At Charterhouse I failed my MATHS O level.
I was furious. I thought Maths was so simple, so easy, so natural - how could I have failed?
So I went to the top Maths teacher at the school (who also did woodwork) Mr Cook and asked him to give me lessons so I could try again in a couple of months.
He did a great job. I took O level maths again and passed with the top percent.
Cook was delighted. "You're a natural" he said. "You must look for a career in maths".
"Don't be ridiculous", I replied. "I can't stand Maths. I have no interest in it".
His face fell and I felt awful. I tried to apologise but saw the damage had been done.
I've regretted my remark ever since. The poor man was quite right to be proud and I should have been more sensitive and more grateful.
I still think maths is stupid and I'm still good at it.
My chosen area - English and Communication - is far more worth my time.
But I regret condemning others who have different areas of affection.

JK2006 wrote:
At Charterhouse I failed my MATHS O level.
I was furious. I thought Maths was so simple, so easy, so natural - how could I have failed?
So I went to the top Maths teacher at the school (who also did woodwork) Mr Cook and asked him to give me lessons so I could try again in a couple of months.
He did a great job. I took O level maths again and passed with the top percent.
Cook was delighted. "You're a natural" he said. "You must look for a career in maths".
"Don't be ridiculous", I replied. "I can't stand Maths. I have no interest in it".
His face fell and I felt awful. I tried to apologise but saw the damage had been done.
I've regretted my remark ever since. The poor man was quite right to be proud and I should have been more sensitive and more grateful.
I still think maths is stupid and I'm still good at it.
My chosen area - English and Communication - is far more worth my time.
But I regret condemning others who have different areas of affection. Maths terrified me. Still does. As a child of 8 I came top in every spelling test. Always 20 out of 20. I had a reading age of 15. Put a series of numbers in front of me and my brain turned to goo.

I could never understand Algebra.

Loved English lessons though..apart from the terrying English Master.

Of course, Maths is important but the more complex it becomes the more irrelevant it is unless you are doing engineering.

All I had to do throughout my working life is basic adding, subtracting or in some cases percentages when I was a business partner.

I did get into an argument with an English teacher asking him what people do before writing in languages and words. How do you know it's spelt like that? He had the cheek to call me bumptious.