Maybe he knows more about math than you do Chrissy, but you are a smart, and able as he is. I think it has to do with interest. My sis thinks I'm a computer wiz, but the truth is, she has no interest to learn about it. She's just as smart, but no interest
Maybe once, long ago but I haven't used my brain much lately. My new theory is that the whole story about why my mother left me with my grandparents isn't even true. Maybe I'm adopted, lol.
This took me a bit, I had to exercise my brain to figure it out, but hey, it's a good day when my brain gets some exercise, that's why I come here to SOC!! I like calling it soc because of Southern Oregon College that I am familiar with, and really, this SOC biz is very educational!! LOL!!
Oh for sure Sheldon!! Wow, is that for sure on the space program, yeehaw!! Can you figure out how long it would take me to go back to my own planet of Venus? And, if I come back to Earth to visit, how old would you all be by then? LOL!! denise
@Sifu Phil Bonifonte Phil sure makes us use our brains, where is he anyway. Course coming up with smart come-backs, well, yeah, that can be called brain exercise, lol Maybe you and I are from the same planet @Chrissy Page sort of separated at birth? They might come back for us one day, or not, LOL!!
I was a computer programmer for 16 years and I like to think I was pretty good at it. I'm rubbish at maths, though.
I wasn't bad at math but over the years I've forgotten all the higher math, since I never had to use it.
It has been the same for me, I didn't use it so I lost it I can still do the ole basic math, but the higher stuff I did was so much fun, just no use for it now.
My best subjects and easy A's were languages. I took both French and Spanish in High School. Also biology I was good in but not chemistry or physics. I was good in all the math except geometry.
Two years after moving to very rural Missouri Ozarks, one neighbor down the road, about 2 miles down, was the local high school principal, a farmer "on the side". My wife had met his wife hiking our road, and they talked. Early August, 2002, Kenny Cook, the Principal, showed up at our front door, wanting to "talk". Seemed his wife had told him I had an Engineering background, their Math teacher had suddenly announced he was leaving after 15 years, school started in two weeks, his prospects of finding a replacement were very dim. In a town of 390 population, getting a Math teacher migh require a very long time. Would I consider taking on the job? Well, I had never actually taught, but did conduct electrical safety classes for an employer, so COULD B.S. my way through presentation if needed. My wife encouraged it strongly, neither of us worked, we had no income or medical coverage until I would turn 62. In accepted the position. I had 6 classes a day: Trigonometry Semester 1 (Calculus 1 the 2nd. Sem.), Plane Geometry, Algebra II, Algebra I, Remedial Math. I and II. My nephew, who taught at NAU, told me the average class-load nation-wide was 4-1/2 classes daily. I took on a rough schedule! So, @Chrissy Page, after years of being away from a lot of it, I shuddered at the thought of stumbling through this. No sweat! A bit of review, and I was flying! Had a good time with those kids, gained their trust and respect, whereas the old-timers teaching had not; they hated me. Small-town stigma. Frank
I mastered and excelled at partying, and cruising the gut for guys Looking back, I don't regret a moment. You gotta have a passion for something
Excuse me? "the gut"??? Anyways, these kids, young adults, grew up in the middle of the Bible Belt, predominantly Southern Baptist influenced (my boss was Pastor at his own church). Yet, all they talked about, and freely at that, was getting drunk, who had "balled" so and so, but even so, drugs were rarely mentioned, just alcohol. The drug trade maybe had not made it's way into small towns? More chance of getting caught? I wondered. These folks were "salt of the Earth", ready to give you the clothes off their backs. Stemmed from growing up poor, mores instilled to be honest, I gathered. This school adhered to punishment, administered via the Principal, in his office, consisting of "swats", they called them, administered over their backside, the condition of which (covered or bare) I never determined. I was shocked and amazed. I asked my students, casually, dependent on age and the course involved, what their reaction was. "Did it make better students of them"? One big burly kid, a Junior 19 years old, confided, "Mr. H......., I just laugh at him. Pisses him off. It's fun, and a way to get out of class". By then, I was aghast, but tried hard not to show it. Here were these kids spilling their guts to a stranger, while hating the system entrapping them. A few were absolutely outstanding academically, but trapped within a small-town system precluding their being offered betterment, college. One sexy, obviously self-certain senior girl, Hannah, on the first day of class, wearing tight short shorts I knew violated the code, sat munching a candy bar as we awaited the starting bell, first class. I started out by explaining I was not a "teacher", but rather an Engineer, who mused Mathematics everyday. She smiled, after I admonished her, stating I would do "just fine"! I later learned Hannah had scored highest in the entire state in a national Math test. Her career goal? To become a Caterpillar Tractor mechanic! These kids were beyond young adulthood, as I remembered it from high school, and were the product of the "sexually permissive" society of the late '60s and 1970s. Yet, much was not different. I offered Hannah's class the opportunity for extra credit, if they helped build a big Tesla Coil Apparatus. They jumped at the chance. Hannah brought in a big conical flower pot I asked for to wind the primary coil on, others contributed bits and pieces, and I provided the empty beer bottles which became the primary capacitors. These kids looked like they had seen "heaven"! I explained, we only did this project, because I got to drink the beer! Long story short, our Tesla Coil lighted up all the ceiling lights in the classroom, when they were off, and frightened and amazed those fearless ones who held outward fluorescent tubes in their hands, which lit brightly ten feet away from the Tesla! I was 60. I languished in the feeling that finally, after paying "the man" my dues all my life, some folks had received and appreciated the results of my life-long quest for understanding. They voted me, the newcomer, the one to be suspicious of, the "non-believer, the heretic, "Teacher of the Year". I felt good for the first time in years! Frank