Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Meaning of "2"

I don't want to make this into some secret diary or personal, self-serving fulfillment of an obligation...but thank you for the blessing, whoever might be out there deserving of thanks.

On to the real business (I'm sure you'll find this not at all esoteric)...

Observation
Whenever I look at the numeral "2" (I've had occasion to do so as I'm prepping a new mailbox with our house numbers on it), I think of my grammar school teacher, Mrs. Falconer (She taught me in the-you guessed it-second grade.)-why this is, I do not know. I do think of it as mighty strange.
The only association that I can possibly draw is that I the second grade, I was learning the order of numbers. This I remember: we had dark manila slotted cards, into which we could arrange little manila bits that had the numbers 1-100 printed on them. The numbers came in an envelope and it was up to each student to place them from left to right in several rows in the correct order. I remember the texture of those numbers and the fact that they were so less complex than the letters of the alphabet with all their infinite combinations.
This and a game of "post office" are all I remember about that class (well, not true-the quality of the light in the room is for me, instantly conjurable). However is Mrs. Falconer for me forever connected to "2"?

A side note: thinking about the computer and just how far we have come amazes me. There is something to be said for using manual dexterity to teach and/or to committ to memory certain ideas, but doesn't the whole thing seem so old and remote?

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