Math

I have never been very good at math & sometimes I joke about this because I'm Asian. Somewhere along the line there was an expectation that if you're Asian then you must be good at math. Sigh.

I have a story to share from when I was in kindergarten which pretty sums up my relationship with math. I was five years old and our teacher was trying to teach us how to count. I'd come home & try to practice counting with my mom. I'd say, "6, 4, 2, 1, 5...." and the next time I counted I'd say, "8, 1, 4, 2, 6...". Each time I counted I would count in a completely different order. My mom & my teacher were frustrated to say the least & there was talk that perhaps I had some developmental delay. They were worried why I couldn't remember the basic order.

Anyway, one day I said to my mom, "But, mom - why do I have to say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10? I don't understand."

My uncle LOVES this story & we talk about this almost every time we visit together. He said he knew I was an artist at early age.

I must say that most of my experiences in education have been similar to my experience learning to count. I think I tried to learn many things just made no internal sense to me & did it just because, "that's the way it was."