Personal Narrative: I Am Returning To School

I am returning to school after a twenty year leave. When I was last in school, I was Child Development major. The only course I took at that time was a remedial “Math for College Students” that was a review of elementary school math- i.e. addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, positive and negative numbers, area, volume, fractions, percentages, simple solving for x… I have not gone beyond those most basic concepts since high school- nearly thirty years ago. In junior high and high school, I took pre-algebra and algebra repeatedly, and only ever eeked through- my highest grade being a C-. I have a fair level of math anxiety. Basic math isn’t an issue- but the moment I am tasked with memorization of facts or form or formulas...there are tears.

I consider the calculator and computer programs, like Excel, designed to do the heavy lifting for me a personal gift from God. I have worked with money and billing and the keeping of accounts for most of my professional adult life- having worked as a cashier, front desk auditor, child care center director, and (most recently) a credit union teller. I am an intelligent person and understand the basic principles involved, and take care in my calculations...but before …show more content…
All due respect, I have been dreading this class for some time and will be in a tremendous hurry to push through and put it behind me once again. I do not aspire to become a mathematical genius by any means. It will be nice to have a refresher on some areas I have grown fuzzy on- as the pretest showed me some more weak areas than I recalled. The goal of my college education is ultimately to launch a career in Human Resources, and there are common programs utilized in the field for payroll, benefits and such. The sooner I get my homework done ,take that final exam and pass this course- the sooner I will be on to the next step in achieving that