(svithe) Mahogany Reign

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So there I was. In a kindergarten class. We were going over the three-plusses. Three plus one is four. Three plus two is five. Three plus three . . . .

Then this one kid, Lucy, raised her hand and asked what the difference was between sines and cosines.

I tried to explain it, but she was having trouble grasping it.

So I tried another way. No luck.

I admitted that I wasn't so good with this stuff myself and had a hard time keeping them straight. Then I foolishly mentioned tangents.

At this point she pushed aside her worksheet with the dancing threes and the flamingo and rejected math now, today, and forever, her whole life. She called herself an amatheist and encouraged her classmates to follow her example.

If I can't understand this sine/cosine business(she said) then it is clear to me that the difference is false and imagined. And if sines and cosines are a lie, we must therefore assume that all math is a lie. Told to enslave us to life of adding and subtracting. Lie upon lie until we can no longer distinguish between the feel-good "truth" of one plus one equals two and the obvious untruth of what is a sine.

Her classmates nodded and began to push away their papers.

I argued. I suggested that just because they did not understand one thing, they should not throw away what they already knew. I pleaded with them, suggesting that in time and with effort, all things would become known.

My cries fell on deaf ears.

So I let them eat their snack, then we went out to play foursquare.

--end--



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