Boston and Math: No End to Excitement

Today my grade took a field trip to Boston. The idea was that we would walk around Copley Square and do math problems relating to what we saw in a sort of scavenger hunt-like manner.

One of the math problems had to do with Starbucks. Because we knew we wouldn't all fit in there, our group leader sent two or three people to find the numbers. As they looked around, we waited outside.

Soon a man walked up to us and began to speak. "When you get back on my bus, tell the person wearing that Obama shirt so proudly that it's not okay to make jokes about special education and special olympics. I don't like that. It's not okay on my bus."

One of my group members cut the man off. "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean," she said.

"Jay Leno hosted the tonight show for seventeen years! He didn't even get fired, because it's not okay to make fun of special education. If Jay Leno sat down with a special ed kid for one day, just one day, what do you think would have happened? It's not okay!"

The girl spoke again. "Excuse me, sir, are you our bus driver?"

"No, I just saw this boy . . ."

"Well I still like Obama."

"Don't get all caught up in the glory. That boy wearing an Obama shirt better know this. When he gets on your bus . . ."

This time my group leader spoke up. "There's another school here. I don't think he was on our bus." That was enough to divert the strange man.

Later, we were going in an elevator in the Prudential building. There was a sign: "Capacity: 4000 lbs." Someone had scratched off parts of the four, so it said: "Capacity: 1000 lbs."

The eleven people in my group crammed into the small elevator. When everybody was in, the group leader pushed the second floor button and the elevator began to emit a high pitched beeping noise. The door didn't close.

Around this time I noticed the sign. If each person in our group weighed 100 pounds (which is a low estimate), than we would be exceeding the capacity.

The elevator continued to screech, so I pointed out the sign and said to everyone: "Some of us have to leave. We're too heavy for the capacity!" I stepped out of the elevator, expecting others to follow.

Just then, the elevator doors closed. I could faintly hear the laughing of my group members and a long, drawn out "WAIT!" from our group leader.

--Marianne