Recently I was asked to help one of my former students with her college algebra.
I agreed for several reasons:
1. I liked the girl when I taught her English in 7th grade.
2. I like to help people.
3. It's July, and frankly, I'm a little bored.
4. How hard could it be?
My last reason was somewhat flawed.
Now, let's be fair. It's been a few years since high school, (and by a few, I mean 25) and I may have forgotten a few things (and by a few, I mean almost everything she needed help with).
So Cassie and I met today and cracked open her hideous rented math text- one example for each concept and very little explanation. When I realized I didn't know how to find the distance 2/3 of the way between two points, all the feelings of mathphobia from school came rushing back.
"How am I supposed to know that?"
"Who cares how far 2/3 of the distance is?"
"Why do I need to know this stuff any way?"
But then something strange happened. I read. I thought. I understood! Even better, I TAUGHT it!
Now, to you mathematicians out there, this may not seem to be a glorious feat. To a former mathphobe, it was victory.
It went something like this:
Me: The first point goes first because that's our starting point. You're counting from there. Next, we are finding 2/3 of difference between the two points. Remember? That's how you found it before?
Cassie: Oh! That's why we subtracted! It's the difference! I get it now!
Me: You got it!
Cassie: Can we do another one? (beautiful words to a teacher)
Me: Sure. Let's go. You can do this!
Cassie: You make me feel really confident!
There it was.
I made her feel confident. One mathphobe to another.
We spent close to three hours together LEARNING math. I learned a few other things, too.
1. I like this girl even more than I did seven years ago.
2. I liked helping her- a lot.
3. I understood WHY a formula worked. It wasn't memorization.
I have also cured my July boredom since I need to learn something about quadratic functions before next Wednesday.
