A Travel Excursion of the Mind
(from Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery)

A group of homeschooling mothers gathered together in a circle to discuss unschooling approaches to their children's education.

"I can't get mine to do any math," moaned one, and heads began to nod.

"Mine neither," whined another. "She never wants to."

The heads rolled and shook more vigorously, and soon I found myself sitting -- metaphorically, of course, and with no offense intended -- amidst a Greek chorus of heartrending laments, sighs, and whimpers, perhaps something like a modern homeschooling rendition of Euripedes' The Trojan Women.

"I've tried to convince her that math is a skill she'll really use later in life, but she isn't buying it."

I've pondered this for some time now. Perhaps the kids have a sixth sense about them. They somehow know it is a lie. Most of the math I learned in school I have never used. Not once. Nary a differential equation, nor a logarithm, nor the area of a scalene triangle has wriggled or waddled across my path in more than 30 years, and I use a significant amount of quantitative analysis in my day job. My carpenter friend Bill, who flunked geometry and dropped out of high school, makes use of angles and sides all the time; I am yet to encounter a colleague who still uses a sliderule.

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