Back to school night for Vince. We met all his teachers for ten minutes, they all seem great. An exciting year full of writing, US history, earth science (Which I think is a snooze, rocks are so boring, the time scale at which rocks are exciting is too long – billions of years. I can only pay attention to things on the order of one human lifetime. Nothing really changes when you look at a rock for 80 years.), algebra, Chinese and sex ed is in there somewhere.
This is the year of the quadratic equation. His math teacher admitted that that section was the hardest one during the whole year. Oh, I hope Vince takes to the quadratic equation. I’m trying to learn to let some things go with Vince, I’m going to be OK if he doesn’t love the quadratic equation as much as I love the quadratic equation. Math is wonderful (at least 8th grade math) because there is always a RIGHT answer. So many things in life are unsolvable because most problems in life involve other people, love and money. All these things are unreliable and unpredictable. But a quadratic equation? That will generally unfold in a beautiful and satisfying manner with a clear answer you can put a circle around in the end. The math teacher quizzed us – gave us some 8th grade algebra questions on the screen and we had to pick the right answer from this little remote. Our 3rd period math parents did better than the 2nd period math parents.
The Chinese teacher told me that Vince improved dramatically last year and ended the year on a high note. I told her it was because Vince and I were learning to read and write Chinese together. We are going to start again on Monday.
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I have not been very good at reading books ever since high school, but I’ve finally discovered how to borrow books from the library on my phone. I figured out that I just don’t like spending money to buy books, nor do I like going to the library to borrow books. But to download books to my phone and then just have them disappear when they are due has allowed me to read so much this summer. I can tell after a few days if a book is going to take. If I don’t want to turn to it while I’m waiting in line or for an appointment, I know it’s not going to stick and I promptly look for another book. It’s fabulous. But my reading time is almost up. School starts for me next week!
