I'm a Sadist!

This Friday, autistic little Ben (of the Phil Collins Gorilla-drums ad) turns 13. Somehow in the Maths lesson we got to discussing how next year his birthday will be on Sunday. "No, Saturday," says Ben. So I explain about Leap Years. Ben starts desperately trying to explain what's "right", frantic that I should understand what he's saying, that his birthday is on Saturday next year. He sobs, tears roll down his cheeks. Others haven't heard about Leap Years either, but they get it. I explain about the lost days when Britain changed to the Gregorian Calendar from the Julian Calendar in the 18th Century, a couple of hundred years after the rest of Europe (nothing new there then), and how people rioted because they thought they had lost those days out of their lives. I tell them how it was necessary for there to be extra days every four years to keep the dates in time with the seasons. I say that this happens in years divisible by 4, except in century years, which have to be divisible by 400. Someone else says they always coincide with Olympics years.

Ben was inconsolable. What a cruel teacher!