I saw a random video of a little girl unrolling and showing off her number scroll because she was the first one in the class to get to 10,000.
And it brought back a bitter memory.
You see, *I* should have been the first to “finish” my number scroll in second grade.
The papers we were given were copies of these slightly crooked squares with wonky lines to separate the sheet into 100 boxes, presumably to make the counting easier. However, when I figured this out, I took a different approach to writing all the numbers: once I got to >1000, I would take 10 pages at once and fill out the first two digits of the numbers in every box. Then I would go row by row, adding the third digit, which would be the same in each row, and then column by column, adding the last digit, which would be the same per column.
I thought I was a genius. I was finishing pages quicker than everyone else, because I would just write the same “shape” a couple of times before having to switch the motion of my hand. I was in the 4,000s by the time kids were just breaking 2,000.
But then I got caught. My teacher didn’t know why I was taking so many pages at once, so she called me over to show her my work, and that’s when she saw the pages and pages of two digit shortcuts. She didn’t let me count a SINGLE page of my work, not even 0-999, which I did the “correct” way.
A true radical would have stood their ground and refused to take part in such frivolous busy work again, especially since my problem solving, elementary math skills, and creativity were leagues beyond my inferior peers.
But I was 8. So I was briefly upset, but then I grinded out my numbers, secretly taking home sheets and filling them out “outside of number scroll time,” but she didn’t figure that out. I got to 10,000 like fourth or something, I don’t remember. All I know is that I should’ve been first.