Dear Son,
I have a confession. When you were sitting next to me yesterday, struggling with letters, number and lines, I encouraged you to fight the good fight and slay those stupid alegbra problems because they were very, very important.
Thing is.
I lied. It IS impossible. Algebra was invented by Hilter as a form as mental and emotional torture and as you know, being a history buff and all, no good thing came from anything related to that man (don't dig too deep into your history though, as you just might find your mother severely lacking in this area as well).
And honestly....I really have nothing pleasant to say about my experiences with this horrible form of number manipulation and you're right. I don't use Algebra ever. Like ever....
But you will.
I'm not saying you'll be immersed in mathematical equations once you fly the coop because you just won't. It is and subject in and of itself that doesn't translate well into practical, useful knowledge. I admit it. I concede. It's stupid.
However....
Since we're talking about letters and numbers, let me throw a few more out there. First, SAT. These letters are very, very important. You know what they mean because these words have been thrown at you for the past two years and you have a slight understanding of how this test will pretty much determine your entire future, as unfair as that is. The numbers you get on these letters DOES matter. And for that number to be sufficiently high enough to eschew a career as a fry cook, you need to know Algebra (and....gulp...even MORE).
So let's go back a few years. 14 to be exact, because you were one when you learned to walked. I'm pretty sure you didn't accomplish this because you had dreams of running a 5K or jumping off scary things to do Parcour. You just wanted to walk to Mom, or the dog food bowl...you just did it. You did it well. I mean look at you now. Sometimes you even run without tripping and that's a pretty big deal considering I contributed half your DNA.
Don't ask yourself what math can do for you, ask yourself what...well...yeah, you probably should ask what math can do for you...because I'm pretty sure you aren't doing much for math since you hate it so, but seriously...it's important.
And seriously. I feel your pain. I sat here with you, watching videos looking at the lesson with you, with that cocky, "Well I see it, but YOU need to see it for this to matter.." when in reality, I had no darn clue what was going on. I hate math more than you, I promise.
Good news for you though. You have two parents. One of them (not me) is good at math. Loves it. Lives it. Breathes it. And speaks it....so the plan for this weekend is....
You AND Mom are learning algebra. Yup. Me too. I will be sitting with paper and pencil and trying to figure out (since you and I think so much the same way...) how to figure it out. For you. If you're going to suffer, I will too. And then I can claim triumphantly..."I did it..you can too...." And you'll probably get a better grade than me, because dude...you have no idea how horrible with numbers I am.
You're smarter than me. More gifted in so many ways. You are a better version of me and let's face it, with your father's DNA building the blocks of your brain cells (is that even right? I'm sure you can tell me!!) you do have the home court advantage...
Will you ever use alegebra again? Past the SAT?
I say, unabashedly, YES!!! This, I can promise you...
Because we'll be saving up all these papers...and once you graduate and no longer need to prove that you actually did your math assignments, we're going to bundle it all up and have alllllll those papers recycled.
Into toilet paper.
Can YOU think of any better way to use Algebra?
Yeah, me neither!!
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