Comfort zones. I wonder how many people have settled into these during #lockdown? I have been blessed by friends who via the medium of interpretive dance (social media) have kept me relatively awake with quizzes, music suggestions and witty banter. It has also pleased me that the term “food porn” has become a socially acceptable hashtag along with its anti-slogan hashtag “not food porn”. This is how my lock-down has rolled. But now we are asked to tentatively return to some semblance of normality and I am looking to prick my consciousness back into fully functioning, which is why I am about to vent about math… bear with me if you have the courage.
I used to say without compunction that I hated maths. I have a form of date dyslexia that means I swap numbers around (ie. I might think three but write down four). It happens mostly when I am tired or stressed. I once compiled a Diary Dates page for a publication and would frequently get cold and frankly intolerant emails about publishing the wrong dates. I would break into cold sweats when proofing the thing. Until I discovered quantum physics and, in particular ‘Bell’s theory’ but I’m jumping ahead here.
I need to mention my daughter’s primary school teacher who once berated me for my hatred of maths and told me that I would only infect my daughter with this disease if I continued to behave in such a manner — well she had a point. There is no such thing as a person who can’t do maths, but there is such a thing as a person who has not learnt the basic foundation rules of maths, said aforementioned teacher and proceeded to teach both pupils and parents alike… wonderful woman — it became quite a rallying cry in Primary Schools for a while. When she discovered I still added up figures in my head (or tried to) before checking with a calculator, she clapped her hands in delight and forgave me for suggesting that the school should give more time over to teaching children how to present themselves in public, be confident to speak loudly and clearly (and slowly) or how to use a microphone and how a song, or play or presentation can be improved by not making the children stand in one long line… I digress.
I once worked in the Arts for a national youth arts agency that gave me a Region and a medium sized budget and had me travelling around the South East meeting, training and conferencing with some incredibly interesting, diverse and fascinating people. One day I was at a conference in a venue in the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral delivering a session on learning styles, my point was that ‘one size does not fit all’ and that theories come and go but each individual child has individual needs and that whilst it may seem impossible to tailor education to a million different needs you can’t just put ‘learning’ into a box.
It was, unsurprisingly an open-ended presentation and it spilled over into lunch (which was very nice indeed, thank you). In my presentation I had somewhat bravely used a maths equation, turns out my group consisted of (amongst others) a scientist, two ex headteachers with maths degrees, a local government officer responsible for schools, with a background in finance…. you get the picture.
I was safely ensconced in a conversation about Bishop Stephen Langton who is buried half-in and half-out of Canterbury Cathedral (History) when the scientist turned to me and said “You’re a photographer?” (I sometimes use my own photos and sketches in presentations). He had my attention. “You’d be interested in Bell’s Theory”, he continued. Oh shallow me. My brain went ‘Bells?’ — ‘Church Bells?’ Then, ‘Oh! I had an uncle with the surname Bell this will be interesting…’ Don’t judge me. So began a journey into the heady and creative world of quantum physics and maths such as never before… Mind blown.
For me, Bell’s Theory is like an explanation of humanity, how we see and view and judge each other differently even when looking at the same thing/person/ideology from seemingly, the same stand point. I am going to poorly attempt to explain from a non-scientific viewpoint the theory but if you want a really good scientific, visual and audient education in Bells Theory start here, these guys at minute physics nail it
First posted July 02, 2020