My daughter is in the 5th grade and helping her with her homework I realized I used to be smarter then a 5th grader but somewhere and somehow that all fell away into oblivion. I know that I once was smarter then a 5th grader because my school passed me up to 6th grade but of course that might have been because they really hated me and just wanted rid of me.
The big bang of realization occurred when I sat down to go over my daughters math homework, I do want to point out I am great at math, I even tested out of Calculus one and two in college. Looking over the problems she had solved I noticed one that was wrong and I gave her the correct answer and told her I wanted her to work the problem out to get the right answer. She went back to her desk, sat down and squirmed for 10 minutes and returned to me and asked if I could help her by showing her how to solve the problem.
Being the super smart dad that I am, I told her lets sit down and go over it together. It was at this moment that my brain literally started to ooze out of my ears, I had no idea why the answer was what it was just knew it was the answer. I fumbled through the book making the age old excuse that I wanted to make sure we did it like her teacher wanted her to do it. I quickly started scanning through the book hoping beyond all hope that the answer would jump out and I would once again be seen as the all knowing father.
Alexis, with her noble Persian eyes looked at me and did not even ask but stated "Dad, you really do not know what we are supposed to do but that is OK". I told her that I was sure her teacher would help her if she asked before class started. I then packed an apple, a flower and a sealed note for her to give to her teacher throwing myself at the mercy of a woman who is obviously smarter then a 5th grader and hoped that I would not be called into a parent teacher conference to talk about my inability to do simple math.
I will let you know if that dreaded meeting is called for in the future.........
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I'm having problems with my grand-niece's 5th grade textbooks here in Texas, because of the revisionist history that has crept in the past few years... For example, I didn't 'know' that all the signers of the Declaration of Independence were all slaveholders... (I'm sure it was a shock to Ben Franklin, John Adams, John Hancock, etc too)
ReplyDeleteCan you please describe the problem? Sometimes those math curriculums throw oddball problems. I recall one time in elementary school going through converting numbers from one base to another (e.g. binary to decimal and back). I don't recall ever seeing that again until I started to get into serious computer programming.
ReplyDeleteIt had to do with inverting fractions. I could look at the problem and give the answer but could not "show my work".
ReplyDeleteIt's not my forte either.Math today the way it's taught is made for cp's answers.I made it out of college with a C grade in it. I remember going to math lab for help and even wore a green color face mask cream to help me relax.Michael, to me It's like an Art for our whole being is made up of it,and the whole universe too. I learned watching this on the Discovery channel.I was in ahh after a two hour doc about how the universe is made up of math and cried at the end of it.I'm a little silly I guess!(spelling)I am married to a Speller which is also not my forte my husband says with a chuckle but your the best Speller in the family.My husband name is Dr Jon Speller and literaly lives up to the name.It sometimes drives him crazy when I ask him "honey pls help me ..how do you spell etc.."to spell this or that at times is a problem with me,and our son has his father's gift too!
ReplyDeleteOK, I'm not a math whiz, when I was in College, I couldn't grasp Algebra. I could work an algebraic equation, I just could not derive the equation from a word problem.
ReplyDeleteOK the stage is set:
Professor tells us that we are on a motorized moped going X and the moped going so many miles and hour and the moped breaks down and we are then only going so many miles and hour and we have to go so many miles, how much longer will it take to reach our destination?
I raised my hand and waved my arm, viola, he thought a light bulb had gone off in my head! What a shock and how amused my fellow students were when I said the following:
Well if it were me, I'd put the moped in the shop and have them call me when it was repaired!
Not the answer the professor was looking for but it was eye opening for me, I wasn't meant to be a nursing student, I became a massage therapist instead! LOL VN8