Proofs and Angles

     Well, I had to look up my blog post about third grade before I could talk about sophomore year math class. I wanted to be sure I was not repeating myself – but apparently I did not give the follow-up to the third grade story of the freckle-faced red haired-boy who exchanged love letters with me in the earlier blog, and I get to tell it now.

      Tenth grade math was geometry. And oh gosh, this was the perfect class for memorizing. I loved it! Sometimes the problems had me scratching my head a bit, but once I saw how to solve them, the proofs just came pouring out. It was a beautiful thing. It was one of the few classes I ever took where I didn't really need a teacher – the new material flowed smoothly after what was already known.

      So I was bored in class. And that boy from third grade sat right in front of me. By high school he walked among the popular cliques and it would have been surprising to think of him even talking to me at all. But he turned around when the teacher was giving the day's lessons, and we chatted and laughed. What a pleasant way to spend an easy math course!

      And you know I assumed that the class was as easy for him as it was for me. First of all, geometry was easy, and I thought everyone was breezing through it. Secondly, the freckle-faced popular red-haired boy would not have been spending time talking to me if he was not getting the material, would he?

      It was not until late spring that the teacher was passing back an exam one day when I happened to see that the boy in the seat in front of me had failed his exam!

      “What happened?” I exclaimed.

      And he shrugged and said that's the grade he got on all the exams!

      Oh I felt so terrible! “Am I the reason you are failing geometry? We talked when you should have been listening?”

      “No,” he said he was never going to get geometry – I had nothing to do with it.

      Maybe he was right, but even after all this time, I still feel guilty. How is this angle like that angle? I should have figured it all out sooner!

239 20150827 Proofs and Angles