I was absent when the Trig tsbkes were given out in Year 5.
A yellow booklet , I might have done better with Yellow Pages.!
But Algebra I loved,like a quiz and Geometry I really enjoyed.
Got smacked at junior school because I did not remember what made a pint in the days when we used quarts and gills, to me it seemed something named quart would be for four parts so four pints in a quart so two gills in a pint but course it is the other way round ,not logical to me at 8.
So I did not finish the arithmetic exercise set and got smacked.
By the same teacher who used a poor boy with learning difficulties and a suppurating false eye as a punishment ,I was made to sit next to him often
— for talking would you believe it!
I really pitied him,and did most of his work for him,which was no help at all really .
That sympathy of mine came in very useful years later when I had to write an article for a course I was doing,ie should children with learning difficulties be in special schools or in mainstream schooling ?
It was published ,only for that particular Education Authority I feel sure.
But so many negative experiences re arithmetic —— .
Now ,I am confident only because it was like starting all over again when the Education Authority I was employed by adopted “ Scottish Maths” .
Such a cheerful pleasant way to introduce four year olds to Maths ,well I was probably 44 ,but it all clicked .
I was not totally inept ,could calculate how much material for sewing ,check my grocery bill , budget the household money ,etc ,work out a mortgage ,interest etc ,but there were gaps,not confident doing mental arithmetic but no problems now.
Such negative experiences mar children’s school lives and have long term repercussions .
Oh memory lane again , a nice place often but sometimes a bit painful .
Viktoria.
