Solve For 5y+3x > Steph

Do you ever wonder what happens to the kids who just are incapable of passing math? Like, what if they really, really couldn't understand math concepts and just failed everything? Do they have special math classes for them? Do they stick them in with the special ed kids? Can they even graduate high school?

I'm one of those kids who can be taught the same lesson over and over again, and still not get it. Which is unfortunate because I go to a tiny private school that doesn't have after school math help, and my only hope of getting a tutor would be during seventh period - when I happen to have Biology. My test scores are becoming lower and lower. First, I got a C-, and an F this Friday. (F for Friday! My life is alliterated.)

When it would often take a normal child with an average brain thirty minutes to do fifteen problems, it takes me one hundred and fifteen. Take tonight for example: I sat on the couch from seven-thirty to eight and did five problems. (Actually, that's a lie - I copied them down from the back of the book because I quite honestly had absolutely no idea how to begin the problem.) I was almost at the point of tears. My mom walked in the room and said, "What's wrong?"

I looked at her. "I don't know how to do these," I choked. "Do you think it's okay to cheat and get the answers from the back?"

"Can't you call your teacher?" she sat down on the coffee table in front of me.

I slammed my textbook shut. "She has three small children which occupy her life."

"They're probably in bed by now."

"I dunno," I said, "I've sat her for an hour and a half and gotten nowhere. I don't know if a phone call is going to help me much."

I pulled my test out from my notebook. "Look, an F!"

She pulled a face seeing that I was about three seconds from bawling. "I know what it's like to not get things," she said, taking the test from my gently.

I swallowed painfully. "I don't understand why I'm so stupid."

"You're not stupid."

"Yes I am."

She told me to call my teacher.

So I did, and, of course, she didn't pick up. So I told her that I'd been at my math since seven-thirty and didn't know how to do anything. I also informed her I wouldn't have my homework completed by tomorrow and quite obviously needed some help.

So, currently, I'm sitting in my room writing this and listening to Skillet's Collide album as loud as my stereo will go. Loud music helps some, I've found.

Does anyone else ever feel this way? I seem to be about the only kid who's this mathmatically handicapped.