Comments on: Operating Plan 5

By: Dawn

Dawn — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 07:18:38 +0000

Yes, a very nice piece. I get sympathetically uncomfortable with the description of having to recite multiplication tables. I was never very good at multiplication, and abyssmal when it came to division. I seem to recall my multiplication table crisis coming in fourth grade, though, not third. I stayed in recesses to practice them, my friend Amber staying in with me. And I remember that the sixes were my cutoff point too, that everything got harder with the 7s. 8 and 9, though, those were the worst. I never could manage those–still can’t, to be honest with you.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 19:42:34 +0000

Thanks for all the positive responses. This was enjoyable to write, so I’m glad others enjoyed reading it.

By: wadulisi

wadulisi — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 19:41:44 +0000

I really really like this post. I’m big on autobiographical pieces, period. But this one traverses memory in a way that effectively draws me into the story. Thanks for posting it.

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 19:41:00 +0000

I know Foucault wrote about schools as disciplining institutions. But he probably stole his ideas from Marx. I like this piece, especially how it comes together neatly in the end where you connect the “adult” and “childish,” showing how little differentiates the two.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 19:40:19 +0000

One of the reasons math class was always so difficult for me was that so much of the in-class work was done on the board or standing in front of the class. Or else I’d have to read my problem out and explain in detail how I figured my answer, something I could rarely do intelligibly. I was very self-conscious, not being good at math to begin with. I have awful memories of seventh grade math in which the teacher routinely belittled me in front of the class when I couldn’t work a problem at the board. I’ve since learned from public school math teachers I’ve worked with that it is no longer an accepted part of math pedagogy to have students perform in front of each other, for precisely the reasons that made it horrifying for me.