I HATE THIS BOOK! This was brand new on the market when I started high school in 1982. I flunked Algebra straight through my Freshman year. F, F, F, F. I just HATED that book, and their approach to math. I wasn't a math whiz, but that shiz was HARD!

I was reminded of the book tonight while watching Hoarders on A&E. As the camera man passed down the hallway, I saw the book sitting on a pile of other books. I knew it the second I saw it. It was big, the size of a piece of notebook paper (roughly 8x11), and a good 1.5 inches thick. HORRIBLE! I also hated blue and orange together, so it made me angry just looking at the dang thing.

I poked around online and found this picture of it on a site that sells text books. I almost want to buy one just to have it and pee on it regularly! hahaha Anyone that I went to high school with will know this in a hot second, and will probably hate it as much as I did in 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1985 (all four years of high school, having to take Algebra, Elementary Algebra, Algebra (again), and Algebra II. Yet oddly, somehow in my Senior year, I ended up on the state math team. GO FIGURE!

%#&*!)%!*& %&*!#()O!#*%&!

Too bad.

I saw a dusty copy of that book in the "book room" at the high school where I teach...

I'll see if it's still in there. My gift to you, Ernest!

chocolate1 said:

Oh my God

I did good to know algebra probs like these:
a+19=80

After that.....I was screwed n flunked there after

zaza said:

No, I meant that instead of buying a copy to desecrate, I'd just grab one for him to do what he pleases...

ernestsewell said:

I had those Algebra books in High School. I loved them! (Sorry.) There was a green and blue one, too. (Geometry?)

My senior year I got in big trouble (long, boring story), and had to spend 3 days sequestered in the Principal's office. (We didn't have 'detention'.) I finished the entire semester's worth of problem sets in about 2 days.


for Problem Sets.

Okay... I just got back from the book room....
Sorry, Ernest, it's no longer there.

I found some other antiquated goodies, tho.

For some reason, I think I had that book too.


I thought Algebra I was easy.

I loved maths.

I found there was deep satisfaction, a form of beauty even in the way equations resolved themselves and, or course, and possibly related to the above, mathematics is constructed from a priori truths, which appealed to me on a philosophical level. The way in which music (harmonics etc) can also have a mathematical expression also made a deep connection with me.

Hoorah for maths!

algebra wasn't bad

Math was my favorite subject.

Sorry, I loved Algebra and Trig.

Imago said:

rood is really slacking.


Fuckin Asians and math!

jone70 said:

I know there was a blue/green or a blue/white one that was Algebra 1/2, which might have been a pre-Algebra type course. The Algebra 2 book was also Orange/Blue.

I love numbers now, and love how numbers work in certain things. But during school, I just never got THAT into it. I felt like that book was the cause, because when I took Elementary Algebra my Sophomore year, I passed it like it was General Math for 3rd graders. I also did okay in Algebra 2, which was a totally different book and publisher. But that Saxon book was just THE DEVIL! haha

It's weird because you have people say, "I'll never use this later in life. I'm not going to be solving for X when I bake a cake." Well true. Unless you're an engineer, scientist or in a similar field, you probably won't be using Pi, or the Pythagorean Theorem. However, I have found that the basic principles of figuring certain things out are things where I pull from my years of Algebra in high school.

I still hate the book.

Math is my worst subject EVERRRRR. To this very day.

chocolate1 said:

If you had really found it, I would have taken it from you. I would only consider pissing on it, not actually do it. haha

toots said:

haha agreed. I still remember the principles of an equation, and solving what is in the parentheses first, then going from there. And I think you always multiply first, then divide. I can still break up an improper fraction into a whole number and fraction, I think. My neighbor's kid (who is now 22) loves math, but she can't spell her own damn name. She excelled at math, but was in remedial reading, and language. She made a list for me for her graduation party. I told her to list of artists she liked, and I would put them on my computer to shuffle. On her list, was Jorge Michele. Um.....who the hell is that?

Apparently Hor-hay Michelle is her way of saying George Michael. HAHA Girl can solve for X, but she can't spell for shit.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

I love Math Especially Calculus

I hated Geometry and Trigonometry, though

Alej said:

You should be an architect.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

I'ma be an engineer

ernestsewell said:

yep!!got stuck with an algebraI book in 8th grade..
advanced math!!!

snipped
[Edited 12/22/09 14:16pm]

johnart said:

As an artist, I have no use for math. When I went to art school, I flunked the math part of the entrance exam like 5 times in a row. It's useless. Math and Art use different sides of the brain, which is probably one of the main reasons why I couldn't get it. Besides, numbers are the devils alphabet.

ScarletScandal said:

But you know, oddly enough a lot of kids who take part in music in school end up improving in math.

johnart said:

I played sax and clarinet for 7 years. So that makes sense. Math and music seem to go hand in hand.

I was in band 4 years...played multiple instruments...LOVED every minute if it, yet I hated algebra and geometry!! The shit made no sense!! I mean, ok, it made sense (if i paid attention) but wth was i gonna use it for in my life?? HATED IT!!

ScarletScandal said:

tinaz said:

I don't think any studies claim music makes you enjoy math.

Alej said:

Except when it comes to sex. Divide the ass and Add the dick.
Problem solved.

johnart said:

I just got a panic attack remembering it