I Have a Math Problem
I am not good at math. I never have been. I am great at spelling and I love words. I was an English major in college and continue to love reading, crossword puzzles, writing, playing G-H-O-S-T (a fun little spelling game) and anything else word-related.
When it comes time to pay a bill at a restaurant, the tip computation causes me to freeze. I will rely on whomever I am with to tell me what I owe. If I am with somebody just as incompetent as myself, I will stare at them as if I am trying to figure it out in my head and hope they offer up an amount before I do. Of course, I can tell you what ten percent of something is, and therefore figure out what 15 or 20% is but the mere act of having to do that puts me into some kind of mathematical shock.
Sometimes my job requires me to think with that "math" side of my brain. I get flustered, start sweating, worry that I will run out of the room screaming... I have learned to "yes" the person with the request and then slowly figure it all out when they leave. So I am capable, but just not incredibly so. And definitely not comfortable. When people do crazy computations out loud, I feel like they are speaking Latin. I can't follow - they are speaking in tongues and it is best for me to just wait until the episode passes. "And then 15 of that is 47, carry the one, move the decimal..." What? Whatever.
And to make matters worse, simple math still gets me sometimes. For some reason, I cannot tell you what 7+8 is when I am put on the spot. 7+6, 7+4, 8+3... oh, why is that so hard? When I was in school, learning long-division, I would make the numbers up. I did not understand the concept. I kept getting Fs on my tests and tried resorting to cheating, I was so desperate. Finally, one day it just clicked. Somebody explained it in a way I understood and I did okay. I went on to take Regents courses and even attempted pre-calc in high school. Luckily for me, my college had very little math requirements for English majors. I think one course was all I needed, and I chose "The Philosophy of Mathematical Thought". My professor was about 80-years-old and would leave the room whenever he gave a test. Cheating was rampant, and I did okay. Still not great, and that's my point.
All of this is true, yet, I did better on the math portion of my SATs than on the verbal. Now, how does that add up???
When it comes time to pay a bill at a restaurant, the tip computation causes me to freeze. I will rely on whomever I am with to tell me what I owe. If I am with somebody just as incompetent as myself, I will stare at them as if I am trying to figure it out in my head and hope they offer up an amount before I do. Of course, I can tell you what ten percent of something is, and therefore figure out what 15 or 20% is but the mere act of having to do that puts me into some kind of mathematical shock.
Sometimes my job requires me to think with that "math" side of my brain. I get flustered, start sweating, worry that I will run out of the room screaming... I have learned to "yes" the person with the request and then slowly figure it all out when they leave. So I am capable, but just not incredibly so. And definitely not comfortable. When people do crazy computations out loud, I feel like they are speaking Latin. I can't follow - they are speaking in tongues and it is best for me to just wait until the episode passes. "And then 15 of that is 47, carry the one, move the decimal..." What? Whatever.
And to make matters worse, simple math still gets me sometimes. For some reason, I cannot tell you what 7+8 is when I am put on the spot. 7+6, 7+4, 8+3... oh, why is that so hard? When I was in school, learning long-division, I would make the numbers up. I did not understand the concept. I kept getting Fs on my tests and tried resorting to cheating, I was so desperate. Finally, one day it just clicked. Somebody explained it in a way I understood and I did okay. I went on to take Regents courses and even attempted pre-calc in high school. Luckily for me, my college had very little math requirements for English majors. I think one course was all I needed, and I chose "The Philosophy of Mathematical Thought". My professor was about 80-years-old and would leave the room whenever he gave a test. Cheating was rampant, and I did okay. Still not great, and that's my point.
All of this is true, yet, I did better on the math portion of my SATs than on the verbal. Now, how does that add up???
posted by Tracy at 12:22 PM
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