Ok I'll buried since I'm so late to the show. I'm 34 years old with no kids, but married. I have alot of neices and nephews with a huge age span from 7-26, and I have help everyone of them with homework. From 1st grade till they finished highschool.
I have watched so many new teaching methods come and go (who comes up with this garbage, and sweet talks school boards into making curriculum) This new math I find one of the worst IMO.
I was a fairly smart kid my parents were getting a divorce when I was entering 1st grade, and a few months later my mom being mentally exhausted, and all around a depressed mess (I have blocked it out I don't remember it bothering me) checked into a mental hospital for a year. So had to move in with my sister who is 14 yrs my senior, and still is a mother figure to me. This wasn't a stable environment due to being married to a drug addict. So I guess that's why I got lost in my school work, it being an escape for me. By mid school year my wonderful teacher Ms. Hensley ask if I would be interested in taking advanced classes the following year.
Me being a super shy kid (home life maybe) was terrified having to take classes with older kids in the school. By second grade I was doing 5th grade math, and reading. On his lunch breaks from the middle school I would attend later; the second most favorite person in my young academic career was Mr.Riley. He was a really smart man, one of those science teachers that looks a little off, but when talk with them you know they are off. (SMILE) He had a great impact on me, and got me really interested into science. So I come from a town where science comes from theories and thats all it is no facts in that hog wash. Not like the fact based Bible. So I had a few friends that loved to learn like I did. And they got to sit in on me and Mr.Rileys talks. So within a couple weeks we had a fossil digging club at recess. I came up with the idea since I knew there were alot of little fish and other ocean creatures fossilized since construction work was being done to the future soccer field. Mr Riley thought it was awesome seeing 7-9 yrs olds being mini paleontologist.
By 3rd grade I'm in all 5th grade classes and since I was really tall our new gym Mr Garcia decided to make a basketball team around me and 3 really good players. I was a 5'6 9 year old, and had never touched a basketball or had my dad play any spot with me. He loved me, but it was out his realm. I can laugh now, but dang I was awkward as heck. I was a rebound machine, but I couldn't shoot or dribble. We played in a city league against other 3rd & 4th graders. We out classed everyone ( Oh yea the one thing I could do was dunk) being in that age group rims are set at 7'. We would win some games 64-6 it sounds impossible with only 6 minute periods. So by the end of that first season alot of parents of opposing teams hated us. I was called things that no 9 yr old kid should hear let alone be called by adult men and a couple women. Coach Garcia was the best he was 26 if I remember correctly. So he got into a few times defending us not physically but close to it. He always told us from then on if we got verbally abused just say "It's not our fault your kid sucks it's yours for being a bad parent" (huge smile right now) http://imgur.com/06Vax1C I don't remember his long winded pep talks, but I remember that verbatim.
So by the time I get to middle school, guess what I'm doing the same exact school work I had been doing for the past 3 years. That kinda takes it's toll, and you began too wonder how you can keep doing this. None of my middle school teachers had any impact on me. Gave me zero guidance, except Mr Riley. We did after school science experiments with some of my friends from the basketball team (from elementary) the little paleontologist. The only thing that made school tolerable was sports. I was getting a 4.0, but I was losing my love for learning because I wasn't learning anything. So once school started I was playing football then as the season was almost over basketball would start. Oh after 6th grade my guidance left to teach highschool.
With my grades I really wanted to get into the I.B. program to get me prepared for college. Those not familiar with it, it is the International Baccalaureate. (But hey we're on reddit all you neckbeards were in it) LMAO j/k. It really helps when your parents give a fuck about your education which mine did not. You have to basically do a collegiate entry essay and parents or a mentor have their key roles as well. So with no help I became disenfranchised with school. So at freshman orientation I received my class schedule and 5 of my 8 classes are I.B. which had me confused. But being a new freshman I just didn't think the I.b. next to class name meant they were indeed I.B. classes. Didn't think nothing of it. The classes were a real challenge and I likey. I hadn't learned anything new in at least 6 years.
I was finally thinking things were going to get better I finished the semester with a 3.5 and I wasn't sad. Until the head of the program told me to meet her after school. So she use to be my algebra teacher in 6th grade and I hated her she was also my math teacher now in trig. So she goes on a belittling campaign of me not belonging and how dare I be in those classes. Me being pretty shy was almost in tears of how she made me feel like I was nothing....kinda weird being a 6'1 225lbs jock being made to almost cry by a fucking leprechaun. Thats what we named her she was fat had this huge mole and stood 4'11. "THE ANGRY LEPRECHAUN"
So after that she put me into classes that she said were the same just not IB. But after a month of being constantly asked why I was kicked out of I.B. by student. Rumors from I spit in her face to, I called her a fat cunt leprechaun. So I left school for a couple weeks, and when you do that your GPA suffers. I finished the year with a 2.5. I was seriously thinking of just leaving and getting my GED, but I loved basketball and Football to much I even joined the golf team so I could smoke weed No lug head of a football coach is going to piss test the footballer who also golfs. Thinking back now she broke me with my home life was unstable I hated drinking so what does a kid do in situations like that, they turn to an escape and since my once upon a time academic life was torn up from a self loathing person. I turned to bud my new best friend. I smoked, I sold, and I grew. I can't blame people for my own decisions. But the thinking of a 16 year old isn't rational sometimes. After basketball season was over I left and was so disappointed in myself that I let someone, no something so small be the catalyst of possibly destroying my future.
Working alot of shitty jobs and feeling so much self pity it took me 5 years to get the nerve up to get my GED. I was scared of failure. Dont make sense I was an above average student and I was scared I was going to fail at getting basically a 7th grade test. I didn't realize the United States educational board didn't know what the fuck equivalency meant.
So being a stoner and having had cooked for my friends ( you can only eat shit fast food until it becomes disgusting) I went to culinary school were people looked at me like I was a fucking alien for doing cost controls, recipe mods in my head. I've been a chef for 15 years and I like it. But sometimes I think to myself just what if............
I needed that off my chest after seeing the horribly worded math question It made me rage a little then reminisce. People who even know me don't know why I dropped out of highschool. No ones going to read this anyway its so buried......but thanks reddit for being a therapy exercise for the day. Also sorry for grammatical errors I'm a fucking chef not an English major who sits at starbuck and Reddits all day claiming to be writing a novel.
TL:DR We need more teachers who love their jobs and student and make impacts on our little futures.
And new math makes me feel stupid.