Annie just finished her homework for tomorrow. She was working on this one workbook regarding shapes. The shapes were three-dimensional objects, which she was to find in a two-dimensional medium. It was driving me crazy. The poor girl is thinking that a sphere is just another word for circle. I gathered things in the house that look like the objects she was working on: cylinder, sphere, cube, and cone. I know it is just a start, but man was it difficult for me. You see, I'm kind of a stickler for accuracy, although my friend Rodney would disagree.

I had to bite my tongue while working on cylinders in particular. Cylinders do not have to be round, folks. It is not a requirement. I know... She's five and a half. Maybe the real problem I'm having is remembering being taught things in primary school that I found out later were wrong. My first English course in college began with "forget everything you were taught in high school about the English language." Ok. That was a waste of time... The high-school coach who told me about Newton's Third Law? What a joke. After my first couple of years in college, I should have gone back and demonstrated it with my foot in his butt. However, I guess he wasn't all bad. He gave me back my squirt guns on the last day of school... I would have been defenseless on the way home from school otherwise...

So, I'm toying with the idea of advancing her math skills beyond her requirement. I could stop by a craft store and get some foam pieces and demonstrate... and I probably will. I'm nervous, though. My sister is largely responsible for teaching me to read and write. She was a great teacher. However, she began teaching me cursive, as did my parents, before I was supposed to know how to do it. They were told that I was learning it incorrectly for the current curriculum. This seems ludicrous now, given that everyone I know writes cursive differently. I'm waiting for the note from school that just says "stop it."

"Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you that mine are still greater." — Albert Einstein

Rebel teacher