From a very young age, I always managed to do semi complicated calculations in my head. I just had these algorithms that I used and that was that. When I was in the first grade they had us write one through 10 and then 11 through 20 and then 21 through 30 etc. etc. day after day. I got really bored and just wrote down random numbers so I could go to recess and talk to Donna Sue. After I got put in detention for being lazy, and explained everything to my beautiful dorky first grade teacher Miss Hensel, she just said “OK you get it. You can go to recess. You don’t have to do this anymore.“. I figured out that it was just a 10 x 10 matrix and went 11111, 2222,33333,etc. down and then on the second line 11111 across (in the 10 column ) and then on the third line wrote 22222 across. It seemed so simple. In the third grade, I figured out a an exponential progression. Basically 1×1 is 1 and 2x2 is four and the difference between those is three then 3×3 is nine and the difference between that and 3×3 is five. The difference between 4×4 and 3×3 is seven. It keeps going up that way because if you think of it as a matrix it all makes sense. I sure miss Donna Sue. Hope she’s doing well. By the way calculus is easy. It’s the algebra that’s difficult but if you love algebra calculus is a gas.
I told my geometry teacher after about two weeks that I was leaving the class. I didn’t need it. Algebra was important, but geometry and trigonometry you can just figure that out. The quadratic equation, “imaginary“ numbers, differential equations….all that stuff just intrigued me. How does it all work?
True story. I got my first F ever in spelling when I was in the fourth grade from Mrs. Felkins. I didn’t misspell any word on a test for the entire semester but I didn’t fill out the little spelling book that was supposed to teach you how to spell. I made a big production out of my grade in front of the entire class because I thought it was BS
