What is the value of x? x = IDC!

When I was in school, my absolute WORST subject was math.  Uggg, how I hated every part of the subject.  I remember one of the first struggles was telling time.  I dreaded the part of the day where my second grade teacher would whip out those telling time flashcards.  Being the “brilliant” student that I thought I was, I was sure the teacher knew that I must definitely know the answer since my hand was raised.  Okay, so my arm shot up right after she called on another student, but I knew the answer…..or not.

It’s not just telling time that made my brain hurt.  How about when you divide fractions you actually multiply after you flip the second fraction.  What!!  Or those story problems that make you do 20 steps just to get to the right answer to the following question:  “How long will it take Johnny to get home when he departs the station riding a tractor going 5 miles an hour, stopping at the seed store, hopping a train going west all the while eating crackers?”  Please show your work.  My brain hurts just typing that problem. 

What about those order of operations, better known as PEMDAS, of which you have to make sure you do the order correctly or you will surely burn in the pits of hell!  PEMDAS is actually parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition and subtraction.  But to the people who are not in favor of math, PEMDAS may mean: putrid, evil, mindboggling, dislike, aggravating, stupid.  What is the value of x?  x = I don’t care!

So the girl (me) who hated math (me again) is now tutoring this subject.  Actually, I have sympathy for the struggling kids because I have been there myself.  Every week I have a student tell me they are going to show me “their way” to do math.  I oblige because I want to see the method to their madness.  I sit back, nod my head, and when they turn to me and say, “See?” with the totally wrong answer I say, “Okay, please, when you write the next math book and have it published you can do it “your way.”  But for now, do you think we can try my way?”

The “phrase that pays” during today’s math session was when I asked the student, “How did you come up with your answer?”  Her answer, “I felt it in my heart.”  Well honey, don’t listen to your heart for math because your heart was WRONG!

As my son has said to me numerous times, “Math is NOT English, so quit trying to analyze.  Just follow the rules and don’t pick things apart.”  Thank you, captain obvious, for reminding me that Math is not English.  So glad he clarified this because instead of ending a sentence with a period, I might have ended it with the number 9.