W. Curt Vincent
Editor
This summer will forever be known as The Summer of Math.
Perhaps not for you, but it will be for me.
Let me give you a sample: What is 7 plus 7 divided by 7 plus 7 times 7 minus 7?
I suppose I should explain.
It all began last year. While everyone was trying to figure out the ever-changing norm as COVID-19 was taking its deadly hold, my wife made a big decision: she would begin taking college classes — almost as if she didn’t have enough on her sizeable plate already.
After all, there is her library job, a house to keep up, four sons (who are cats) to care for, a daughter (who is not a cat) to keep track of, a side job selling ColorStreet nails and, oh-by-the-way, there is me to deal with … and feed.
But it was quite clear that she had a dream. She wants to be a librarian. A real one. Not a branch manager. Not an assistant. A real, honest to goodness, Dewey Decimal-type sans the bun in the hair and glasses hanging around her neck librarian.
I remember smiling and telling her something like, “Then go for it.”
Her first two semesters with Central Carolina Community College, with all the classes taken online, went incredibly well. She even had an English class that she wouldn’t allow me to help her with, and her report cards were filled with As and Bs. She was happy and I was proud.
Then came the summer of 2021.
My wife, whom I thought would be ready for a break from the late nights studying and taking exams, decided she would take a couple of summer classes. “Just to get ahead,” she said.
She ended up with three classes — two library classes and … a math.
“I’m terrible at math, but I have to take it,” she said, laced with warning.
It wasn’t pretty. Not at all.
Just two weeks in, she was frustrated and ready to quit. She already had a 2-inch notebook filled with hand-written steps to figure out the non-stop equations and questions that looked like an IQ test on steroids. Apparently, showing her work on paper — the correct work — is required.
To give you an idea, if she is given the equation 1+1-1, she can’t simply do it in her head and respond with 1. Instead, she has to write down the following …
1+1 = 2.
2-1 = 1.
The answer is 1.
Simple enough, until you start getting into fractions, metrics, circumferences, triangles, distances, train speeds, temperatures, Susie’s allowance and other crazy ingredients to a math challenge.
Anyway, as her frustration rose, my role changed from staying completely out of her way to being a cheerleader, telling her “you can doooooooooo iiiiiiit!” and reminding her of that dream — all without a mention of how I hadn’t had a good dinner in months.
It worked. She battled on. Even started getting some tutoring on the side. Her assistant at work is apparently a math whiz and has been helping tremendously. And at one point, when her assistant wasn’t available, I guess, she even let me help her solve a problem.
And now, she is on the cusp of the final exam for her summer math course. The frustration is gone, the confidence has grown somewhat and she has even boasted that she has learned stuff from the course.
To prove that claim, she presented me with that math problem I previously mentioned.
I chuckled, to myself of course, and proceeded to solve the problem in my head. It seemed simple enough: 7 plus 7 is 14, divided by 7 is 2, plus 7 is 9, multiplied by 7 is 63, minus 7 is 56.
Ta-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
“Wrong,” she stated matter-of-factly. “The answer is 50.”
I studied the equation again … 7 plus 7 divided by 7 plus 7 times 7 minus 7.
“It’s 56, dear,” I said.
“It’s not,” she said, “it’s 50. There are order of operations to follow with an equation like this.”
Order of … huh?
“Here, let me show you how it gets worked out step by step,” she offered.
I passed and went to get something to eat. For my money, the answer was still 56.
W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-506-3023 or cvincen t@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.