I've had a lousy time with numbers and frankly the worst day in a very long time.
I have an intense physical reaction to being pressurised about numerical info, I get extremely stressed, and the whole number thing is actually quite debilitating on the whole.
Mostly, I'm sick of apologising to people for it.
If you want to detail what happened to you I'd be interested to know.
Oddly I have just borrowed a new book from the library "The Universe in Zero Words" by Dana Mackenzie - on the history of numbers/maths. I am not at all fond of maths either but the idea of numbers interests me. However from one who loathed and feared geometry etc a virtual hug!
Hi Bill, I was also very interested in sciences and did quite well in them at school but wasn't allowerd to study at college level because I had such a low maths grade.
I think it does trip one up in life. Thanks for your comment.
This is a wonderful romp through the humiliation that can be childhood especially when faced with new concepts and non-empathic teachers and peers. I too struggled with numbers. I still do.
I was traumatised against number too, but not in so emphatic a way! On with the story...
ReplyDeleteDick, I'm really sorry to hear that.
ReplyDeleteI've had a lousy time with numbers and frankly the worst day in a very long time.
I have an intense physical reaction to being pressurised about numerical info, I get extremely stressed, and the whole number thing is actually quite debilitating on the whole.
Mostly, I'm sick of apologising to people for it.
If you want to detail what happened to you I'd be interested to know.
I was always no good at maths, either.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had been good at it, as I found physics fascinating. Had my maths been up to it I think I would have studied electronics, not music.
I think if you a miss step when learning maths (as I think I did), you end up stumbling along for years, if you're not careful.
Oddly I have just borrowed a new book from the library "The Universe in Zero Words" by Dana Mackenzie - on the history of numbers/maths. I am not at all fond of maths either but the idea of numbers interests me. However from one who loathed and feared geometry etc a virtual hug!
ReplyDeleteHi Bill,
ReplyDeleteI was also very interested in sciences and did quite well in them at school but wasn't allowerd to study at college level because I had such a low maths grade.
I think it does trip one up in life. Thanks for your comment.
Thanks, Cat.
ReplyDeleteI'll take that virtual hug and multiply it.
Let me know what you think of the book - if it alters your relationship with numbers.
A shocking story. This fear and aversion is in part due to poor teaching, I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteGood to see you here, Harvey.
ReplyDeleteI very much enjoyed the Tuesday poem of yours posted by Tim Jones last week: "Revenant".
I think the really shocking part of the story is that such teaching methods were generally regarded the norm in my home town.
I'm in love with the intensity of the drawings and story.
ReplyDeleteNew Yorker, here we come....
Hey Kass, thank you.
ReplyDeleteI've yet to muster the nerve to try the New Yorker. Some day....
Ah the good old days! I remember our RE teacher (a Quaker!) hitting a boy over the head with a Bible...
ReplyDeletex
That's one way to make it go in...
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful romp through the humiliation that can be childhood especially when faced with new concepts and non-empathic teachers and peers. I too struggled with numbers. I still do.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Elisabeth. Childhood is full of humiliations. I'm trying to make the best of the struggle, still!
ReplyDelete