I spent the fourth through eighth grades holding my breath.

by Melanie
(Oregon)

I have a learning disability that makes it difficult for me to write, but I loved math as a young child. I don't remember much math in kindergarten and first grade. Then I skipped second grade and my third grade teacher allowed a small group of us to work ahead. (I suspect there was a fair bit of enrichment, too.)

Then came fourth grade. I was in tears the day I had to write "It cannot be done." each time the answer was negative, when it was so much easier to write the correct negative number as an answer. If my babysitter had not taught me algebra that year, I think I would have given up on math.

I learned almost no math for the next four years. We did do lots of speed drills, which I struggled with, not because I hadn't memorized my math facts, but because I couldn't have copied the correct answers that fast. When I did get to algebra, the teacher moved so slowly that I ignored him, read the book and tutored my classmates. When I finally got to college and graduate school (physics,) I found the American students were at a huge disadvantage because we had just learned calculus and therefore had had much less practice.

I went to school in Nevada, New York and California before the fifth grade, Nevada in the fifth through bachelor's degree and Oregon State University for graduate school. BTW - I was in the class of '86, calculators were rare and definitely not part of the curriculum.