“A B C
It’s easy as, 1 2 3
As simple as, do re mi
A B C, 1 2 3
Baby, you and me girl”
Door Catarina Dutilh Novaes
45 years ago, Michael Jackson and his troupe of brothers famously claimed that counting is easy peasy. But how easy is it really? (We’ll leave aside the matter of the purported simplicity of A B C and do re mi for present purposes!)
Counting and basic arithmetic operations are often viewed as paradigmatic cases of ‘easy’ mental operations. It might seem that we are all ‘born’ with the innate ability for basic arithmetic, given that we all seem to engage in the practice of counting effortlessly. However, as anyone who has cared for very young children knows, teaching a child how to count is typically a process requiring relentless training, involving a host of practices such as that of physically pointing at objects and for each object enunciating a numeral. The child may well know how to recite the order of numbers (‘one, two, three…’), but from that to associating each of them to specific quantities is a big step. Even when they start getting the hang of it, they typically do well with small quantities (say, up to 3), but things get mixed up when it comes to counting more items. For example, they need to resist the urge to point at the same item more than once in the counting process, something that is in no way straightforward! Lees verder Easy as 1, 2, 3 ? Wittgenstein on counting →
