If you are part of the unfortunate some, who had to undergo the 8-4-4 system then you will definitely understand where I’m coming from. For all those who don’t know what the 8-4-4 system is, it’s a system where they overload your brain with too much information and see if it will explode with time. I think anyone who conquered this education system should be awarded some kind of Nobel Prize (just saying…..).
Today I had a “mathematical moment” when I had to take measurements of something and wondered if I did it right or if I had to multiply them by something. I can’t remember the last time I used the following words in a conversation: perimeter, radius, log, pie-R-squared, ratio, coordinates, angle and pie chart.
Horrors of math class date back to class 3 and are still fresh in my memory. I remember hating math homework, and always trying to fake an illness so I wouldn’t make it to school the next day. This so-called teacher (you’re lucky I have temporary memory loss) was the most evil person I know. I think most teachers in Nairobi Primary were just sadists who were out to make our lives a living hell.
Anyway, so we had a specific day where we had to learn the multiplication table/chart that was posted in the back of the class. Without facing the chart, she would randomly pick on someone and ask them what 9 x 7 was. Okay, forgive me if I’m wrong but at 8 years old my brain was still developing and was barely even able to retain such information. All I knew at 8 was that I HATED school, 4 p.m was the best time of the day and wondered if we were having chapatis for dinner. If you didn’t know the answer then you would be rewarded with insults and slaps! Now I have a phobia of any cashier-related jobs that would result in giving someone the wrong change.
High school was an entirely different story. By Form 3 I already knew that mathematics was just impossible. Kinda like me releasing an album, collaborating with T-Pain and going quadruple platinum. I wish they would have given us points for at least sharpening our pencils, because those math scores were ridiculously low. And there was nothing more threatening than our math teacher (Mwangi chem hehehee) warning us that if we failed we would have to dig a 6 by 6 by 6 hole aka our final resting place.
Please never ask me the question of “when will two trains leaving the same station at 9:00 am traveling in opposite directions and going at 100 m/ph reach their destination”. I frankly do not care what time they’re going to get there unless I am a passenger on the train or going to meet someone at the train station. I believe that there’s something called watches, train schedules and various information desks, agents, and huge screens at the stations very much willing to help you with that question.I really admire all those who still remember what a PYTHOGREAN THEOREM and a PARALLELOGRAM are!
When it comes to math, basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are enough for me. So long as I can figure out how much money I have in the bank, why my paycheck is different this month and how much a 10% discount is on those shoes, then I’m all good!!! LOL…..Ps/ I really like math, I just had bad teachers!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment