Watching a student cry was torture. It simply meant she failed as a teacher. It was after school hours. Josh probably thought he was in trouble, his friends did too. He sure was trying, it was going to take time.
“It’s a practice test, you can’t fail this.” Reasoned Mrs. Jackson. Her hair was out of the bun. Her phone kept ringing on her desk. She didn’t care right now. Mrs. Jackson knew this may take a different approach.
“I am never going to get it.” Sobbed a little boy in a Minecraft shirt. Mrs. Jackson had one objective today: to prove him wrong.
“Math is really hard.” Agreed his teacher.
“Too hard!” Josh was done crying, at least for now.
“Oh, that’s not really the reason.” Spoke a wise teacher as she turned her body away from him, begging him to ask more.
“What? Why is math hard? I don’t get any of this.”
Mrs. Jackson bent down at her knees, next to Josh’s desk. She held a notepad in her hand. She gently put it onto his small desk. She wrote down what she said. “There is only one correct answer in math and the hard part is finding out How to get the One answer.” Now the boy seemed more confused. “You can be wrong in so many ways, but only right one way!” Exclaimed a very concerned boy. Mrs. Madison never thought about that before. How intimidating all this was for someone failing to understand.
Josh looked at what she wrote, but it didn’t help. “Josh when you play a video game each button on the controller only does one thing right?”
That got his attention, and the frown went away. Josh knew a lot about all the new video games, even some of the old ones too! He answered without thinking. “Each button does one thing and it’s different for each game.”
“In math, there is only one controller.” Mrs. Jackson acted like she was holding a controller. “In math, everything has to always be the same or you could never figure out the answer.” She paused dramatically and readjusted herself. “Oh, I mean you couldn’t beat the game.” Josh smiled. That was a feat. Mrs. Jackson wasn’t done yet, this was how she lead a student along. “When you hear me talk about rules of math, just understand I am talking about the buttons on the controller. I am telling you how to find the one hidden answer to beat the level.” Now Josh seemed as excited as he normally was right before recess. Something clicked in his mind.
“That is why ten times ten is one hundred. Because it can’t be anything else!” Squeaked the boy.
“Right the numbers are just that. Then the multiply sign tells you, for this level you have to multiply the numbers to find the one correct answer and beat the level.” Mrs. Jackson was proud of both of them, this was a good enough lesson she wrote it down on her spiral notepad. True to her nature, she would share this lesson with any student willing to listen.
“Hey Josh, let’s talk about the ‘controls’ on these problems without even trying to solve them! After all, this is not a test.”
“Yeah, like on this one you have to divide before you add. That’s the control!” Josh almost yelled. Mrs. Jackson was floored. Another approach and now Josh understood what he was trying to do.
Teachers are the world’s greatest gift. Their reward is the joy of seeing someone learn. Magic exists in the “aha!” moment when someone learns.
Never give up on life, never give up on love.
That’s it, that’s all,
-Nathan Hall