It was in about the same time that I ran across the articles on Anne Frank in the Reader's Digest in that I also happened upon a few used textbooks my parents must have picked up at a flea market. One of these textbooks was math related & had a chapter on Roman numerals. Such is what it was, I suddenly found myself having learned Roman numerals. Yep, I taught myself Roman numerals before I understood fractions. In fact, I know I did. Jumping ahead, at one point in high school, while we were all sitting around the dinner table as a family, it suddenly dawned on me that I understood fractions. Either Mom or Dad, or both noticed my revelation, or my "aha" moment & asked what exactly had happened. I proceeded to explain that I had just figured out fractions. Dad, the engineer, & Mom, the certified elementary school teacher, gave me a pop quiz. It didn't feel like one, but basically they both said a few things & confirmed that, yes, I understood that 4/3 was 1 & 1/3, etc. I also failed to comprehend how there could be a remainder of inches when one measured feet, thus creating math problems of feet & inches...This was a second grade concept that I also figured out many years afterward.
...But there I was back in the fifth grade, around that time when I should have been learning fractions, & I was picking up Reader's Digest articles including Anne Frank's writings & flea market used textbooks explaining Roman numerals. I think I felt kind of cool. After all I didn't need to understand Roman numerals. No one was asking me about them & they weren't in my school textbooks. I struggled to learn a lot of things I was expected to learn & here I was understanding something no one had even mentioned to me & I knew it wasn't something bad either. Not like having read Catcher in the Rye, for example.
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