Fun Max reminds me of when I was near Lismore and managed to be stopped by
rare train -it went on forever not like our eight coach jobs perhaps Oz kids
get to be better mathematicians-(or a few do who don'tjust give up!?
Cheers Patrick
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 29 June 2011 02:59
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: snap: this level crossing
This level crossing
Iım pausing at,
patient, facing
the lowered gates
while the bells ring
is where I used to pause
forty-plus years ago driving
my son to day-care.
Little more than a toddler,
heıd be sitting up in the back
on the childıs fitted seat,
craning forward to see the train,
Hurstbridge to Melbourne
packed in the morning
(or met on the way home
Melbourne to Hurstbridge
packed). Count the carriages!
What a long train, son.
The bells cease, the barriers go up.
On then to day-care
where Iıd guiltily
leave him while I taught
not far away, and he,
well he got through his day,
with other waifs to play
or maybe compete with
over their snacks and
uniformed carersı.
He could count, and soon
count the hours. Yet
only yesterday, I learned
there are kids who never
cope with numbers, nor
learn to tell the time.
Weıve all heard of dyslexia
well, theyıre calling this
dyscalculia! and the teacher
was saying some kids even
miss out on finger-counting,
having no aptitude,
or as we say nowadays,
lacking the neuro-connections
necessary. Feel for them
but despair not! Science
is showing how these brains
can be rewired. Beside,
without arithmetic
you can still do well
in set theory and other
mathematical regions
(provided youıve got
the wiring for them).
The train goes through.
The bells cease, the barriers
rise up, I drive on.
Son, youıve been more
of a mathematician
than I ever was. Counting
the carriages passing
may have set you ticking.
Just now, I lost count
of them myself,
recalling you and this word
new to me, dyscalculia.
Max Richards
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