Sabotaged.net

MAT020

Yesterday marked the first day of classes for my Spring of 2009 semester and my mind is already blown. After running around both Shawnee and Osage counties like a maniac, I rolled into classes about five minutes early and grabbed a seat three rows back. After the usual round of introductions, we started into the lesson.

Now, let’s back up. Here’s more of the “putting it all out on the table” jazz. I’m, embarassingly, way below college level algebra. I tested into an Elementry Algebra class. I will have to complete both it and an Intermediate Algebra class before I can even get into the college level class. This is all my own fault, as I failed and cheated my way through math in high school. After years of putting it off, I’m now paying for it. But there are about 17 other people in my class, so at least I’m not alone.

Thankfully, the professor decided it would be who of him to quickly cover some of the basics; he defined things like “quoefficient” and explained simple things like “rational numbers vs. irrational numbers.” It was nice to have a refresher on things I haven’t seen, read, spoke of, or used since 1998.

Then he dropped the bomb. We were subtracting mixed fractions with two different denominators. And he told us you never subtract in  math.

What? Never? Not even when you’re cornered? He just destroyed everything that was taught to me K-12. Every math teacher I’ve had taught addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. No one has ever told me that this subtraction business was all a lie. This is like strange sorcery that I’m only to learn in a no-name college in Nowhere, KS with 17 other people too stupid to test into a class that actually counts toward your degree.

I’m happy to report, however, that  I at least understand his reasoning about only ever adding a negative number. It makes sense. I can handle that concept. But this is an interesting sign of things to come, I believe. I’m anxious to see what I continue to learn in this class.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.