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I'd found that this analogy is easier for students to understand than using terms like multiplicative inverses and order of operations (those can be brought in later with better comprehension of equations) and that, frankly, it makes the kids giggle. Everyone time I'd taught it, including this time, it had been received with a chorus of three to five kids saying aloud, "Now I get it!" No problems with it in seven years. This year, though, a student showed it to Mom and Dad, Mom and Dad feared their munchkin felt uncomfortable with this, contacted the principal, and here I was now forced out for a day. At home my day did not improve at all. In late September nights in Wisconsin start to turn chilly and we needed a fuel oil delivery. Kari arranged the delivery for Thursday and expected me to write a post-dated check to cover it. Now... here I am... living with someone whose love has soured... someone who says she's too depressed to get out to find work and too ill to do anything around the house... and asking me to pay for fuel for the winter in a house she wants me to leave. I suggested she write a post-dated check and I pay her back, or she can put it on her credit card. She demanded I pay for it since I was the only one working. I couldn't take it... frustration compounded upon even more, topped with a complete lack of appreciation. Besides, I had work to do. I told her I was leaving to go back to the school to prepare for the sub I needed the following day. I wrote my loose lesson plans into details and plenty of examples and ran off worksheets, and I took my time doing it. When I finally got home Kari asked where I'd been. I'd told her the truth, that I was at school. Until 10:00? "Interesting..." she said. "What's interesting?" I asked. "Nothing." She gave me the feeling she thought I was out chasing after some skirt. I was appalled at her notion, first because it wasn't true, and second because she'd just spent the entire weekend prior with another man. Still, I left her a list of seven people who saw me at school that night... three janitors, two other teachers, and two students... then went off to bed in Cathy's room for the tenth consecutive night. |