Sine of the times (or off on a tangent)

When I was a kid, everyone thought I was going to be an engineer (like my father, and his father...). I was good at math and science. I even liked science. However, I didn't like math. The only thing I ever got detention for in school was a repeated failure to do my algebra homework. I simply didn't see the point. It seemed like a waste of my time to do 50 problems on the same topic when 5 would suffice.

When I was in 11th grade, calculus and French were the same period. I had already satisfied the graduation requirement of two years of math and two years of a foreign language. So, whichever class I took would be an elective. I wanted to take French. My dad wanted me to take calculus. I told him that I was going to be a lawyer, so I would never need to do any more math. He won, and I had to take calculus. (I ended up taking French at the local community college that summer, so all wasn't totally lost.)

I struggled in calculus. It was the first time that math was hard for me. This took my dislike for math and intensified it. By the time I finished, I was sure I never wanted anything more to do with math. Fortunately, I passed the AP test, so I didn't have to take any math in college.

I studied political science and philosophy. Although I didn't have to take any math, I had to take statistics and economics. While knowledge of calculus wasn't essential in those classes, it sped up my homework because I could take mathematical shortcuts that other people couldn't. Once I graduated, I was secure in the knowledge that I was totally done with math.

I took some time off from school, and then I went to law school. The only math I had to do there was arithmetic. I'm now done with law school. Instead of being a lawyer, I've decided that I want to be a professor. I had a job lined up that fell through.

Most people with graduate degrees have a chance to get some college level classroom teaching experience while in school. Unfortunately, that's not a part of the law school curriculum. So, in order to be competitive, I need to get some time in the classroom.

One of my professors told me about the Prison University Project, which is an organization that recruits volunteers to teach college classes so that the inmates at San Quentin can receive their degrees. I signed up to teach English or comparative religion, but they ended up having plenty of volunteers for those classes this semester. However, they have a desperate need for people to teach math.

Since the rest of the volunteers are liberal arts folks whose allergy to numbers is even greater than mine, I ended up getting myself into teaching pre-algebra. I start next week.

So, the philosopher with a law degree who got detention for not doing algebra homework and hasn't taken a math class in 12 years is now teaching math to college students. Go figure.