Generation Next
'My goal is to show success is not always a matter of intellect but often of desire'
I copied an Algebra II test that a
student failed. The score at the top
says 55/127, with a big letter “F.” I
put it on an overhead transparency to
show my class. I cover the name and
date on the exam.
My class and I look at what the teacher marked wrong and we make corrections to it. The students love to do this because they are in Algebra I and they can pick out several mistakes an Algebra II student made.
After five to 10 minutes of tearing this student’s work apart, I uncover the name and date. It’s my name and the year is 1998.
Students are always shocked. They
throw out questions like, “Did you go to
a really tough school?” or “Did you have
a really bad teacher?”
I don’t answer these questions—I just put another test on the projector.
This one is from Calculus. At the bottom, in classic math teacher hand, all caps and red ink, is written “E—I know what you are capable of.” Then, a frown face.
Again, I reveal my name. This time, students get more aggressive. “And you’re a math teacher?” or “What kinda college did you go to?”
This is where I pull out my last props— the four honor cords that I wore at college graduation and a transparency of the program from graduation day that lists me as magna cum laude.
I believe all the students in our classes have the brain power to be successful in math. What they lack is heart. Math is hard. I know because I’ve been there. For most of us, it takes hard work to be successful.
My goal as a teacher is to show my students that success is not always a matter of intellect but often a matter of desire. My job is to help the students find that desire. Once I have taught their hearts to want it, teaching their brains to understand it is a much simpler matter.
“And so,” I begin to wrap up my lesson for the day, “you have a whole world in front of you and yet you let a few failures tell you who you can and cannot be. No one is going to write your ticket to success but you. Graduate from high school, go to college, make something of your life. And don’t ever let hard work stand in your way.”