"First, think. Second, believe. Third, dream. And finally, dare."
-- Walt Disney

us that we could either pay attention or sleep, just as long as we didn’t talk. 

So, I slept.  Hey, it was right before lunch and my blood sugar was dropping. 

I didn’t do any homework, but still, somehow, miraculously managed to

squeak out “C's” on my tests.  It was just barely enough to get by and that

was fine with me after what I’d been through.   I just wanted to get the heck out

of there!  (By the way, they retired him for senility the next year.)

          I spent the next several years successfully avoiding math at all costs. 

At one point during my early college years, I thought about majoring in

Chemistry.  I had a fantastic chemistry teacher and we mixed wildly colored

things and made them smoke.  Good times.  So, I sent away for information on

a chemistry major from my two local state colleges…  Ouch!  They both said

that I’d have to take two years of Calculus.  That’s right.  TWO YEARS OF

CALCULUS!!  And, of course, there’d be three semesters of Algebra,

Trigonometry and Precalculus just to get up to those Calculus classes. 

I figured that I’d never be able to get through that, dropped the idea and went

back to my seemingly happy life without math.  (Pretty funny that I now

TEACH Calculus, isn’t it?)

Continued on the next page