Ike continues to have its sights set on Chicago. We've recieved 6-8" of rain from other storms before Ike, and now Ike is feeding the front that is sloooowly making its way across the state. The sump pump is holding, but I think that this water should be shared with everyone, not just me. But that's me being greedy/generous.

I wish I could deal with the stress that this is bringing. I am holding out ok mentally, but this is an issue that seems to have been getting worse as the years go on. My dad suffers greatly from the same affliction, but his is more anxiety on what could happen; mine is small pockets of anxiety coupled with actual stress now.

I was tutoring a young boy the other day who did not want to be at Huntington at all, and it was evident that his parents probably coddle him because of his attitude for a 5th grader was more along the lines of my friend's oldest son who just turned 7. Actually, my friend's son is more mature than this kid. I think I was able to at least persuade him to do some work in math. What amazes me is the attitude that some kids take - of all ages! This young boy said flat out, that not only did he hate math, he didn't need it, and he learned everything that he needed to know about it. He also hated reading. I asked him, has he ever read Harry Potter and he replied that he never reads 'chapter books'. Whoo. Dick and Jane then I guess are still his bedtime stories, if he has any at all. 

Ironic/funny thing was, he loves science and history, especially astronomy and WWII. LMAO! Will he be in for a rude awakening. He had quite the vivid imagination and perception on history too - point blank stating that the Nazis had won all the wars they were involved in.

Yeah.

Don't know what version of history he's subscribing to, but the book is a little off. So then, after I showed him an astronomy problem in an Algebra II book that we have, (all it was was 3D distance formula application) in order to equate his love for the sciences with a lot more math that he'll have to take, so he better get used to the fact of at least tolerating math, he asked me this:

"Do you know what's harder than that math?"

I quickly commented, "Calculus?" *fwoosh* Right over his head.

He then said that there's a problem that he sees all the time:

A + d =

There's no typos there. That's all he wrote. He asked me if I could solve it? And I said, it's impossible. It has no answer, and there's two unknowns but only one equation. You need a second equation relating these two variables again to solve for them. And he said yes! But I think he said yes, more because he thought that he knew something I didn't.  

After him was an older girl who for some reason, I notice, always wears ballerina flats - not actual ones, but the ones that are in style now - saying essentially the same thing - She hates doing long division. Now she's probably in high school, says she hasn't done this since 5th grade (meanwhile, thinking back to the boy who hated math who was in 5th grade, do you know what he was doing? Addition and subtraction) and why should she have to do it the long way when there are calculators that can do the work for you now?

*sigh*

And of course, kids like this think they have it all figured out already, and that they're the first ones to do so.

No matter what logical reason I tossed at her, she had a ready answer:

me: What if you don't have a calculator?

her: Why wouldn't I have a calculator?

me: What if you forgot it?

her: I'll go ask to get it out of my locker.

me:  What if it's an ACT or SAT where they don't allow you to go get it?

her: Then I'll fail it and retake it later on.

me: *mental smack of forehead* What if you have it and it runs out of battery power?

her: I'll make sure and put in fresh ones before the test, or get a solar-powered one.

me: *mental smack of forehead*

Yep. Got it all figured out. Congrats, you are a genius and noone's thought of this before.

I saved the good ammunition rationales for another time. Again, what gets me is that kids forget it right after they learn it. They don't think that the previous knowledge will build onto knew knowledge. Oh well.