A Piece of the Apple Pi

I want you all to know that I have been thinking about you lately. The word "you" means you..if you are one of my 67 students. I consider myself to be a blessed man to have all 67 of you. "You" all challenge me to be a better teacher, a better listener, and a better man. I know that it is difficult for some of you to understand the value and importance of studying mathematics. One could make the argument that it is pointless to study Pre-Calculus if you are not going to go into a math field. I want to remind and encourage you all that the study of mathematics is vitally important to each one of you. At the age of 17-18, your mind is being formed by so many things. I would argue that your mind is undergoing the 2nd largest time of explosion in your life(the 1st being while you are in the womb). There are so many things that your mind needs now. Your mind needs language to learn how to write and how to communicate. Your mind needs exercise and physical challenge. Your mind needs creativity and imagination. And believe it or not, your mind needs mathematics to teach it how to think on your toes, to be a critical thinker, to be a good decision maker, and to know how to handle computation and numbers. Hang in there juniors and seniors-we are almost to the half way line. Whether we are graphing a cotangent curve or verifying a complex trigonometric identity, I promise you that it does have a meaning and purpose. This class is simply a piece of the "pi" of your life. Your life is made up of many slices and if you take just one away, you will not be the man or woman that you need to be when you cross over into the next race. I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. As you carve the turkey or slice the pumpkin pie, try to remember that "everything matters if anything matters at all".