My Brain Hurts.

I have been working on Chapter 1 of Math Modeling for a week now. My brain hurts. It is basic stuff, as far as Algebra goes. Stuff that is probably taught to 3rd graders these days. The same stuff I struggled through in 10th grade. In 10th grade, Miss 'H' scared the ghost out of me when she caught me drawing in geometry class. I was bored and lost. She told me in front of the class that I was in math class, not art class. I managed to survive the embarrassment and I did manage to pass the class with a C. I don't know how. I do know, that back then, (yeah, caveman days), you were only required to take 2 maths in high school to graduate. That was the last math I took until I started college classes 7 years later.

It took me three tries to pass pre-algebra in college, which I might add, you do not receive credit for. Now, many years later, I am attempted Math Modeling, which I thought was 'advanced general math'. No. It is algebra. Math Modeling means it is algebra and how it applies to real life. Have mercy on my brain.

Courage is taking Algebra. I see her whizzing through her homework and typing away on that little graphing calculator thingy. I am still doing the tutorial on the graphing calculator thingy. I usually resort to pencil and paper to get the right answer. (Something is wrong with the graphing calculator thingy maybe?????)

My trouble with math goes back to fourth grade. I had never had trouble with math before, but on this particular day in math class, my friend, Cynthia, convinced me to just go down the math quiz and 'guess' at the answers. It was adding and subtracting 3 columns of numbers. Stuff I had done since the beginning of second grade. I don't know why I let her convince me to do that, but I made a 13 on that quiz and was dropped down to Group 'D' in math - the lowest you could be placed. The rest of the year I did adding, subtracting, and not much else.

In 5th grade I was put directly into Group 'A' and was TOTALLY lost. I got three licks from the paddle from the math teacher for not doing my homework. I had never been paddled or punished in any way before. It broke my heart and I was dropped down to Group 'C' math. Ever since, I have struggled with math because I missed some basic teaching somewhere down the line.

You would think that someone who had such a bad history with math would have never gone into the field of bookkeeping and accounting. But what most people don't understand is that when I first got into that field, the old 10-key adding machine was my BFF. Then in the 80's, the PC came along, bringing with it the spreadsheet software, LOTUS 1-2-3, I think it was called? And all the accounting software packages that followed. I have done bookkeeping and accounting related work for over 25 years. I rarely ever had to do any math on my own...the computer does it for you.

But now, my brain is struggling to re-learn adding, subtracting, dividing, square-rooting, and some stuff I've never heard of before. If I really let myself be honest, the challenge is fun and exhilarating. I'm hoping this stuff keeps those neurons firing in the old gray matter and staving off Alzheimer's Disease a few extra years. Anyways, as soon as I figure out how to use the graphing calculator thingy, I know it will do all the hard stuff!