I see that the high school is looking for math teachers.
I see that the high school is looking for math teachers.
Actually, they’re looking for teachers in several fields, but currently have vacancies for three math teachers.
I don’t have a teaching credential or any experience teaching adolescents, but allow me to modestly bet that I could teach algebra with one hand tied behind my back.
The reason is that I was inadvertently overexposed to algebra. As a youngster in Illinois, the summer before moving from sixth grade into junior high I was enrolled as a sort of lab rat in an experimental math teaching program.
The handful of other kids and I sat on a stage while professor Beberman instructed us, and an auditorium full of education students watched and took notes.
Interestingly, as I think back, I was not traumatized by this but enjoyed what we were learning. The commutative law, the distributive law … it has stuck with me all these years.
A while later my family spent a semester in Pacific Palisades and I was enrolled in ninth-grade math. Guess what! It was algebra! The teacher couldn’t figure out why I seemed to know all the answers ahead of time. I enjoyed repeating it, not only because it was easy but also because doing the proofs was fun for me.
Unfortunately, repeating half a year of algebra got me off track when we returned to Illinois, and my math career never fulfilled its early promise. Much later, when I wanted to go to graduate school, I took algebra again to make sure I would be able to handle any math involved.
So while I’ve lost a lot of the vocabulary and I’m out of practice doing proofs, I find myself setting up little equations all the time when I need to figure something out. While I never did get the point of trigonometry and geometry (you know how kids whine, “Why do I need to learn this? I’m never going to use it!”), I find myself using algebra all the time.
How much time do I save by breaking the speed limit on Highway 25 (not that I ever would)? Let x be time expressed as minutes and solve for x.
Which is cheaper, the big flat of strawberries or several little baskets? Let x be the price per ounce expressed in cents.
These examples would probably make a high school student’s eyes roll back in their head with boredom, but I’m sure there are better ones: Which is cheaper per song, buying a CD in a store or buying individual tracks off iTunes?
How much money could you save, if gas is $3.50 a gallon, by riding your bike to school once a week (not that they ever would)? How does that change when gas goes up to $4?
So as the high school recruits math teachers, I hope it finds people who can not only clearly explain the concepts, but also make them come alive with examples and illustrations that hit home. Maybe a field trip to Starbucks, to see how many times algebra would come in handy there, even if kids don’t realize they’re using it.
I’m just glad I’m comfortable with it. It’s kind of the Swiss Army knife of mental skills, and even better since you don’t have to leave it behind at airport security.
Elizabeth Gage writes a weekly column for the Free Lance that runs on Thursdays.
