Dear Nancy,
You have given a wonderful response. Ability to analyze and logical
thinking. I think you are right there. And not limited to the realm of
mathematics, but a way to think. Your observation on feeling similarly when
you make a computer program and making computer software is compelling.
Until we become more familiar with the brain, with new technology, it is the
best analysis of the thought processes that can be used in lace making.
Except that lace is visual, and computer software design probably is not,
although that may not be so, if you see it in your head.
I bet problem solving could also be included in the skills which can be
developed with bobbin lace. Which involves a lot of analysis. Or maybe
problem solving is a combination of other skills. In any event, these
skills are valuable for students to learn, and having this information could
be very helpful in getting schools to allow lace classes, either on campus
or off.
And you may be correct that 'math' is not the correct term, especially if it
is associated only with those pesky numbers. It is the other things
involved in math, and, as you rightly say, other areas as well, that I was
looking for, and these are more elusive.
And I don't think there really are two sides to this discussion. I am being
criticized for something I didn't say, and don't believe. What I was trying
to say is that lace making involves mental skills that would be useful to
school children, and this could be an argument presented to schools to
permit a club or advertising a group. I associate those skills with math,
although I use them in the practice of law, and in literary analysis, and my
father and daughter use(d) them in engineering. I believe I use these
skills in lacemaking. Whether my lace is good or poor is immaterial.
Lyn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
Nancy wrote:
I wonder if 'maths' is the right term or not.
Just for some context, let me note that I like precision and 'correctness'
but
I prefer to make floral varieties of lace and have been told by one author
and
teacher that I am a natural at Binche. I always scored very high on the math
section of standardized tests (99th percentile) but have never liked math or
felt any good at it. I can add and divide and all that but am much more
reliable with a calculator, and I was not any good at calculus.
What I am,
however, is a software engineer and I love designing and coding software
programs. The observations I offer are: 1) there is no addition etc. form of
maths in software development. Instead there is logical thinking and being
able to analyze the sequence of actions necessary to produce the desired
result. This is a type of 'maths' that seems to me necessary to do bobbin
lace
at all, regardless of the creativity side of it.
2) My second observation
is very subjective, but one I have found fascinating. When I do a
complicated
bit of bobbin lace, it FEELS in my head the same as when I'm doing software
design and coding. I get the same positive feeling FROM doing both bobbin
lace
and software development, yes, but more than that: it feels the same WHEN
I'm
doing it, like I'm doing basically the same thing. Like I said--subjective!
Because of these two observations, I've always thought that people who are
good at bobbin lace would make good software engineers, whether they know it
or not, and whether they are good at arithmetic or not. This is the other
way
around from some of the observations that have been made, but related I
think.
I believe that the same analytical and logical skills are required in both,
and also creativity to think of novel and more effective ways to do
something.
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