&#034Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be breakthrough.&#034 -R.D. Laing

I took physics in high school and again the spring semester my freshman year (therefore way back in &#03999), and I haven&#039t had it since. Mind you, I really like physics because it&#039s a science that I can easily see. When I drop something, I get that it&#039s gravity. When I shove something across the table, I know that there&#039s friction there. When I&#039m driving and feel a pull to one side when I turn a corner, I know that&#039s uh… something else… but I know that it&#039s physics. Unlike chemistry (something abstract and miniscule and well, too hard for me), I did really well in physics, due in part to my dad and husband helping out in high school and college respectively. Now, however, it&#039s my turn to help someone out with physics homework.

Since there&#039s only a few tutors during the summer (four, actually) and most of them tutor very specific things (one for chemistry, one for nursing, one for criminology, and me for everything else), it&#039s something of a chore trying to get students paired up with tutors. When a pair of girls called asking about Physics 105, I told them that I was probably the closest thing they were going to get for a physics tutor since the Physics Help Center (where Nick l&#039obsédé used to work) is closed during the summer. I helped the two of them last Friday, drawing all over the dry-erase board, going through the book trying to find the equations that I knew once but forgot once their utility ended. Monday, I had four students. Four. All at once, cramped in one little cubicle.

Now, mind you, we were just going over homework problems, trying to get answers rather than study for a test or anything. We started going over their homework and I soon realized that 1) it&#039s been a long time since I&#039ve had trigonometry or physics or any math class and 2) tutoring four people at a time in a math-based subject is really hard. I have to explain every tiny thing because A doesn&#039t understand the diagram I just drew, B doesn&#039t know where X came from, C doesn&#039t know where I found the equation I&#039m using, D doesn&#039t know where Y came from, A got lost on the diagram again while I was explaining X to B and Y to C, and C just found the same equation (but the variables are labeled differently) in the book, so why am I not using it instead?

Insane.

We finally managed to muddle through the four problems they had to do, and they&#039re coming back Wednesday. I got a call this morning from another student who&#039s going to join the Monday/Wednesday/Friday bunch at one o&#039clock. This makes five! Five students! Ahahaha! See how good my math has become since I&#039ve started using it again?

I&#039ve spent the past couple afternoons at work with an old physics book in front of me, copying out equations and making copious notes so that I can be better prepared for the mob tomorrow. So far, I&#039m in chapter four, and I&#039m almost caught up with them. By tomorrow, I&#039ll be caught up with them and will already know more about physics than they&#039ll learn this whole semester. Of course, I&#039ll be reviewing, and they&#039re learning this for the first time. I just think it&#039s interesting that out of all the classes I&#039ve had, out of all the bizarre subjects I&#039ve tutored, I&#039m finally having to brush up on something.

Posted: July 27, 2004 at half past nine at night.