Published on 12, July, 2020
I've seen the GCSE results are in today and it's made me aware (again) of how badly we seem to teach both these subjects.
IHave we still not learned anything about learning difficulties? I wonder if problems with maths are less likely to be diagnosed and helped than those with English, particularly reading and writing, but do we understand what we're taught?
My Dad was terrified of maths, if you put a maths problem in front of him, he'd totally go to pieces and insist he couldn't do it, but if you gave him a tape measure and a pencil and paper and asked him how much wall paper you'd need to cover a room, he do fine and tell you how much paint you'd need too. It makes me wonder if we wouldn't be better off teaching maths practically, like getting a class of children in groups to design a room, work out how much of what types of materials you'd need, how to cost them, stuff like that?
I'm told that as an autistic woman I should have a love of classic literature, I don't I hate it, it annoys me and I don't relate to it at all. I was terrible at English, I could never write stories, I don't understand most poetry, it dosen't speak to me, it's just a set of disjointed images and I don't think I've ever written a poem and wouldn't know where to begin.
Although I worked as a scientist, I always preferred English over maths. I think that maths, like foreign languages, was only ever taught in a way that worked if you had a natural aptitude for the subject. Maths for maths sake was never going to appeal to me, working problems out for their own sake just bored me. If maths had been taught as it actually developed, to solve real problems in the real world, like navigating by stars, how pendulums can measure time, or building a cathedral, it would have engaged me to a much greater extent. I think that is why I found physics much more fun.
You don't have to be anything as an Autistic person except yourself. Our community encompasses a wide variety of people.