Algebra and plane geometry were all the math our school offered; I went ahead on my own with advanced algebra and solid geometry and trigonometry and might have stopped so far as College Boards were concerned – but math is worse than peanuts. Analytical geometry seems pure Greek until you see what they’re driving at – then, if you know algebra, it bursts on you and you race through the rest of the book. Glorious! «Have Spacesuit, Will Travel» by Robert A. Heinlein Looking at education today, the following extract from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel” is … timely: You see stories about boys, poor-but-honest, who go to the top because they’re smarter than anyone in the county, maybe the state. But they’re not talking about me. I was in the top quarter of my graduating class but they do not give scholarships to M.I.T. for that — not from Centerville High. I am stating a fact; our high school isn’t very good. It’s great to go to — we’re league champions in basketball and our square-dance team is state runner-up and we have a swell sock hop every Wednesday. Lots of school spirit. But not much studying. [...]
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