Monday 30 August 2010

The Poetry Bus - Back to School

Schooldays are meant to be the happiest days of your life, right?

Maybe. 

Some parts were ok, I suppose, but not all of it was enjoyable.  Enjoyable or not, however, this week's Poetry Bus challenge, as set by Karen here is all about school.  You can also click on the link to see what others came up with.

I chose to write about my least favorite lesson.

Bewildermath


Of all of my lessons, the worst one,
Was Maths, Monday morning, the first one.
Those Equations and Pi
And sine x and log y,
Made teenage existence a cursed one.

The teacher kept taking me through it
Showed me how to break down and construe it
Oh, BODMAS and FOIL
They made my blood boil
To this day, I can't bloody well do it!

The teacher, she thought me a duffer.
I didn't know enough stuff to bluff 'er.
She would call out my name
And put me to shame.
How I wanted to shoot 'er and stuff 'er!

Exam day came round and I blew it.
So fed up, that I simply slept through it.
Now Maths, I may lack
But it's not held me back,
'Cos I get the computer to do it!

17 comments:

  1. Brilliant, love the punchline and you've some great rhymes throughout!

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  2. Great pome!
    I often remembered that stuff -just- long enough for the test and that was it. What counts is knowing where to ask if the question does ever come up.

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  3. Maths was the bane of my lfe.Still can't do anything with numbers, but like ya say, we got computers to do that.Oh, hang on I can't work the comuter either, ah well.

    Great poem love the bluff' er stuff 'er rhyme!

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  4. Niamh - Cheers! Was going to write something serious but couldn't for the life of me.

    NanU - I have used the same tactic of remember enough to pass the test then promptly forgetting. Just shows that exams are really just memory tests.

    TFE - Hehe, you're doing fine at the computing seems to me.

    Rachel - Indeed it is! Still would have lioked to be able to do maths myself though.

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  5. Oh, MAN but you crack me up! Well done!!

    Pearl

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  6. My sentiments exactly. Give me words over numbers any day. :)

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  7. Ooh - I loved geometry & algebra! Then calculus kicked my broad behind. Sigh. However, I've felt the same way about history & literature - boooring (shh, don't tell Dr. M).

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  8. I love this poem. I love the rhyming and the tempo, the humor and the.....truth of it all! Can't wait to share it with my husband, who is a CPA (he says that stands for "Certified Pompous Ass").

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  9. love this :-D.. as an almost bonafide dyscalculia sufferer I remember maths being the hub where -by all misery stemmed.. of course they never found out while I was at school in the bad old days... (don't get me started, lol!)

    I love the rhyming in this poem, you can't beat a good, pissed off, rhyming poem :-D

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  10. i never understood the point of learning times tables by rote - because unless you actually understand how to apply it - it's really no use. BODMAS - I always thought that was something celebrated by animated catholics (BOD - MASS geddit?)

    Seriously - maths makes my head hurt - and i have a GCSE in it!

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  11. Pearl - Cheers!

    Jinksy - Yeah, I'm a words person. I can add, multiply, subtract, divide and do percentages - who needs more?

    Bug - I won't tell Dr M. Someone tried to explain calculus to me once and it didn't take 'little bits of x and little bits of y' is all I can remember. Bleecchh!

    Lydia - Hi and welcome! Hope your hubs enjoys the poem.

    Watercats - You're much better off with words any days of the week.

    DFTP - You mean BOD-MASS isn't celebrated by animated catholics? That explains a lot! I managed a CSE in the end - not good enough for an O Level.

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  12. Obviously what you were deficient in in Maths, you got double of in English. Immaculate rhyming and a very clever ending.

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  13. Great fun! I am inclined to agree...I was good at geometry, but algebra was like a foreign language, except not mysterious and romantic. Maths = pain in the brain

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  14. I remember the year they introduced "new math" in the schools. I was in 7th grade, and they thought I was ready! What a farce! I had no number sense at all! One day, many years later, the "lightbulb came on" and I got it!

    Give me a good old rhyme anytime. Oh, you did! This was fun and funny Great rhymes!

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  15. Argent you are the living proof that letters beat figures everytime (lol)

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  16. Peter - Thanks you for the kind words.

    CL - Your calculation is correct: Maths = pain in the brain alright!

    Karen - I fear the maths lightbulb is forever shorted out now. Glad you enjoyed the rhymes.

    Human - Letters are way more fun for a start. Whoever laughed at an equation/

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