One of the most annoying questions that can be asked of a middle school math teacher is, “When am I ever going to use this in the real world?” Part of the annoyance is that for most kids, it’s kind of true. I don’t know about you, on a daily basis I find a lot of use for arithmetic, but on the whole I don’t really have to rely on all that much else. Sure, I recently solved a quadratic equation, but I can’t honestly say I needed to.  However! The other day, I discovered a great reason for any kid to learn math: winning arguments with annoying people. … continue reading this entry.