Pi day

At our house, we have been celebrating this day for years – it’s Pi (¶) Day 3.14, as well as the birth date of Albert Einstein. Even this morning, my wife and I, along with our 20-month old grandson sang Happy Birthday to Albert. His face is on a magnet on our fridge so he's been familiar with the guy for a while.

When my wife was teaching, her classroom walls were covered with posters of Einstein that included his likeness with his contributions to science and his poignant quotes. Each year her students celebrated this day in a variety of ways. It was often the highlight of the semester.

For me, Pi (¶) Day was another day celebrate the wonder of mathematics – the sense of number, patterns, and relationships.

Pi (¶) is a number, starting with 3.14159… and going on forever. It's the number that we get when we divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter. It is often students first introduction to irrational numbers - those that can't be expressed as a fraction.

Being teachers, mathematics and science have always had an important place in our home, but Pi (¶) Day 2008 will have special meaning. For us, it has always been about patterns and relationships.

Over the past thirty plus years, my wife and I have had a chance to teach many wonderful students and work with some very exceptional teachers. Some of our students have gone one to do things both great and small – from doctors, teachers, sport stars, actors, and pet groomers to writers, TV news broadcasters, programmers, and grocers. We are better for having the opportunity to have been part of their lives. We really loved what we did.

It is with that sense of patterns and relationships that help me select Pi (¶) Day 2008 as the day that I would retire from state government. I remember leaving at a minute before two that afternoon, just so that I can say I retired on 3/14 at 1:59 or 3.14159....

Pi (¶) Day – it was a great day to start a new journey - irrational, yet it's expected to go on and on.