That’s me! I’d never have become a teacher these days.
It was Mrs Crust who terrorised me. When I was in the third form I had a term off, very ill, and when I came back there was a maths test. I managed to work out most of the answers and when later we ‘went through’ the test, even though I’d got the right answers I was marked wrong. When I queried this she said ‘You didn’t use algebra’. I protested that I’d been away when it was taught all to no avail. And from then on I read history books under the desk in every maths lesson. I reckon I’m the only former Headteacher and Academic without an O lever in Marhs. And I don’t care.
This needed to come with a trigger warning…Because….this. The creeping horror of mental maths, and the whole class knowing that you were thick because you couldn’t do mental maths. Couldn’t to maths with a pencil and paper either. My dad knew I I was stupid because what can easily to his engineering brain didn’t to my arty brain.
If I close my eyes I am back in that classroom with 30odd Top Year Junior kids, with the smell of chalk dust and hopelessness in the air, heart pounding in my chest, praying for something -anything - to save me from the hell of maths.
I’m 66 next birthday. The shame and horror never leaves you.
You’re right, a trigger warning was needed! Yes, the being misunderstood and disrespected by maths-oriented family members, just because their brains worked differently to my arty one. That!
Such vivid writing as always Jayne. We also did the Fizz-Buzz variant of the game and it terrified me too. Any demand to do mental maths scares me stiff. Weirdly though, in some bits of my job now when I sometimes do stuff with spreadsheets (!) if I'm left to quietly mull things over and think about how different bits of my data might usefully relate to each other, I can find patterns and meanings. But there has to be no pressure, and nobody looking over my shoulder. But words and writing are my true love! If I do want to get to grips with important numbers in the news, Tim Harford is my go to writer and podcaster. Very practical and also a pleasingly wry sense of humour.
Maths.. my worst subject too. You have my sympathy.. I went from being taught by a brilliant but mad teacher to being taught by an average teacher and lost all interest. Brilliant but mad teacher locked the whole class in after he'd walked out from the classroom.
Hi Jayne , I kept your email unread in my inbox (along with thousands more;) but I knew I did really want to read this one! And today I have! And yes, as I thought, you were describing the same relationship that I have with maths....... a very bad one! in GCSE I got an A in English and an E in Maths. Failed to complete an adult ed course years later to get that elusive C! As a kid, I remember my family would take turns sitting next to me at the dining table to try and explain long division to me. My parents used to cut the Peanuts comic strip out of the back of the newspaper when is was Sally I think, struggling with her maths, and questioning why on earth she would ever need to know this stuff. And then, I am afraid I did question the point of it, give up completely, and build a very durable defensive wall to ensure everyone knew not to ask me to do numbers, and I was just the silly quirky one, bless her... The way those long winded questions were written was so ridiculous, too long to remember what they were asking, and make me so cross even now!
When its something like, 'if the train to London leaves at 0830 and goes at 70mph from platform 2 and the next one has four extra carriages and you can buy drinks, what time does the one before that get to Chatham?' all i could think was - whoever wrote this question obviously had the timetable in front of them or had gathered all this interesting information/data from the person at the station - so why on earth didn't they just ask what they actually needed to know! and not ask me! (sorry for all the exclamation marks.... it gets you like that though doesn't it?)
So big hugs all round , and wouldn't life be boring if we were all the same. Just hope they are a bit kinder to the non-number loving children today.
I'm sure you are brilliant at lots of other more useful, interesting and lovely things! Love from Ann x
When I had to do the maths test for my PGCE I was terrified…and I was training to be a maths teacher (in my 40s). 20 years later and I tell my students (I’ve been an independent tutor for 5 years) that mental maths is not done “in” your head, it’s done “with” your head along with whatever written strategies are needed to support your thinking. ☺️
This is me, too! I had a lovely kind maths teacher at secondary school, but she just didn't have the time it would have taken to enable me to understand concepts the rest of the class grasped easily (or so it seemed). A wonderful neighbour, the father of a schoolfriend, gave me weekly coaching for nearly a year to get me through O-level Maths, without which I wouldn't have been accepted at any of the universities I wanted to apply to in order to stydy the subjects I WAS good at. Addition, subtraction and multiplication no longer frighten me so I can do my own tax return, but I'm easily confused by calculators and like you, I still can't do long division at all. I think I could, for a brief period, but I have forgotten the tricks.
I had no idea that there was a MATHS BLEEP TEST until I read this. What a horrifying thought. You also jogged my memory about the fact we used to play Fuzzy Ducky, but at our school it was called Fizz Buzz 😂 And no, I do not use those hard won trigonometry and algebra skills in my life today. Ever. I never actually learned to do long division yet somehow got a B in my maths GCSE 😂
Can't really brag about it though, because I was an absolute dunce in your specialist subject, History. I was obliged to give it up after the second year of secondary school, having struggled to achieve a paltry 24% in the end of year exam. In latter years, however, I've come to appreciate it more -- currently have a bit of a crush on Lucy Worsley, actually.
I so relate to this - am still scarred 50-odd years later by my experiences of being the dunce of the Maths class, age 8. I think my teacher must have trained in the same bootcamp as yours.
There is an equivalent to dyslexia for this, dyscalculia! I agree it’s not nearly as well known but it is a recognised learning difficulty that not many people know about (I only know because of my job).
Yeah, I don’t think people knew about this when I was at school. I wish they had done! It would have made all the difference to me, because there’s something very odd about the way I struggle to visualise and process numbers.
That’s me! I’d never have become a teacher these days.
It was Mrs Crust who terrorised me. When I was in the third form I had a term off, very ill, and when I came back there was a maths test. I managed to work out most of the answers and when later we ‘went through’ the test, even though I’d got the right answers I was marked wrong. When I queried this she said ‘You didn’t use algebra’. I protested that I’d been away when it was taught all to no avail. And from then on I read history books under the desk in every maths lesson. I reckon I’m the only former Headteacher and Academic without an O lever in Marhs. And I don’t care.
I wish I could give you an award for this! Haha! Mrs Crust sounds horrendous. Like a Roald Dahl character.
This needed to come with a trigger warning…Because….this. The creeping horror of mental maths, and the whole class knowing that you were thick because you couldn’t do mental maths. Couldn’t to maths with a pencil and paper either. My dad knew I I was stupid because what can easily to his engineering brain didn’t to my arty brain.
If I close my eyes I am back in that classroom with 30odd Top Year Junior kids, with the smell of chalk dust and hopelessness in the air, heart pounding in my chest, praying for something -anything - to save me from the hell of maths.
I’m 66 next birthday. The shame and horror never leaves you.
You’re right, a trigger warning was needed! Yes, the being misunderstood and disrespected by maths-oriented family members, just because their brains worked differently to my arty one. That!
Such vivid writing as always Jayne. We also did the Fizz-Buzz variant of the game and it terrified me too. Any demand to do mental maths scares me stiff. Weirdly though, in some bits of my job now when I sometimes do stuff with spreadsheets (!) if I'm left to quietly mull things over and think about how different bits of my data might usefully relate to each other, I can find patterns and meanings. But there has to be no pressure, and nobody looking over my shoulder. But words and writing are my true love! If I do want to get to grips with important numbers in the news, Tim Harford is my go to writer and podcaster. Very practical and also a pleasingly wry sense of humour.
Thanks Sarah. It’s the pressure isn’t it? I find that when left to do it in my own time, I’m much better.
Maths.. my worst subject too. You have my sympathy.. I went from being taught by a brilliant but mad teacher to being taught by an average teacher and lost all interest. Brilliant but mad teacher locked the whole class in after he'd walked out from the classroom.
Blimey!
Hi Jayne , I kept your email unread in my inbox (along with thousands more;) but I knew I did really want to read this one! And today I have! And yes, as I thought, you were describing the same relationship that I have with maths....... a very bad one! in GCSE I got an A in English and an E in Maths. Failed to complete an adult ed course years later to get that elusive C! As a kid, I remember my family would take turns sitting next to me at the dining table to try and explain long division to me. My parents used to cut the Peanuts comic strip out of the back of the newspaper when is was Sally I think, struggling with her maths, and questioning why on earth she would ever need to know this stuff. And then, I am afraid I did question the point of it, give up completely, and build a very durable defensive wall to ensure everyone knew not to ask me to do numbers, and I was just the silly quirky one, bless her... The way those long winded questions were written was so ridiculous, too long to remember what they were asking, and make me so cross even now!
When its something like, 'if the train to London leaves at 0830 and goes at 70mph from platform 2 and the next one has four extra carriages and you can buy drinks, what time does the one before that get to Chatham?' all i could think was - whoever wrote this question obviously had the timetable in front of them or had gathered all this interesting information/data from the person at the station - so why on earth didn't they just ask what they actually needed to know! and not ask me! (sorry for all the exclamation marks.... it gets you like that though doesn't it?)
So big hugs all round , and wouldn't life be boring if we were all the same. Just hope they are a bit kinder to the non-number loving children today.
I'm sure you are brilliant at lots of other more useful, interesting and lovely things! Love from Ann x
Thank you for this Ann! I’m so glad I’m not the only one. With love from another A grade English student, who is still terrible at maths.
When I had to do the maths test for my PGCE I was terrified…and I was training to be a maths teacher (in my 40s). 20 years later and I tell my students (I’ve been an independent tutor for 5 years) that mental maths is not done “in” your head, it’s done “with” your head along with whatever written strategies are needed to support your thinking. ☺️
Yeah, strategies like using my fingers 😂
I made 3 maths teachers cry cause I just couldn't do it and one was a man. One told me I needed therapy and one gave me two weeks of detentions. 🤷🏼♀️
Whaaaat
This is me, too! I had a lovely kind maths teacher at secondary school, but she just didn't have the time it would have taken to enable me to understand concepts the rest of the class grasped easily (or so it seemed). A wonderful neighbour, the father of a schoolfriend, gave me weekly coaching for nearly a year to get me through O-level Maths, without which I wouldn't have been accepted at any of the universities I wanted to apply to in order to stydy the subjects I WAS good at. Addition, subtraction and multiplication no longer frighten me so I can do my own tax return, but I'm easily confused by calculators and like you, I still can't do long division at all. I think I could, for a brief period, but I have forgotten the tricks.
Don't you talk about the sackbut that way!
Hahahahaha
I had no idea that there was a MATHS BLEEP TEST until I read this. What a horrifying thought. You also jogged my memory about the fact we used to play Fuzzy Ducky, but at our school it was called Fizz Buzz 😂 And no, I do not use those hard won trigonometry and algebra skills in my life today. Ever. I never actually learned to do long division yet somehow got a B in my maths GCSE 😂
A B! What are you, a genius or something?! (😂)
I can do both Words *and* Numbers!
Can't really brag about it though, because I was an absolute dunce in your specialist subject, History. I was obliged to give it up after the second year of secondary school, having struggled to achieve a paltry 24% in the end of year exam. In latter years, however, I've come to appreciate it more -- currently have a bit of a crush on Lucy Worsley, actually.
We all have a crush on Lucy!
I am the same! Spent the week in school recently and couldn’t do the maths once I got to year 4!
I swear they’ve made it even harder. Or I’ve got thicker, which is just as likely. Welcome aboard Fran!
I so relate to this - am still scarred 50-odd years later by my experiences of being the dunce of the Maths class, age 8. I think my teacher must have trained in the same bootcamp as yours.
Haha, bootcamp! That’s about right. Solidarity Katherine.
There is an equivalent to dyslexia for this, dyscalculia! I agree it’s not nearly as well known but it is a recognised learning difficulty that not many people know about (I only know because of my job).
Yeah, I don’t think people knew about this when I was at school. I wish they had done! It would have made all the difference to me, because there’s something very odd about the way I struggle to visualise and process numbers.