I've never been good at Math....

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. ~Eric Hoffer, Reflections On The Human Condition


Talking to a friend who has started a Facebook page insisting that Math is fun and talking to my boys about their Math got me to reminiscing about Math......

I hate Math.  I have hated it since I was a kid.  The first real math teacher I had was Mr. Hanlon, he was a good teacher and later my track coach, which would prove useful.  My second Math teacher was Mr. DuBois and he was my favorite Math teacher.  He was also a personal family friend which also proved useful because he had more patience with me than most teachers.  Soon after the boys' high school basketball county tournament in January Mr. DuBois was fired.  He was fired because of a record of wins and losses but I ended up with the biggest loss.  In the middle of the school year, the only person that made Math make sense was gone.

The years moved on and Math was still stupid to me.  Most of this was because I just didn't get it.  Then my Junior year, Algebra 2 class and I was lost....but then......but then, there was this cute kid sitting next to me.  "Do you understand this?" I asked.  "Yeah, it's easy," that's all it took.  Starting then we met before school several times a week for him to calmly tutor me in the fine art of Math.  I soon found that I still didn't understand Math but my tutor was cute so I didn't mind Math so much!

The next time I found myself in a Math class was Trigonometry my Senior year and guess what?  No...I was still very confused.  In the early days of the class I was trying desperately to grasp the hows and whys of this class.  The teacher was also my basketball coach so he knew that if I was going to play on the team I had to pass this class.  So I began to ask him questions during class one day.  The next thing I know he tells me in front of the whole class to stop asking so many 'stupid questions'.  I was done with Math.  I slammed my book shut and said, "Fine!  So long as I'm in this class I will not study for another test or quiz and I won't do the homework.  If you have given up on me than so have I!"  I earned a one way trip to the Principal's office.  Now the good thing was that I worked in the office during my study hall so we were pals.  The short version is by semesters end I was out of that class, I passed with a D, and this started a long life of mouthing off.  I should have gotten a foreign language credit from Math.

Don't get me wrong, I have a fondness for Math.....I got a husband out of it! 1+1=3