“Now do I wish you all knew math? Were great at math? Were f---ing mathematicians? Of course! It'd be better. But not much better, listen to me. Not so much better that it's worth turning eight years of potential heaven — wait, nine? K-one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight, yeah, nine” — he wasn't, as was becoming clear, much of a math guy — “nine years of heaven of just reading books and jotting down your thoughts about them — it's just not worth turning nine years of heaven into nine years of hell. You'll get to high school, and you'll be behind in math, fine. But probably not that far — the other schools in this town are sh--, let's be honest.”