Sum craic looking back at old school books

I have in my possession a ‘Busy at Maths 5’ primary school text book, writes Colm O’Regan

I picked it up in The Shelf second hand one day in a stroll down Memory Lane, or George’s Quay in Cork as it is called on these ‘maps’ people talk about. Every so often I open it because second-hand school books are handy triggers for memories. Maybe not specific memories, more a vague sense of how primary school was. Just opening the book brings back images of wet anoraks on a radiator, sandwiches discarded in the toilet bowl, and having ‘indoor shoes’ to keep the muddied Clarks off the carpet.

The book also sparks memories of this time of August and schoolbooks time. When you got the new maths book and did a couple of things. One was to enjoy looking at the cover before it was hidden behind spare sitting-room wallpaper or tiles or whatever protective material there was to preserve its retail value. One year I think we may have used Fianna Fail MEP’s election posters.

The other thing you did was to look at the sums far into the book and wonder how the hell were you ever going to do things as hard as adding four seventeenths to 30% .

There are questions like: “If €200 is 123% how much is 100%? how much is 43%?” - the kind of question that causes self-employed people who are VAT registered to cry a little tear and wonder what’s the point of opening the shop at all today.

There were brief glimpses of odd conundrums that might be banned now for fear of giving children complexes. “Brian is 30kg 243g and Kenny is 22kg 890g. How much heavier is Brian than Kenny? And how did he get into that state and he’s only four?” Ok I made the last bit up.

But the main thing with the’ Busy at Maths’ was that no matter how strange a question you knew you’d be gradually taught how to get to the stage to be able to do that.

There are sums going now though that just make no sense, I’m not sure they ever will and no one seems to want to explain them.

For example in a couple of national paper websites last week, there was a headline about the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) cancelling €500 million worth of government bonds that resulted from the Anglo liquidation. And apparently it’s going to save some money. But it’s not. Because a bit of the sums question has been removed. Tens of billions worth of a sum.

The ‘Busy at Maths’ that I have is from 2000 and it’s the euro edition so all the money is in euro but there’s probably a ‘Busy at Maths’ question which also has a euro theme that we could include in the next edition.

“John loses €30 billion. Mary has nothing to do with it.

Mary’s Dad for reasons that may never become clear says Mary will pay off John’s €30 billion plus another €17 billion or so because he’s not very good at negotiating.

Mary divorces from her father, asks her uncle to look after her because he says she won’t have to pay anything.

Then he changes his tune and says she’ll have to pay €25 billion plus €5 billion. Mary’s uncle tells her she should be delighted with herself at still owing 30 billion.

Mary’s uncle’s friend reduces the €5 billion a bit. The newspaper tells Mary this is a good thing. No one seems to mention the €25 billion ever again. But Mary still has to pay it.

”Question: Why should Mary be happy with that?”

However busy we are at the moment – we need to get busier at Maths.