A Little Bit Goes a Long Way

Last night, after my Calculus class, I turned in the extra credit problem I wrote about earlier.  I had actually done it wrong in that entry and had to do somewhat more complex Calculus to really vigorously support my conclusion.  But I got it right this time.  And then my teacher took me aside to talk to me.

At first I was kind of confused as to what he was talking about, because he started explaining to me that there are interesting questions about the issues we're covering in class right now that are way beyond the scope of our class.  For instance, you probably have learned that A+B=B+A.  But we are working on infinite series (∑) -- which are essentially adding up infinitely many numbers -- and there is the question of whether ∑f(x)+∑g(x)=∑g(x)+∑f(x). Stuff like that.

And I was thinking, "OK, fine, but what is he getting at?" And then he told me that he'd like to lend me an advanced Calculus text so I can read about this sort of thing and see if it interests me, because that is the sort of thing I would be studying if I continue with a Mathematics degree.

That's the closest thing to encouragement that I've ever received in a Math course.

Math seems to occupy a strange place in education these days.  You go through school and you have to take certain subjects, including English, Math, Science, Government/Civics, etc.  And it is my experience that you are expected to do well in every single one of those subjects except for Math.  Of course, you must pass them in order to graduate from your grade, but your teachers don't expect you to be good at Math.  The message is constantly, "it's OK that you're bad at Math because it is so very hard."  But you don't hear, "it's OK that you're bad at writing because it is so very hard" even though the rules of grammar they expect you to know are at least as difficult to learn as Algebra and quite a bit more complex, if only because they're so contradictory. 

The quintessential image of "student fighting back against the Man" is the bold young rebel standing up in Algebra and asking when they're ever going to use this in Real Life.  But you probably use Algebra more than you use your knowledge of the parts of a plant cell, but we never see or applaud young rebels questioning the validity of their Biology courses.

So you hardly ever seem to come across a teacher who really encourages their students to be good at math.  Instead, they try to make it as easy as possible for students to pass rather than trying to help them understand and really learn things.  They try to endear themselves to their students by saying that they know math is horribly boring and hard but it'll all be over soon. 

To me, this all adds up to discouraging students from being interested in math.  So it is a rare and, frankly, quite cool experience to have a teacher who expects his class to learn and understand, and is willing to actually encourage their students to continue.