COFFEE & BISCUITS

Today on the bus home, I sat behind four 10-ish year old kids.  The physical size of these kid varies a lot (one huge white kid in glasses, one tiny white kid in glasses, one tiny tiny Asian girl, one medium size Asian girl with glasses), but they all looked dorky.

So the small white kid in glasses was showing off his new Texas instrument calculator.  Although I could not exactly catch what they were talking about, I did hear mention of the word “ETS” and Pi.  The white kid was reciting the number of digits after the decimal for Pi, totally impressing the other kids.  The tiny tiny Asian girl was in awe with this little white kid.  Then the white kid said he could recite 50-60 digits after the decimal for pi, but continued on with his reciting.   The other kids were clapping their hands.

When did reciting the digits of Pi became a cool thing to do in front of your peers, especially when you are only 10?  Discussing Texas Instrument calculators?  ETS?  (My school campus is next to the Lab school, which is a private school…that’s probably why I see these wizard kids)

It just seems like math teachers in school like to tell their students to memorize Pi.  When I was in 8th or 10th grade, the teacher had this competition whereby the student who memorized the most digits of Pi received much glory and attention from the class.