School’s out! The start of summer means lots of great things: barbecues with friends, ice cream cones, kids running through sprinklers, and LOTS of baseball games. (Oh, yeah – and Ian’s killer margaritas. Mmmmm…)
This time of year also forces upon us the annual ritual of sifting through the huge piles and bags of stuff the kids bring home from school. While going through Cal’s stack of notebooks, I noticed something he wrote in his math notebook on his first day of fourth grade, prompted by the teacher’s inquiry: How do you feel about math? He started with poetry, peppered with creative spelling:
“I hate math.
I’d rather restle a lion in the dark
or baith with a man eating shark.
If only a bomb would drop from the sky
and blow it to peaces, oh that would be fine.”
Then, emotion obviously got the best of Cal, and his poetic efforts went out the window:
“I’d rather get the chicken pocks or throw up. Oh math, I hate you. You stink.
I’d rather get punched in the face then do my math. I’d rather get hanged than do my math. That’s just how much I hate math.
The end.”
I laughed until I cried while reading this masterpiece. (Reaching back in my memory, these complaints sounded very, very familiar, am I right, Mom and Dad?) I also decided it is definitely time to remind our ballplayer how important math and stats are in his favorite sport.
I am pleased report that my sports-loving math-hating kid did not have to “baith” with a man-eating shark, or “restle” with a lion in the dark. He faced down the enemy and earned a B in math this year – and an A in writing.
He is very happy summer is here.
