Math woes

I'm kind of mad at my math teacher/mentor. I know I should really call him mentor because that's his title and plus he's never technically taught me anything, but there are some things that are deeply ingrained in my mind and calling the people in charge of my school courses teachers is one of those things. However, I am willing to try. Mentor, mentor, mentor, mentor.

So I have a provincial exam at the end of the month and though it doesn't actually add up to much of my final mark and I'm not to concerned about grades anyway, I still want to do well. I don't have to do the test. But I kind of like tests. Plus even if I get half the answers wrong that's still more than I got from not doing the test. So it's kind of a win/win if you look at it that way.

This test is on January 28th. At a school. I have to go--at like 8:30am, no less--into a school and presumably sit with other students and write a test. Presumably on paper. I have never done that before. The thought is kind of scary. The other scary thing is that January 28th is like 18 days away. And I don't even understand trigonometry yet. Or sampling.

*tries to take deep breath* *puts on I've Got a Feeling, by the Black Eyed Peas* Okay, we're calm again. Home schooling problem: You, the learner, are responsible. For everything. Do you feel the pressure? Yeah.

One of the reasons that I don't understand trigonometry and the like is because of the way the course is written. Sometimes it's stupid and unclear and I've even corrected it once when the answer was wrong. This is somewhat disconcerting. I try not to blame my mentor but when I email him with a problem and he emails me back and I still don't understand it makes me feel stupid. And nobody likes that. So am I supposed to email back and say I still don't understand and could you please dumb it down a little? It's already the stupid people math. If you don't understand stupid people math, what do you understand? It's not a self esteem building activity, I can tell you.

*sigh* Okay, I need to move on. I need to stop procrastinating and ask for more help. I can do it. 18 days is a long time. Lots of days and hours and minutes to be learning mathematics. It's cool.

I don't think I ever answered your question about charities, Vita, so I will tell you now that I am a fan of Free the Children. It's not exactly the same as Save the Children, but it was started by a 12-year-old boy who is now like 22 and it's the largest network of children helping children through education. They build wells and schools and send kids on trips to build schools and wells. ;-)