Dear Kids —
Please study your math. If you live in Great Britain then it is maths for you.
If you pull at your hair and exclaim, “but I am artistic!! I am a writer/composer/sculptor/painter. I cannot possibly fill my head with math(s),” let me assure you that one day you will need to come to terms with basic geometry and even some simple algebraic formulas. If you do not have a grasp of these basic principles then you will have to approach a trusted friend or family member, perhaps even your teenaged child, and you will have to ask them, in hushed tones, a basic math question and they will look at you as if you are truly simple minded.
You will say to yourself, “But I am 50 –something– years old!! I am not stupid!” But you will feel very stupid. Worse…is the way that they raise their eyebrows in in wonder because you are 50 something and do not remember basic math(s). And when given the formula for the measurement of a circle you jump up and down and clap your hands as if you had just discovered Pi. That’s 3.14. I know that.
I can’t imagine what prompted me to write this post…just consider it some free and worthwhile advice from me to you.
It’s not too late, kids. Math is your friend.
Dragonlane Artisan Jewellery 
Another thing the nuns failed at, teaching me math. I finally learned how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide when I became a bartender. As for geometry and algebra, forget it. You don’t need it to mix a cocktail. I’ll just Google it if I need to know.
I’m the anomaly…the shutters come down when I’m required to read stocks reports;I consider book-keeping a very complicated business, with all those columns of numbers, but I see interesting patterns in a page (or blackboard) of scientific formulae.
And before the invasion of barcodes I could and did add my grocery prices in my head and proffer correct change at the till.
Nice post, ma’am.
You are a very clever woman, indeed. 🙂 I have always run from mathematics but in my adult years I found that — often times — I actually enjoy figuring out equations, especially when there is a purpose.
I like that last bit, rockyann: ‘especially when there is a purpose.’ I remember memorizing the times tables while I dried the supper dishes … my ‘purpose’ then was not being humiliated in school the next day by Sr. Mary Henry! As an aside, when my sons started with times tables I was intrigued at all the patterns I saw and wished I’d seen them long ago ;0
EEEKk — not Sister Mary Henry! 🙂 You poor kid. My friends who went to Catholic School have many horror stories about it.