Apparently I am Old, Like Really, Really, Really Old

So today in math, the Big One learned something new and then was shocked that I knew what she was talking about. I admit that 5^th grade math has stumped me in the past. Shoot 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th grade math have all stumped me. The methods that the Common Core teaches are too much for my brain. I can sometimes see why they do it that way, but I am too old to learn new tricks. And when you consider that between my two college degrees, I took ONE math class, it was fair for the Big One to be shocked.

So she starts to tell me about the problem they learned. She said there was an 8 and then a little number 5 right above the 8. So she is telling me that everyone in the class thought they could just multiply 8 times 5 to get the answer, but she said, “That was not right, mom.”

I said, “I know… to get the answer you have to do 8 times 8 times 8 times 8 times 8. Like 8 times 8 five times. It’s called 8 to the fifth power.”

The total and complete shock on her face said it all and then she said this to me:

“WAIT! You learned about 8 to the fifth power too? Eh, I guess that makes sense our math book is about 300 years old!”

What the actual heck kid? I am not 300 years old!