Already Out-Smarted

You've heard the adage that each generation gets smarter than the last, and learns more, earlier? It's true.

My nine year old daughter is doing algebraic equations with about as much trouble as I have brushing my teeth. I didn't get to algebra until junior high, and even then it kicked my butt... I hated the class with a passion. I remember staring at the window blinds, and the back of the head of the kid in front of me, and watching Mr. Van Dordrecht's mouth move in his thick beard and mustache, but not much else about the stupid x, y, and n's that we were allegedly making into equations. (Who cares that x over y equals a minus n squared? When is Duran Duran's new video coming out on MTV???) Maybe that's why I got my lowest grade ever that school year... a D+. Now that I think about it, maybe that stood for Duran Duran? But wouldn't that be D squared? Sorry... I digress...

Last night I was checking Meg's homework, and I saw this equation: 1 + (7x7) = a divided by 2. (I couldn't find the division symbol on my laptop, which goes to show how math backward I am...) Anyway... She had a = 100, and I saw she'd used multiplication to get that answer. I gently pointed out that the symbol was division, and she dutifully went to review it. A moment later she said, "But Mom? If the equation is supposed to be balanced on each side of the sign, wouldn't that be 100?"

Oh.

Now that you mention that, yes, yes, indeed, it should in fact be 100. Carry on. Good catch. Ahem.

Geez. I'd be totally flunking fourth grade math if I had to do it again!

When I told my math-savvy husband about this problem, he sent me an amused smile. "How about I check her math from now on?"

Gee... think?