x + y =z

I loved this article in the Sunday NYTimes.  I am mathematically challenged to say the least--I barely remember my times tables--and algebra in 9th or 8th grade (?) was a huge challenge.  So well I remember trying fruitlessly to solve word problems.  The key to the solution always seemed to escape me, the use of words and not just numbers only adding to my confusion.  Fifty years later, I still recall the humiliation and panic caused by my abysmally low SAT math scores.  Would I ever get into college? 

And yet, one of my pleasantest memories is sitting with my dad at our dining room table doing my algebra homework together.  I'm thinking how handsome he is and how he knows everything.   He is patiently explaining to me how to read a word problem and create an equation that finds the answer.  x + y + z.   I get it! I get it!. . . but only here at the dining table with my dad sitting across from me.

Years and years later, I sat with my son at the table in our kitchen and coaxed him, begged him, entreated him  to do his homework, all of which was a challenge he deemed impossible.   Once in frustration he tore up his assignment into little pieces and scattered them on the floor.  I patiently picked up all those little papers and pasted them together for him to bring into school the next day, so desperate was I that he not fail.  Who knows if he remembers.