In 1967 at the age of 27 I was selected to go back to TAFE to do the electronics certificate course.First lesson was maths and I was rather apprehensive since I left school at 15 in 1963 with my intermediate certificate. The lecturer arrived and said to the class to have a go at some maths questions on the board. Q1 was..draw a time line and mark certain features on it. My mate, the same age as me looked at me and shrugged. We sat there with blank looks on our faces,along with a few others. The teacher looked up and saw us sitting and looking puzzled. He asked what was the problem. We indicated we did not know what a time line was. He just sat and stared at us slowly scratching his head. Then he asked the class what qualifications each one had. Most had the HSC and so down the line. Intermediate certificate was popular. And then the penny dropped. Since we had left school most of the terminology had changed. They now spoke a different language to what we knew. He then took the class back to basics and taught us older guys the new maths terminology. He thought it was funny teaching adults what they teach kids in infants school. Jim
