Mathematics

The poorest excuse for a teacher I have ever saw was my high school algebra teacher.  My teacher was a real piece of work.  If he were a teacher today he would be fired immediately.  He was always available to help the female students one-to-one but he had no time for the boys.  He loved to lean over the girls and look down their blouses while "helping" them.  I came about as close to failing elementary algebra as is possible.  Of course I want to blame this teacher for that but the truth is, I have to shoulder some of the blame. 

I was lucky to have the vice-principal as my counselor.  When it came time to sign up for the next year's classes, I made sure that advanced algebra was NOT on my list of classes.  My counselor insisted I take it.  I felt I had no choice but he said he would be the teacher and he said I could do it, and I needed it.  He said that if I ever had any dreams of a career in some scientific or engineering field, I absolutely had to take advanced algebra.  I reluctantly signed up.  That summer between classes was miserable.  Every day I worried about algebra.  I thought I would surely flunk out of high school.  When the new semester started up I immediately fell behind in algebra class.  I had no idea what was going on.  I simply couldn't understand algebra.  Then I got mad.  I stormed into his office and told him I didn't want to take algebra in the first place and now that he insisted I take it, I was surely going to flunk out of school.  He told me to come to his office everyday at a certain time and he would get me going.  I felt helpless.  I did go see him every day and LO!!  A MIRACLE HAPPENED.  I actually began to understand algebra.  As the semester rolled by I got a firm grasp on algebra. 

I wanted to major in electrical engineering when I finally went to college.  The first two years of classes are about the same for any technical major.  It wasn't until my junior year that I finally had to make some hard choices.  I was working to support myself and going to school when I could fit classes into my work schedule.  I was quite dismayed at learning of the requirement to take these long afternoon lab classes that went along with the classroom work.  I simply couldn't handle that kind of load. I realized I had no fear of mathematics.  In fact I really liked math, thanks to my high school counselor/teacher.  I decided to beccome a math major.  I did get my BS degree in math, went on to get my masters degree and started work on my doctorate.  I parlayed my education into an engineering job with the telephone company, and worked a career at it.  As I look back now, I realized none of this would have happened  it it hadn't been for my high school counselor/teacher.  To this day I am sorry I never thanked him for what he did.