In another life I was good at math, but that was seventeen years ago. In this one I forgot everything I ever knew from my past life as a student. It's gone. Vanished like mist. This didn't used to be a problem for me because I don't often run into situations in life where I need to remember my Calculus or whip out a Trig equation. I'm a mom, not an astronaut. I do laundry and clean up cat food and toilets messes. Not much math in that. Right? Wrong. Mom's have to do math. At least if they have kids who have to do math.
Enter the problem. My fifteen year old is in Geometry and Trig. I understand that this is a good thing. It would be even better if I could remember what Trig was. Homework each night goes something like this . . .
Child A: Mom, can you help me with this?
Me: Groan. What is it tonight?
Child A: I don't know. I don't get it.
Me thinking: Neither do I.
Me saying: Did you read the book.
Child A: Blank stare.
Me: Let me see it.
Problem number one out of thirty-six: Find the measure of angle A using given data.
Me staring at page thinking: Stab my in the eye! What the heck is a cosine? I know I knew this once. What happened to it? Where has it gone?
Child A staring at me saying: Mom?
Me reading chapter and "remembering" Trig.
So let this be a lesson to all of you students and parents alike. You do need math, even if you don't know why you'd need to find the measure of angle A. I don't get paid enough for this. Oh wait, I don't get paid at all.
3 comments:
I don't understand my son's homework either. He's in first grade. At this rate, the teenage years are going to suck!
Oh boy. I'm definitely in trouble. I dropped out of pre-calc in high school. But since hubby is an accountant, maybe I can defer all math homework to him. I'll just help them revise their papers.
Brodi and Nikki, just one more way for me to be humbled. Sigh. But on a positive note, I remember reading all the books she's assigned in English. :)
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