Friday, June 3, 2011

I thought Aspies were supposed to be good at math

Well, my dreams of the boy's future career as an engineer are drying up.  His second grade teacher sent home a math paper that needed to be redone.  Out of 20 questions only 3 were correct.  Admittedly, it's subtraction with regrouping but it wasn't the regrouping he had the issue with.  It was the subtraction.

Here's an example problem and our conversation about it.

20-16= 16.

Me:  What's 10 minus 6?
Boy:  Can't you just tell me the answer?
Me:  Of course not, you won't learn anything that way.
Boy:  Dad tells me the answers.

Me:  Hmmph, what's 10 minus 6?
Boy:  *Thinks for a bit* Isn't it something like 8 or 9?
Me:  No, it's nothing like 8 or 9.  You do realize that there's only one correct answer to a math problem, right?  It's not a matter of opinion.
Boy:  Mooooooooooom.

The conversation continued in this vein until I finally dragged the correct answer out of him.  I will admit to telling him the answer to the last two.

So now that we've ruled out careers that involve people skills and math, I'm keeping my eyes open for ads like this.

Help Wanted
Gamers needed.  Excellent pay and benefits.
Ability to play video games for hours without 
moving or blinking is a must.  Enjoyment of 
watching hours of youtube videos of people
playing the same game you just played is a 
plus.  If you can then spend the remaining hours
of the day talking about said games... you're our man!

3 comments:

  1. ALL kids at this age have issues with math. I had a long "discussion" with our second grader on the topic 30 + 9 DOES NOT EQUAL 38! Good Grief! I think sometimes getting the answer you want from an eight year old is a total crap shoot! Hang in there Mom!

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  2. LOL! Love the ad :) I've always been good at math, but a lot was due to my parents making me practice it. My dad would write out problems for me to solve like 3,456 + 2,567 = ____ on a legal pad and I'd have to finish 3-4 sheets every night before I could play or do anything else. I used to hate those sheets. But I guess it paid off ;) They also made me re-copy books in Polish, and I don't think I would have kept my language skills had they not done that!

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  3. Ha ha! Aiden's dream job is Lego designer, so perhaps he and your little man can be cubicle-mates.

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