Assignment: It’s time the kids are heading back to school. Tell us about a memorable year you headed back to school — either as a student, a parent or a teacher.Published Aug. 16 2008 I was promoted to a skilled-trades classification at my job in the factory in 2000, and had to return to school for training. One of my first classes at IVY Tech was Math 111: Intermediate Algebra. Being a 1981 Jeff grad (with a GPA of 1.75), I hadn’t taken a math course in 20 years. Intermediate Algebra assumes you just finished Introductory Algebra, and have a fresh grasp of the difference between whole numbers and integers, linear and non-linear equations, exponents and coefficients, roots and radicals, blah, blah, blah. I was smoked. To compound my confusion, I didn’t buy one of those $10 scientific calculators that are virtually self-explanatory: to give myself an edge, I got a $100 graphing scientific calculator which comes with a user’s manual that rivals many dictionaries in size. I still don’t know how to use it. Good bye, spare time. I had 2 decades of mental lethargy to make up for – not to mention still working 7-days-a-week and taking 2 other classes. During class, I would take copious notes, and ask several questions for elucidation. Meanwhile, I couldn’t help noticing that several of my classmates would burst into spontaneous laughter during monotonous stretches of lecture. I would scan the room, and they all looked studious enough. What was I missing? Texting. Nearly half my classmates were thumbing-away at their cell-phones chatting with each other, not paying a lick of attention to the instruction. I couldn’t believe it. I shared my astonishment with my wife, who responded with a blank stare. “Michael, you’re 38. They’re 19. Do you remember being 19?” “No. I was drunk when I was 19.” “That’s why you weren’t at IVY Tech, texting your friends. You’d have been doing the same thing.” She was wrong of course. Nobody had cell phones when I was 19. I got a “B” in that class, but it was all for naught: the position I was promoted to was experimental, and the experiment failed. Yet the experience was worthwhile, and I have a greater appreciation for those who struggle through college while working full time.
Mike VanOuse
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