I long lamented that I didn't do well in algebra I and II, trig, plane and analytic geometry in high school. I did even worse in statistics in college. Then I needed all of them and had to learn them on my own.

But! Those courses I'd done badly in still provided some sort of basic foundation when I needed to really know statistics, modeling, logistical analysis, and a thousand other ills the mind falls heir to.

A week or so ago I signed a charge slip and an eight-year-old (or thereabouts) said in a shocked and surprised voice, "You can write in CURSIVE!!" I refrained from responding that I can be pretty cursive in speaking as well.

The simple abilities to add or make change or spell or create a coherent sentence are vanishing. i cn abbrev w the best 4 I no how, and 1 c4n 5p33k 1337 45 \/\/311, but I chose to do neither in the interest of clarity.

As my ol' buddy Bert Einstein said, "Education is about teaching you to think." My college, which had logic as a required course, has dropped it completely -- even for computer science majors.

It's well I've never had a teaching job, because I'd be fired the second day.