Photo Credit: Annie Spratt
Helping the eldest with Mathematics made me remember how much I loved numbers but I only really enjoyed it when it was making sense, when I could add Rands and exchange foreign currencies to see income and profits.
Mathematics was undoubtedly one of my favourite subjects in school, like all my other favourite subjects it came down to the teacher though. I was lucky that all my Mathematics teachers, starting from Primary School, were good at what they did and not boring.
Some even saw the extra potential in my little brain e.g. in Standard 5, which is Grade 7, I was already practising Grade 8 Mathematics, which was for Secondary School kids but my teacher decided I needed a challenge as the Grade 7 Mathematics wasn’t doing much for me and my misbehaving nature was distracting the rest of my class.
Secondary School was no different, constantly done first with class work and becoming disruptive, my teachers decided to place me on higher grade Mathematics. I never enjoyed higher grade Mathematics as I couldn’t wrap my head around how it made sense or could be used in the really world, so as soon as they told me I could drop from higher grade to standard grade, as it was a requirement for University entry, I dropped a level but this was only because my other subjects carried me through on aggregate – Physic, Biology, Geography, English and Afrikaans.
I received an award as the Best Mathematics student in my senior year, an award that came as quite a surprise to me. I was only good at Mathematics because of a boy in my class. If I was honest I should have given that award to him. The teacher would explain the equations on the board then give us an exercise to practise, I would then get that boy to explain it to me again, over and over. Come the examination and I would ace the Mathematics section and get nothing less than 90% most of the time.
I still enjoy Mathematics, actually I enjoy numbers but these days it’s more about real life Mathematics – budgets, investments, dividends, income vs expenses, exchange rates, etc.
Sure you had a favourite subject at school that your kids are helping you remember, let us know in a comment which subject that was and why?
