Long Division

I spent all last night teaching my nine year old long division. There were many tears. Only some were mine.

When your kid asks you how to do long division.

Seriously, he comes home with math homework and then writes random numbers down in the hope I won't check that he can't do it. Then when I walk him through it, he CLEARLY HAS NO IDEA HOW TO DO IT.

I have no idea what they actually do in school, but every time a school voucher program comes on the ballot I vote yes, because I'd rather spend my evenings doing anything else. Everyone gets so excited about how great the elementary school is that Max goes to, but frankly I don't see it. Any school is great if you spend four hours AFTER THE SCHOOL DAY ENDS teaching your kids math.

This weekend I spent two days socializing with a fifteen year old girl who was visiting from Canada. She was super nice! And Super Jewish! She is studying "Talmud" in her school - apparently half her curriculum is Jewish studies, so I asked her about what the Talmud says about slaves. It says a lot, unsurprisingly, none of which she knew, also unsurprisingly! Her dream career is to "mix chemicals to make new make-up." But let me put it to you this way: You go to a madrasa, you are not going to become a chemical engineer.