Oh the Joys of Algebra....

For the past month, we midwives have been saturated in algebra--3 hour classes, quizzes, tests, never-ending homework. Our poor baby-minded brains are fried--not exactly used to: "solve the equation 3x2-4x+17=0 using the quadratic formula." And what's up with imaginary numbers??

My brain on algebra------------------------------------>
Not a pretty sight in the least. :P

Anyway, Manny (husband of our new supervisor) was brave enough to face 25 midwives-in-training and teach a not exactly beloved topic. At our first class, he came armed with reasons why midwives need to know algebra:

1. You can really see God's glory in math. Just think about it for a minute--without math, how would we know the grandeur of the universe or the minuscule detail of a cell?

2. Math is one of the only things that builds the logic part of your brain. And yeah, midwives need logic too--especially at 3am with a complicated emergency birth.

3. The National College of Midwifery in the States requires it for graduation.

Hmmm...good reasons.....we'll buy that. (Manny sighs with relief.)

I understood and even (gasp!) enjoyed every class......until the very last one: graphing linear equations. Ooooh, my weakest point. My nemesis. The homework soon stumped me. BUT, praise the Lord for Skype and brothers who didn't even have to take college algebra--the math whizzes just CLEPped out of it. I pulled up the Skype chat box and begged for help.

I got my mom first. She may be a fabulous Editor Extraordinaire...but her math skills are questionable. Let me explain. The chat went like this:

Me: ok...i need help.....I don't understand this. It's the last thing before our final algebra exam today. What is x and what is y when I'm graphing the linear function: f(x)=x-4??
Mom: x is the female chromosome. y is the male chromosome. so this means that there are 4 girls in the room, minus four if the chromosome is present. Got it? And the f stands for female, but they put the X in parentheses just in case you didn't know that and needed more explanation.
Me (being the blond that I am, fell for it): so....y = 0 and x = 4?
Mom: exactly 0 boys and minus 4 females

Thankfully, Jacob (one of the math whizzes I mentioned above) took over at this point. And with a little more chatting and a couple calls, he pulled me through.

I'm pretty sure I cried through every single algebra lesson for the 3 years I had to take algebra in high school (btw, I'm very glad my parents made me stick through it anyway). But, I can now say I got through college algebra without a single tear trickle. And, I'm now a little more enthused about putting my own kids (someday) through the tortures..ahem...I mean, joys of algebra.