The answer. in Jingle bells, batman smells while shepherds wash their socks (winter 2015/16).

For all those who felt the answer was a trick let me assure you that it wasn’t. It was a question on a year 6 (age 10/11) maths paper and I gave it to the kids. Interestingly some of them either answered 3/10 and 7/10 or 30% and 70%. The ability to see that the two would have different (although related) types of answer was like a jump that their brains couldn’t get.

You see, we’re unintentionally taught that, unless we’re naturally gifted, maths is scary. People’s brains grind to a halt; seize up. They panic that the answer will be harder than it looks so their brains skip straight over what is obvious and creates something far more complicated, causing panic and the belief that they’re crap at maths. It lowers self esteem. It really, truly does.

Maths, when put in the context of real life, becomes far easier but in black and white, on a piece of paper, it’s like hieroglyphics for a large proportion of the population.

And those of you who have known me for a long time will understand how well I truly know this.

That is all.