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When I was a kid, I was crap in school. Then in grade 7, I turned things around and received a dictionary for my efforts. Inside, it read:
Most Improved
Thomas Kerslake
I guess there were three or four other Thomas Kerslakes skulking around that I never saw. Still, it’s better than that one kid whose dedication said, “Best in show.”
Something happened to Math in high-school. For a time it was challenging but achievable. For a time. Then came Grade 9 and it transformed into a slavering, invincible nightmare.
Did you know the UN decreed that having students calculate parabolas is a crime against human dignity? That’s probably true.
But we have to be fair: a study showed that 63% of all students agreed that Math 9 was “highly relevant” to their lives. Sure, that was in 1915 and they were all underage privates serving in WWI artillery squads, but it did help them calculate shell trajectory. Now that’s building relevant life skills!
