DIFFICULT MATHS

George and Lynne are out on a bike ride with a young friend. Lynne asks her how school was to which the girl replies that it was difficult. She goes on to say that she had maths today. Lynne asks her if she found it tough. The girl says it was very tough and adds that 12 out of 10 of her class said it wasn't their strongest subject either.

George and Lynne are exercising on their bikes at around 3.30pm on a weekday. We have seen Lynne exercise at this time before but we have to ask what George is doing there. Has he taken a day off work just to exercise? Has he taken a sickie but now feels this is a sensible time to go out in public? Just how many days holiday does George get a year? He has been abroad on numerous occasions so far this year and surely his annual leave cannot be more than 28 days including bank holidays. We shall have to calculate just how many holidays he has had. He can't fit all of them into the weekend surely? That said, every time we see George and Lynne away in sunnier climes, they do seem to be back the very next day. Seems a waste of a holiday really.

This young girl is called Becky, we have met her before, and she is incredibly dim. On our first encounter with her she thought that the school moved places every day and this time she has used a mathematical impossibility to describe the results of an in class survey. The only explanation is that she had forgotten just how many people she had asked the question "What is your strongest subject?" to and accidently asked two people twice. This has skewed her results, but it also means that it is likely that every single person in her small maths set does not enjoy it.

As her maths set only consists of ten pupils it is safe to assume that this is the lowest ability set. What is worrying though is that this set doesn't have maths every day. If they are that weak at a subject, we would expect extra lessons. Maths O-level is very important and Becky needs to pass it. It seems that english is her preferred subject by the way she gives her results. If she was as bad at that as she was at maths then she'd be more likely to say "And 12 out of 10 people don't like it neither." Luckily grammar is her strong point.