Summing up my unsuitability for extra maths

You know journalists are pretty good at maths.

On a good day we can add two and two together and turn the result into a millionpound shock horror development.

So you would think we would all welcome the Prime Minister’s latest wheeze of forcing pupils to study sums up to their 18th birthday.

But I am dead against this idea.

I can write until the cows come home but ask me to tackle algebra or calculus and I turn into a lump of quivering jelly. It didn’t used to be that way.

I managed to hold my own up until O-levels. The black art of geometry always fascinated me as I learned to work out the height of buildings or far away mountains just by using degrees and a few simple measurements.

But at A-level the teachers started adding cosines, log tables, probability charts, double differentiation and the Pearson correlation coefficient, losing me in a world of numerical numbness.

Some people just don’t do figures. It’s the way our brains are wired, in the same way some are natural artists or musicians.

Others are just brilliant with their hands.

Our plumber sorted out a tap in 15 minutes which I had struggled with all day. And he used the same wrenchthing.

Don’t get me wrong. Everyone should have a good grounding and learning times tables is still essential despite computers.

But perhaps we need to explore the practicalities such as mortgages, interest rates and budgets?

Or why not go further and learn life lessons for ironing shirts properly, only having to drill one hole for a Rawlplug, driving on motorways without hogging the middle lane and learning how to talk to members of the opposite sex?

I am still trying to learn the guitar. Another failure of the education system.

‘I can write until the cows come home but ask me to tackle algebra or calculus and I turn into a lump of quivering jelly...’