At the beginning, of course, there was no
work to show. Simple
addition,
subtraction, and the like. It had to be done in your
head, because it was more or less a
single operation, without
intermediate results.
But that didn't last long. Multiplication, division, longer and longer problems. They all had multiple steps, multiple things to do.
I understood math well at the time. I was flying through problems, having little trouble. One of those people that understood the principles behind it, when other people in the class were still struggling to figure out what was going on.
It wasn't long before I ran into that command, that requirement that so many math teachers lay down. Show your work. Never mind the fact that I was the first one done on a test, and with one of the top scores. Never mind the fact that I really didn't have a way to cheat. I still had to show my work.
Anyone who is able to do longer problems in their head knows that you can go a lot quicker, and develop shortcuts that don't really translate into how you work it on paper. You have to actually slow down the rate in which you work.
Sadly, I also suspect that by being required to put it all down on paper, I needed less mental effort. I didn't have to remember as much, couldn't work as fast. I suspect that it in fact harmed me.
I know eventually I would have had to start showing my work regardless. There comes a point where there's just too much that needs to be done. Too bad I didn't get to wait until this point, but had to lose abilities I once had instead...
I wonder if it had anything to do with the slow decrease in interest and performance in my math classes...