I like maths


I am currently in bed, given up on the day early (it's 8pm) with a huge pile of washing weighing annoyingly over my feet. I am too lazy to move it, but looking on the bright side; at least the clothes are clean. I wonder for a moment what lockdown is like to those who are paid, without work and without domestic work - I imagine having no such responsibilities can be quite disorientating, and could possibly be the reason why some celebrities may have lost footing with us down here on the ground. I am, on the other hand, pinned to earth - at least by my piles of (clean, damn you!) washing.

Today I had a loose list of things to do but they were all superseded by cheering up my poorly youngest - by fetching and carrying and watching two whole episodes of Doctor Who. Tidying about a bit, half-heartedly whilst dreaming for a domestic genie and trying to help my middle child plough through the work she has set for her to do from school. I think I started the day a little grey, and after I started 'helping' my child with her school work my mood went a little darker, and after I had finished trying to help her with her maths - my mood went vanta-black.

We share this in common, me and my middle child - we don't really speak 'maths'. Once upon a time, I spoke enough of it to pass my GCSE and of course I am fluent in the year one curriculum - but take me back up to GCSE level and there are a few things I've lost. 'Don't worry' I tell my middle child enthusiastically, 'We can google it'. I love a good internet search and have quite a few fond memories of discovering a whole barrage of entertaining facts - the internet is a great tool- unless, I have discovered you are googling maths.  It would appear, whilst knowledge is out there, you may only learn maths if you can tolerate turgidity, hyper-explanation and really bad powerpoints, dubbed over by a monotonal superbore. Before you mathematicians get all up in my grill with your digits and factors and x's = y, I don't speak maths but that isn't to say I don't appreciate it. There are people out there who are trying to answer The theory of Everything - through numbers and whilst I cannot begin to understand, it sounds pretty groundbreaking. Or remember the 90s and its obsession with fractals, now there's maths that can be screen printed on to a teeshirt, bloody marvelous! I do love a fibonacci sequence, mainly cos it makes a good tattoo but you get my drift- I don't think maths is boring per se.  So why, can someone explain to me - simply and to the point- leaving your shit powerpoint behind and perhaps with a bit of enthusiasm - is GCSE maths on the internet so unrelentingly awful?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Syntax Error

This week my mind has been occupied with my inadequacies. It is confession time and here is my confession; as a wannabe writer I possess only rudimentary knowledge of grammar. Allow me to elucidate-I know what sounds alright but have no knowledge of why, and if you asked me to label the grammatical devises I use, I would not have: one, single, clue. In fact as I write now I am wracked with the self-consciousness of the 'non-grammatical' class. You may inwardly sigh and tut (here she goes again), but my lack of grammatical knowledge has always felt like part of the thing that we dare not speak of - class divide. Competent writers can dissect text, like a surgeon's knife through flesh, identify and classify, diagnose and be part of the cure- at least that is the message I have received. And because I have never been able to dissect text: only like or dislike, follow the journey the author sets out or get hopelessly lost- I thought that writing was beyond me. I heard another r
Read more

'Rona-Geddon..

In the game of Rona-geddon, I am finally OUT. I have been asked to self-isolate due to contact with another Ronageddon victim. I am hoping that they stay safe and well. In fact, if any of my  'rona afflicted friends read this, be well, be safe and drink lots of herbal tea with a splash of honey.  So, now I have to face the one thing I have been dreading since the beginning of this fiasco - I have to a) work from home and b) not leave the house for 14 days. This is not my first rodeo, many years ago I contracted measles and suffered quite significantly. I was advised by the doctor to sit in a darkened room and not to leave the house or mix with others for 14 days. Of course the first few days were not an issue, it was a significant enough illness to leave my head on a pillow for a number of days. Eventually, I set up the high backed, green, nylon- clad chair next to the t.v, with the piano stool as a foot stool and watched countless episodes of: 'Wait 'till your father gets
Read more

The Some of it.

I am, along with many other people, entering a new phase in our lockdown experience and with the change of  events brings a different emotional response. I have been wrestling with writing the lockdown journal,  not only because now I have less time afforded to me, but also because whenever I sit down to write; my emotions will not allow me to write anything light or uplifting. You see, now I am expected to ease my way into 'normal' human existence, the only way I can describe what I am feeling at this present time, is sad. It is a heavy and specific sadness but one that feels unreal and muted. A few mornings last week I woke up as if from a tragic dream and on the brink of tears, a glum feeling and not a clue of where it arrived from. Not fed up, or worried or puzzled but deep rooted sadness. Fortunately, once I get to work and I try and fill my mind with the task in front of me that feeling escapes me and I am occupied, busy and none too concerned - on returning back into my
Read more