Day after day I sit in my second period class, constantly glancing backwards at the clock hoping it will advance faster. My teacher stands in front of the class droning on and on about some tenuous type of algebra that makes absolutely no sense to me. I look around at the faces in my class, some have ‘what in the world is going on’ plastered on their faces, others have glazed eyes and sad looks.

Math is considered to be one of the most important subjects I am taught in school. Since I can remember, I have been told math is the basis of learning. It was always treated as the superior subject. Naturally, I hate math. I think math is pointless beyond adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. I honestly don’t see the need to divide polynomials or do empirical formula. I feel like my time would be better spent learning facts and things that would actually apply to my future life.

I understand that math is a part of school and somehow, some way, it helps me with ‘problem solving.’ I’m just wondering why I am forced to take a math that I know for a fact will never help me. Where are the classes that teach you about how to handle money when you have your own job and live by yourself? Where is the class that teaches me how to calculate taxes and tells me what a 401K is?

The education system is flawed; I am sure that most people in the loop know that and are aware of it. But I am not sure how much more of the Pythagorean Theorem I can take. School is supposed to prepare you for the future. It is supposed to make sure you are a well-rounded student prepared for life out in the wild; I’m just not sure how logarithmic functions will assist me come tax time.