Homestead mailing list

["Lisa K.V. Perry" <lisakvperry AT gmail.com>]

On 11/28/06, Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:
> My life would have been much different if I had not gotten a bad case
> of the flu in seventh grade. I was getting straight A's in algebra
> but when I returned to class after missing a week of school, I could
> not catch up with the class and my grades went to B, C, and D.


The year that I took high school algebra, my father changed jobs and we
moved out-of-state in November. My grade went from a high B to the lowest C.
When I went to college, I had to take algebra and failed it the first time.
My teacher had a thick Asian accent and I had a hard time understanding him,
let alone what the course material. I don't mean that in a bad way, but it
was the truth. I got a tutor but that didn't help much. So I took it again
and ended up dropping the course. All these years I've felt that I didn't
graduate college (attended three years) because I got hung up on Algebra.
Now you know my secret. Sometimes I think I'd like to finish my degree, to
have the choice to go on to other things, but know I'll still have to take
algebra. Ugh. I know math has practical applications in life, at 44 years
young I've experienced this, but I swear to you that I've never once used
algebra, even with my dozen years in mortgage biz. I'm a whiz at computing
debt-to-income ratio's and drawing up budgets, calculating debt and quickly
figuring out how much equity is in a home, etc, but don't give me an algebra
problem.