Sophomore Year, 3rd Period: Biology I and 4th Period: Geometry

I loved taking Math, but I always hated Science. I would always do real well at the beginning of the year and then I would lose interest and get lower grades toward the end. This would prove to be a sore spot for someone who's supposed to be a geek. For some reason, things were different during my sophomore and junior years when it came to fulfilling my science requirements.

I have to admit, first of all, that my Biology I teacher was not that good. He was also one of the athletics coaches. He started the school year with a broken leg he got skiing a few months earlier. It was a shock when we finally saw him without the cast.

I guess what I needed was for science not to be too challenging. Maybe that was the problem. If I don't care about a subject, I don't want it to be challenging. The Biology teacher was able make the subject matter fool-proof. However, there were still a lot of people getting F's in the class.

However, I do remember one challenging question on a test. He had one of those models of the human body with removable organs. For the test, he would hold up the organ and ask us to identify it. He pulled out the liver and said this was the organ you put your hand over when you did the Pledge of Allegiance. I was suprised at how many people actually wrote "heart," when it clearly was not the heart. (I got the answer right.)

As easy as Biology was in high school, I was expecting the same in college. Unfortunately, while my professor was very knowledgable about the subject, he really had no clue how to make it interesting. I got a D in that class.

As for my Math requirement, I took Geometry. Again, I had one of the coaches as a teacher. However, this one had a pretty good command of the subject matter.

At this point I was questioning the validity of having to take Math classes. Around the time I was taking the class, comedian Robert Wuhl had a bit about taking college prep courses in high school. He said something to the effect of "I sure am glad I took Geometry. Hardy a day goes by that I don't do a proof!" I laughed when I heard him say that. I completely got the joke. I realized years later how spot on he was in his assessment. Not only do I not do proofs anymore, I don't even remember why we were doing them in the first place.

I guess it was good that I took all those Math classes in high school. When I took the ACT, I got a high enough score on the Math section that I was given instant credit for all my Math requirements in college. I never had to do another proof after the 10th grade.