Let me tell you a few things that, in retrospect, are clear to me from my experiences with this situation.

First, you're right you will very rarely use algebra in real, adult life if you are pursuing a career in writing, graphic design, photography, philosophy, and so on. You will need arithmetic to balance your checkbook, figure out how much to tip a nice server (when youre in college, this can be interpreted how much to tip in order to ask for a date), and how much your student loans will cost you and for how long. You will need it from time to time if youre running a small business, or are figuring other things out that need the simple algebra like solving (7-1)² = 36. But thats the easy stuff, really, compared to matrices and calculus.

So now that you can feel good in that trademark cynical teenage way about being right about never using it, let me tell you why you still need to pass the class.

Situation #1: I have lately taken up the idea of owning and running my own business. Or at least, I'm moonlighting legally so that the IRS doesnt bang down my door and shoot me. To do so, I have to read many pages of very confusing documents.

Situation #2: I have also recently gotten my first car, a 62 Volkswagen Beetle (baja style). While these cars are simple to fix as cars go, I still have had to learn a lot about my car in order to properly diagnose and fix problems with the fuel tank, fuel line, fuel pump, fuel filter, carburetor, air filter, distributor, spark plugs, coil, speedometer, and so on and so forth.

Situation #3: And of course, theres my endless work on websites that force me to learn java, CSS, HTML, XML, server-side includes and so forth.

Why am I telling you about all these things Ive learned over the last year or so? Because just like your math class, they were hard to learn. They were a bone fide pain in the ass. That is to say, they took some serious consideration and thought and mulling over before I understood them.

This is why your math class is important for later. Yes, it teaches you how long it will take for Joe to meet Fred at point X when they take off at different times at different speeds. But much more importantly, it teaches you to sit down and comprehend something that is difficult to comprehend. I get the vast majority of my information quickly and easily on the Net via Google or by asking friends. However there are many situations youll face where there is either no-one to tell you and answer, or that the simple way of explaining something is still very complicated.

Math, then, for people who hate math, isnt about your ability to do math nearly as much as its about your ability to sit and comprehend things that are difficult for you. If you master this ability to be unafraid of complicated concepts, consider your math class to have taught you something more valuable than anything else youve ever learned the ability to learn.

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