Smart Math

It just dawned on me that you don't necessarily have to be very smart to be a teacher.

I was looking up the directory for my 2-12th grade school and was waxing nostalgic about my 8th grade math teacher, who I always assumed was a genius mathematician.

Then, out of curiosity, I looked up the basic standards for 8th grade math.

Well son of a bee sting, you don't have to be smart at all to teach that! It's just basic geometry, alegebra, and measurements. As in multiplying and adding fractions. As in graphic coordinates (-2, -4) on a graph.

It's funny how everything seems grander when you're young. Like how teenagers rule the world. Braces are the "it" thing. Boobs are all a girl dreams of (and guys too I guess).

I actually once fashioned a set of fake braces by spreading a chewed piece of Big Red across my upper teeth and smooshing the beaded chain off of a key chain (see picture above) into the gum. Thinking that this looked geniune, I went to my church's youth group and smiled my freaking face off to all the other pre-teens. Only now do I realize I looked like a victim of dental malpractice.

Looking back on it now, teenagers look like 9 year olds, I'd sooner get my teeth pulled than have braces again, and I can't wear anything summer-chic b/c of my stupid boobs.

20/20 is to Hindsight as X is to being a wise old 27 year old.