..I'll get back to it..just needed to vent...

*From "Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke

7 comment(s):

I am math retarTed too. I was good enough in high school to take Calculus, which gave me college credit, which meant that preacher-boy never took math after high school. So while I USED to could do number-ciphrin, I sho' nuff can't now.

By Scott, at 11:59 PM

Hang in there Beverly. It's almost over. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it.

By Candy, at 4:18 AM

At the end of my junior year at ACU, my roommate and I had the mother of all finals coming up: Dr. Marler's Comm. Law. One day I was about to pull out into busy traffic and decided to go ahead and risk it instead of waiting for the traffic to clear up. I thought, "If I get in a wreck, at least I won't have to take that final." I got home that day and told my roommate about it. Turns out that earlier that day, she had washed her hands and realized she needed to plug something in. She went ahead and did it -- without drying her hands -- and thought, "If I'm electrocuted, at least I won't have to take that final."
It's funny how finals can change the values we place on life and death. I don't miss that at all! Glad you're almost done!

By Deana Nall, at 5:00 AM

I think it's funny that Einstein said that. I can't even begin to imagine the types of things that went through that man's head. Wow.
Good luck on your test and final and congrats on your upcoming graduation. Do you know what's next yet?

By Stacey, at 6:08 AM

I was telling Clint I had an uncle that was one of the top 10 mathematical minds in the world, he said, "what happened to you". He rest his case.

Oh I can't speell either.

Woo Hoo Beverly's almost done.

By happytheman, at 8:14 AM

Vent all ya want, Bev!

My 10th grade algebra teacher was a slide rule fanatic and he yelled ‘HEY, STUPID’ at me all the time! This was back in the days when no one had ever conceived of or heard the phrase 'self-esteem'.

So imagine my horror when I went to teach Music at a private Christian school and they said, 'Oh, and by the way we need you to teach 5th grade maths'. How desperate were they?? I hadn't been to primary school in years and my degree was in Music. I WAS stupid for thinking 5th graders were still doing long division (they DID seriously need to review that). I looked at the teacher’s manual and just about died to discover that 5th –grade curriculum had evolved all those years into and WAS algebra. YIKES!

But the Lord miraculously either woke up some very dead brain cells, or put some latent genes into action (what do I know? I’m adopted!). Now a teacher, I understood those poor, dumb looks on my students’ faces and I just couldn’t stand to see them in so much pain! Because I felt their pain, somehow I knew how to explain the problems, and I knew which questions they needed to ask but didn’t know those questions existed. Once I showed them what my dumb looks used to look like (or still did), they cracked up and relaxed. Unbelievably, maths became a very fun subject to teach. I learned a lot … I just kept praying I would not ever be asked to teach trig!!

Sometimes out of desperation, creativity arises. And you, my dear, have both that and fun in spades. Do well on your test!

By Deb, at 3:15 AM

I am really bad at math. I use a calculator all the time now. But, I do love Sam Cooke!

By Jeans, at 8:50 AM