While I was in high school myself I never much cared to put a lot of time in learning geometry. Now, with our youngest in 3rd grade struggling with mathematics I decided I should at least read his geometry text book so I know what he is supposed to know.
I finished the first 60 pages on angles and the sum of angles of. I have to admit that I forgot most or never really learned much of this simple stuff. Going through the theory and problems at least helped me understand some of the properties of triangles and squares. Working the problems also gave me a better grasp of some the techniques frequently used in proofs and calculations of angles in geometry. I still find geometry a bit of a zoo, that is probably just me, but I now also discern more structure and method in it even though it will not become my favourite math subject anytime soon. Now I started the chapter on the pythagorean theorem and saw a couple of different traditional proofs. It turns out that according to this short TEDEd video there are over 350 different proofs of the theorem. My sons school text book often refers to the wonderfully beautiful playground of geometry. Clearly written by fan, unfortunately I never felt that connection with geometry. Still, I decided I will work through the text book cover to cover this year. If my feelings towards geometry during this effort change I will come back to this post. Luckily for me the bulk of the other math topics in the curriculum like algebra, calculus and trigonometry I enjoy very much so helping out my son will not be a big ordeal for me.
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