They’re teaching math all wrong. And parents know it. That’s why the adults in the waiting room outside the local Kumon center spill out into the hallway. Every parent in town has a tutor of some sort to reteach their kids math, because the schools aren’t doing it. In 2nd grade, my autistic kid looked at the multiplication table once and just knew them — pattern recognition is his special skill. But an idiot math teacher gave him bad grades, because he couldn’t explain in words why 3 X 3 = 9. He has autism and is bad at words!!

The pandemic set back student learning. Newark kept the data under wraps — Nearly 80% of third graders and almost 90% of fourth graders would “not meet the passing score” on the state math exams.

We got stuck in a massive “revenge travel” traffic jam coming back from the beach last night. 1 hour 40 minutes getting to the beach in the morning. 5 hours coming back.

The GPS sent us through the ports of industrial Jersey — Elizabeth and Linden– down empty streets with towers of shipping containers. Actually damn scary. The whole area is one toxic dump. Note to self — go back with a camera and take pictures of all that.

Note to self – Write a newsletter post about the fact that group homes for disable people are gone, but they are super trendy for 20-somethings.

Picture: My book business was very neglected in June. I’m going to spend the rest of the afternoon back in the shop. This 1932 edition of Pinocchio is selling for $80-190 right now.