Dear LPG, 

I don’t know about anyone else, but I still have problems working out percentages as old as I am. Algebra was always a puzzle, and I had problems working out what calculus was, let alone how to calculate it.   Even though we now have computers to hand that can sort everything out for us, it is one of many aspects of maths that have always passed me by.

Maths has never come quickly to me, even though I was part of the generation who learned to recite all my timetables before I got to secondary school.  I am not saying that I have no idea when it comes to helping my six-year-old grandson with his homework, but, for me, that day when you think that you will never have to deal with a maths problem ever again was something I looked forward to when leaving school, even though you soon realise pretty quickly that you can’t avoid applied mathematics; as does the realisation that it doesn’t work like that, even in the real world. 

When I got to secondary school, we were allowed calculators, which improved life. Now, nearly every smartphone comes with a calculator app hidden somewhere in its workings if you take a perfect look, so like children of this age, I am learning more about how to get a machine to do the calculations I can’t.  But my appreciation of numbers has also taught me something else.  You cannot unquestioningly believe that the calculator has done your sums right.  I know they make mistakes that usually stem from the fact that I have pressed a wrong button somewhere along the way, and my ability to approximate is so bad that I sometimes don’t even realise.   

It has to be easier to hide a lack of ability to calculate your numbers than when it comes to spelling.  After all, there are only ten of them as opposed to the 26 letters a dyslexic person has to face, but while I was looking around the internet recently, I came across one of those ‘there is a name for that’ moments. 

Did you know that 6% of Brits officially suffer from dyscalculia? This is the numeric version of dyslexia.  I don’t think that I am entirely number-blind, and after a lifetime of living and hiding and learning to cope with my dislike of interacting with them, I don’t think that there is any point in getting tested at my time of life. Still, it is good to know that I am not alone.

NC, Croydon

NC shares a little more about number blindness…

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