2 + 2 + 22

I may not be the best at math

     It runs in the family.  My mother could not balance a checkbook.  All her life she was just getting by, but a relative left her some money and suddenly, she had a check book balance.
     Mom had a strangely effective way to keep a checkbook.  If a check was for $23.89, she would round it up to $25.  If it was $22.98, she would round it down to $20.  So she dealt with 0 and 5 when computing sums.
     And she never balanced a checkbook.  She kept a healthy balance in her checkbook, but you wouldn't know for looking at the checkbook.
     Jackie tried, Michael tried, Carl tried....nobody could balance the checkbook.  But when statements came, she was always pretty close to what the bank said, which was good enough for her.
     And when she got forgetful and couldn't remember checks and amounts.....we'd just close the account and move to another bank.
     Jackie spends hours balancing our checkbook.  Now she has a front of the book, and a back of the book, and money from the back is sometimes used to pay things in the front.  It is beyond me.  It does become an issue when the two sides are several hundred dollars apart.
     Math has never been a strong subject for me.
     I took a common core sample test on line.   I did 5/5 for third grade; 5/5 for fifth grade and 2 of 5 for eighth grade.  That is 40 percent.  I don't think that is good.
     The problem was in language and signs.  I have not done algebra for .....  let's see carry the four, borrow from the eight, factor in a shrinkage rate .... about 48 years.  So when I took the eighth grade sample quiz, three of the questions had a ^ symbol.  As in 6^8=2y-14.  Or as I said, what the hell is the ^ anyway?
     Now that is not a knock on the tests.  If I had been in an eighth grade classroom when that material or concept was taught, I probably would have picked up on it.  (Unless I was looking the the cute girl next to me, the doodles the guy next to me was making, thinking of lunch, or napping.)
     Which seems to me to be a problem when sample tests and assignments are posted on line for all the world to see.  We are not the kids in the classroom.  We are not engaged in the learning activity.  We don't know what the expected outcome was for that lesson. We haven't heard what the child hears.
     At least that is my rationale.  And I am sticking to it, 110 percent.