You need to show your work. Those are the words that I dreaded when I was a kid. Please write down all the steps. I need to see that you know the process. I hated writing down the steps and I hated explaining my process. Why? because I couldn't.

I can't explain what's in my head or how my head works. When I see a math problem I can solve it entirely in my head in a series of steps that make no logical sense to anyone but me and others who think like I do. Seriously, read some research, a lot of bipolar kids think this way. And no offense, I solved it faster than the teacher every time. The "right" or "correct" or in their eyes "only" way they would teach us to do math in school seemed so inefficient and after learning the basic steps in the first 10 minutes I would automatically start connecting the shortcuts to solving the problem. Doing all the steps and showing how you got to each number was so frustrating to me and it takes me ten times longer to process the steps than it does to actually solve the problem. And yes I would get the same right answer as everyone else, I just solved it differently.

Now since giving up math at the physics level in High School, I haven't had to deal with this much except for a short semester stint in a college math class, not really by choice. And I probably would not have stuck it out in High School as long as I did if it weren't for an awesome math teacher who let my brain do as it pleased. Plus I had gotten a lot better at dealing with this as a teenager than I did when I was younger. I could explain parts of things, just enough to keep the teachers satisfied.

So I'm not going to say that's exactly what I had to deal with today, but I think its a good metaphor. For some reason my emotions got a little out of wack and my frustration level became a little to high for my liking before I had the chance to stop it from rearing its ugly head. My argument was dead from the get go, mainly because I was trying to defend a process in which I can't verbally explain. This lead to an awkward situation that I am not happy about.

That's all I really have to say at this point since my brain is still processing it. Advice always welcome. Peace.