Advise for young people

... the habit of attending to small things and of appreciating small courtesies is one of the important marks of a good person.  

Extract taken from A letter to Princess Zenani Mandela Dlamini, dated  25 March 1979.

Source: Mandela, N (2010:236) Conversations with Myself, London, Macmillan

The fear of numbers

I have to confess I was not the brightest of kids in my maths class. I used to find numbers really intimidating. I would even make friends with boys I knew were clued up in the subject. They were my useful learning tools when the time for doing my homework came. I literally copied their work and never bothered about how accurate the work was. Of course our maths teacher always found out I cheated. How you may ask? Well, you see he would ask how many got all the sums right and my hand would be up there with the bright sparks. Here was the catch. One morning during our lessons the teacher gave me a piece of chalk. He coaxed me to go to the black board as it was called in those days to perform some calculation step by step. I had to do that in front of forty plus classmates! Boys and girls together all watching me. I picked myself up and staggered towards the board to do some serious maths. The problem... I had no clue what to do in the first place. So I just stood there motionless. Technically stuck with numbers and my head hung in shame.

This problem grew and grew with no one noticing its severity. Each time my dad asked if I was doing okay in lessons I would nod my head and hide my maths homework book to stop him counting all the red noughts and crosses all over my book. I left high school without a grade in maths. That experience traumatised me so much I felt a strong urge to do something about my poor number skills.

Years came by and I found myself disillusioned by the fact that I could not perform simple arithmetic skills. I could not help my kids with their homework. Nor work out discounts while shopping. My money management skills were just appalling. It was at that point that I decided enough was enough, and I enrolled on a numeracy course for adults. I have never looked back. I can now easily calculate percentage increase or decrease on goods I buy everyday. Work out how many tiles I need for my living room. My confidence has grown from strength to strength. I fear numbers no more.

How well did you fare in number skills? Was maths your best or worst subject? Share your experience. Post your comments today on ranwatblog.blogspot.com