x + 2

As some of you know, I now teach the horses not only how to write
sentences but also how to find x. (In fact, yesterday I was asked if I
was interested in teaching the college-credit algebra class. I came
back to my desk and took down our desk copy of the textbook and saw
specters like

a line has a slope of 14/2; what is the slope of a line perpendicular to it?

and

f(z) = 2z + 3 - 12/z

and I said, no.)

I can't decide how I feel about teaching math. In one sense it is far
easier and more rewarding than teaching English. The rules are
unchanging, always followed, not (very noticeably) subject to
stylistic choices, and are perceived as arcane knowledge so coveted
and mysterious that some of the students here treat me as a bearded
wizard. The flip, though, is that many of these people have worked
themselves into such a desperate frenzy over how to multiply fractions
that they will never get it right, even with five examples on the
board in thick black ink that they can reference. And then too they'll
miss two or three classes (of a total four) and expect to be
masterful. Or they'll miss the foundational classes and then come
confused to the advanced section with no understanding of how to even
begin.

What brought this on is that this student from last week--you may have
heard me complain about her already (she was so bizarre in class that
someone else switched sections)-- just came in to ask me for the
practice book for the next session, because she can't come (she has
come so far a total of one times, to a session in which she slept and
walked around and patted her belly). There is no practice book. I gave
her the homework instead and she said, wooo, I hope you teach how to
do this. I will, of course, in the next sessions, when she's not
there.

My class isn't mandatory for the students here, but it frustrates me
still because there's a small but noticeable population here of people
who have taken this run of courses but only in the sense that they
came once, or maybe twice, and now consider themselves to have
finished it out and to have learned almost nothing and who are bitter
about it or worse maybe consider themselves beyond ever learning the
material.