Miller's Mind training for children Book 2 (of 3): A practical training for successful living; Educational games that train the senses — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Miller's Mind training for children Book 2 (of 3): A practical training for successful living; Educational games that train the senses
John Stuart Mill · en
A man had received a new auto license number and wondered how he could
remember it, 218515. He knew the easiest way was to make it mean
something. He thought that 21 was the age when a young man reaches his
majority. If he lives to be 85 he will be an old man, and he might be
entirely destitute but for the 15c. So he had the figures 21-85-15.
After that he had no difficulty in recalling this number at any time.
Be original and make the figures mean something.
Familiar Numbers Helpful
Any number which has come to mean something to you is easily recalled
and may be helpful in remembering other numbers. As 1492, the date of
the discovery of America by Columbus. 57 immediately recalls "Heinz 57
varieties" and if you wish to remember 59 you can easily associate it
as being two more than the 57. 1775 means something to you, it conveys
a definite thought, but it is more likely that 1947 does not and will
be quickly forgotten.
If you have lived in a house with the number 1947 for a good while you
will remember it as easily as the number 1775.
Analyze Numbers
There are many helpful ideas which can be used to aid in remembering
numbers. To divide the number into pairs of digits, keeping them below
one hundred, is helpful. It is easier to remember 14-67 than 1,467.
Even numbers which are familiar to us are easily remembered as 10,
20, 30, 40, or 100, 200, 300, or 1000, 5000, 10,000. To compare other
numbers with these familiar groups will help, as 29 is one less than
30, 996 is just four less than 1000.
Numbers having sequence of digits if noted carefully will be recalled
accurately, as 1357 or 2468.
The telephone number 2430 is easily remembered because of the even
numbers, 24 and 30. Also 2+4=6 and 24+6=30.
Sometimes the first digits added together make the other, as the
license number 1247, the first three added make the fourth.
All these ideas are at times helpful, but we need a method which can
be used any time, by any one, for any figures. This need is adequately
met by the Number Code following. It is not new, but supposed to
have originated among the Romans and has been used by almost every
generation since that time. You find it easy to impress upon the brain
any thing which has a meaning and which can be visualized.
Figures carry with them no associations, no images. It becomes
necessary, therefore, to devise some means by which they may be
photographed upon the brain in such a manner that they will mean
something, as definitely as a word represents an object.
The Number Code