Well, Mathematics has always had a big impact on all of our report cards. Most of us cannot forget the people who taught us the subject. Seems the politicians are hooked up to it lately. The President of United States was trying to encourage his countrymen to take up maths to compete with Indians and the Chinese. Maths being the symbol of progress and development.

On the Indian front, the proposal of making Mathematics an optional subject, by the sports ministry, comes as a shock, more so for the reasoning behind it. How can they possibly blame Mathematics for their inability to produce medal winning sportsmen. How dumb can an excuse be for a country which boasts of world class infrastructure, enormous sports budget and most of all dedicated politicians who put the player's interest before any personal gains. What else are we going to hear, that the handful of doping incidents happened because the weightlifters had a lot of biochemistry in their curriculum.

"So we see that algebra is a vital tool for our young people to learn। The traditional method for teaching it, of course, is to require students to solve problems developed in 1928 by the American Association of Mathematics Teachers Obsessed With Fruit. For example: "If Billy has twice as many apples as Bobby, and Sally has seven more apples than Chester, who has one apple in each hand plus one concealed in his knickers, then how many apples does Ned have, assuming that his train leaves Chicago at noon?''

The problem is that these traditional algebra problems are out of date. Today's young people are dealing with issues such as violence, drugs, sex, eating disorders, stress, low self-esteem, acne, global warming and the demise of Napster. They don't have time to figure out how many apples Ned has. If they need to know, they will simply ASK Ned, and if he doesn't want to tell them, they will hold him upside down over the toilet until he does. And then Ned will sue them, plus the school, plus his parents for naming him "Ned'' in the first place." -Dave Berry on Math