You know what I’m doing? I’m hiding from math.

My apologies to my father and all the other wonderful mathematics teachers out there, but I hate math. It makes my brain hurt.

I’m in the process of acquiring my state teaching certificate to return to work. I’m an English teacher. My only deficiencies when I sent the state all my paperwork were the state teacher exams. (Apparently, my 25-year-old tests from Florida don’t fly out here with such a huge work gap.) So I did my research, and I took my endorsement exam for English Language Arts no problem. Not to brag (ok, maybe to brag), but I didn’t even study for that one at all and passed with flying colors.

The general teacher exam – the one that ALL teachers in my state must pass – has a math section on it. This is making my brain bleed. It’s exhausting me and stressing me out. It’s making me cuss the horrible math teacher I had MULTIPLE times in high school who was a lazy, mean woman who didn’t teach us anything. It’s making me wish I’d gotten SOME of my father’s passion and affinity for algebra, geometry, statistics – or, heck, even addition. Just kidding! Sorta.

I just had to re-learn order of operations, you guys. That’s basic shit. Except not for me because I’m a word nerd. You’d think I might be good at word problems then, but NOOOOO. They make my eyes cross, and then I cry. It’s torture.

So here I am on my blog whining like a baby.

Here’s the thing though. We want generally knowledgeable people teaching our kids, don’t we? I mean, I SHOULD be able to do basic math even if I’m teaching English just like the math teacher should be able to write a coherent paragraph even though he’s teaching Calculus. We want well-rounded individuals around our most precious assets, right? I know I do.

Teachers take on a lot of responsibility for the privilege of influencing young minds. They get a lot of flak from the public – not all of it justified. They don’t make a ton of money and often spend their own to outfit their classrooms to be most effective. Some teachers suck (see above), but most teachers are there because they have a passion for the material, and they love kids.

I must love kids.

I’m studying math, for crying out loud.