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Audrey Topazian

Ms. McDermott

English I Honors

6 February, 2020

Learning the Basics

“Ugh! Dad, I don’t understand this.” This line has been cried by every eight year old

trying to do math homework. Teachers sometimes teach unusual and unconventional ways to do

simple math problems. Inevitably, when kids get home they need help with homework. But a

problem usually arises, the parents don’t understand the weird techniques the students have been

taught. In frustration, parents yell, ”Math is math,” or “When I was in school there was only one

way to solve this!” This would then result in kids crying and screaming in anger. They scream

back, “That was the way I was taught!”

When I was sitting on the couch clutching on to my knitting needles with two firm fists, I

was taken back to third grade. It all started with the way I was holding my needles. “You are

gripping too tight,” my mom would say, “your form is awful.” I felt the tantrum of a child

building up inside of me. The youtube video I watched previously to this moment teaching me a

contrasting technique to my mom only confused me and angered me more. After much

correction in my form, I was completely uncomfortable in the way I was holding onto the

needles, just like how uncomfortable kids are when parents express their feelings on the

traditional ways of learning math. My pinky and my arm was cramping, I had a rash from the

unusual way to grasp the scratchy corse yarn, and I had only cast on seven stitches. When I

thought of trying to endure completing a hat every other week, I remembered the stress I had

once felt attempting to finish my homework on time.

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Once my mom calmed herself after her outburst of frustration in correcting my form, she

showed me a new challenge to overcome in my 3rd grade class of knitting: learning to read a

pattern. Looking down to read the blurred lines through my childish tears proved to be a struggle.

The pattern had never-ending lines of gibberish, they were grownup words that kids could never

understand,”K12, P2, decreasing 1 2 3…” I knew I had to push through my anger because the

pattern and the stitches were the building blocks of the skill. After hours of hard work and

dedication of fishing the first hat, it came time for the teacher, my mother to grade the work.

“Hey mom! It’s time to grade my project.”

“On a scale of one to ten, I would rate your work a three.”

My mom’s feedback was a decent grade considering I made many mistakes, I probably

would have gotten a B in school. ”Okay I am happy with that, it’s not an A but that’s fine. What

exactly did I do wrong?”

“The crown of the hat had a few holes. However, you used good problem solving skills,

and fixed your mistakes by sewing them up.”

Listening to the feedback from my mom made me feel a little disappointed, but instead of

saying how aggravated I was I said, “Thanks mom for your advice.”

“For your first hat you did a pretty good job, you are at a good starting point.”

Even though learning to knit for the first time created some tension between my mom and

I, similar to when children get in small fights with their parents, the next day it opened up a

whole new conversation and way to bond with my mom. We talked of different patterns and

designs to start the next hat. The possibility of getting a better relationship with my mom than

what I already had before was very exciting.

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Overall, I had spent a considerable amount of time constructing my first project. It was

not the best hat; however, I felt a sense of accomplishment knowing I was trying something new,

and I could only improve from where I was at. The following hats will still prove to be a

challenge, but having the needed learned skills to ace the next test is reassuring.