podcastsinenglish Level 1.140 It doesn't add up! .
Mar 1, 2018
Jackie shares her lifelong struggle with math, recalling her early flight from arithmetic and the dread of multiplication. Even her father's attempts to help with times tables couldn't bridge her confusion about fractions and angles. The podcast dives into her tumultuous secondary school years, tackling algebra and pi without calculators. As an adult, shopping calculations and cooking measurements pose continuous challenges, leading her to rely on calculators or Richard for help. It's a humorous and relatable journey through the trials of mathematics!
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Lifelong Struggle With Basic Maths
- Jackie describes hating maths from primary school and struggling with addition, subtraction, division and especially multiplication.
- She recounts her father recording times tables that she listened to every night but still couldn't master them.
Confusion Deepened In Secondary School
- Jackie found secondary school maths worse, mentioning algebra, pi and log tables as confusing topics.
- She says classrooms lacked calculators then and she never understood why they did those calculations.
Understanding Beats Mechanical Practice
- Jackie highlights that lack of calculators forced mental arithmetic but she also lacked understanding of why calculations mattered.
- The disconnect between procedure and purpose made learning maths meaningless for her.