The three years I spent in Algebra I did not increase my appreciation for its alleged ability to combine numbers and letters of the alphabet. Unknown to others, I'd quietly committed to a more orthadox view that prohibited the combining of unrelated things. Frankly, I never passed Algebra, or truth be known, Biology I and English I, because my abiding faith led me to question their very existence. That same faith also prohibited the use of violence as an instrument of rebuttal. I didn't pass those or most other classes because I didn't believe in them. Besides, everyone was socially promoted from high school during the mid 60s. At the time, I simply thought it proved that social skills were every bit as important as pretending to believe in the smoke and mirrors illusions which keep the flimsy facade of Algebra propped up.
