Math?! OY!

I started my math class today. Up until this morning, I hadn't given the whole learning math thing a lot of thought. I mean, up until this morning, I was just happy that I was starting a new path to somewhere different. I really, really need different.

This morning I went to the bookstore and spent $115 on a book. That's right, I spent all that money on a book full of numbers. And then it hit me. You know, I don't remember really liking math. Maybe there is a reason I haven't set foot in a math class in the last 19 years.

I showed up about 10 minutes early for class. My fear that I would be the oldest and stupidest person in the class was completely unfounded. And thank goodness for that.

However:

The teacher walked into the class and silently began collating the syllabus. Then he silently handed them out. Only after everyone had a syllabus did he finally begin talking to us in a very thick Nigerian accent. He spent the first hour of class treating us like children. He went over the necessity of doing homework, over and over again. He answered a million questions about whether or not such-and-such was going to be on the final. He lectured us about using calculators, coming to class, how and when to turn in assignments. This took an hour.

Then for the next half hour he began teaching. I remembered everything he was going over, and I was kind of bored. I followed along anyhow, thinking that I needed to make sure I have the basics down. But really, this stuff was really basic. I started to wonder if I was in the wrong class.

The last 10 minutes he used to hand me my inner display of hubris on a silver platter. He started writing ridiculous equations on the board and told us, "at the end of your time in this class, you should be able to do these. If you can do them now, you may advance to the next level."

After listening for 10 minutes to the frightened whispering in the class, the teacher reminded us that we weren't being graded on this - this was a puzzle. Some dork stood up and actually asked if he could leave, seeing he wasn't going to do the puzzle. The teacher said he didn't care, and the classroom emptied in an instant.