Renee Newman
October 16, 2006
Post #2083 – 20061016
Dear Daniel,
A visitor to dyscalculia.org led me to your NPR commentary on math difficulties. Hooray for you!
Do you know that several NY Times Best Selling authors have called me to divulge their, “embarrassing little secret!” (They are brilliant, accomplished, yet can’t balance their checkbooks!)
Daniel, do tell us the rest of the story!
I would value your feedback on my thesis on dyscalculia. You can read it here: www.dyscalculia.org/thesis.html.
Thanks for coming out….so it can all add up for the rest of us.
Sincerely,
Renee Newman
dyscalculia.org
Daniel replies:
The rest of the story? I liked hanging out with math majors when I got to college--and a couple of my friends who were mathematicians said they enjoyed explaining things to me. I got one of the first Texas Instruments basic calculators, which I still have. I never became able or comfortable with arithmetic, but as soon as I was away from people who needed to tell me that deficiency would ruin my life, I hardly ever thought about it. Sometimes I find I can do lightning calculations in my head, much of the time, I can't. I also can't dance the tango, or play the violin.
