Look BEFORE you leap

Look before you leap.  Not that seeing what's over the edge would change your mind about leaping.  It's just better to have all the information about what you are leaping into.  It might be a small leap where you can easily land on your feet.  It might be a long way down into deep water so you might want to dive.  Looking will let you know how to land and what preparations or equipment might be useful in the leap.



This fall I signed up for a class at TCC that is required for my transferring to Texas Woman's University.  The class is called Math of Business Analysis.  I'm not sure what made me think this would be like an Algebra application class (I guess since I did so many problems in the Spring and Summer semesters in Algebra that were business application problems).  If I had bothered to read the course description, I would have immediately known that "Math of Business Application" was a clever name for "Introduction to Differential and Integral Calculus."


It's not that I doubt my ability to take Calculus and make a good grade.  It's that Calculus scares me more than the other math classes.  You see, I "kind-of" took Calculus in high school, but I did take Algebra, Geometry, and Trig and remember some of that stuff.


My favorite teacher of all times taught my Geometry and Trig class.  She was supposed to teach Calculus, but took an administrator job.  I told her how unfair that was and how she should have just waited another year before she embarked on the journey to Vice Principal.  Anyway, this other math teacher, a very nice and kind man, was given the task to teach Calculus.  It was apparent that it had been a while since he taught or even worked a calculus problem.  He would read to us from the book, "try" to work example problems and it just never worked out for him.  Somehow I think the whole class managed to get As.


I guess if I had learned Calculus the first time, I might not be so apprehensive.  If I had read the course description, I could have been preparing myself for Calculus.  I should have looked before I leaped.