Mathematics

25 Oct - Regrettably a majority of kids in Namibia lack any semblance of proficiency in mathematics. This is not disputed, its well known and regularly lamented. Recently though I observed that many of the weakest students that are hamstrung by any amount English can deal with numbers quite well. While I was introducing a method to convert units a boy who is undeniably my worst student was giving answers quicker than anybody else. Even the class was shocked to hear this boy demonstrating his superiority in changing dollars into cents. Granted, this is an easy operation, but the relative performance was striking. It seems that you could chalk this phenomenon to a left brain right brain issue. The ones that struggle the most with language are extremely inclined towards the left and the skill with numbers is consistent. I don't think the issue is that simple but the reason is secondary to me. What I am most interested in the result of this situation. A generation of engineers are rotting away in the schools because their language skills are too poor to allow their intellectual abilities to emerge. What is worse is that these kids are marginalized by their teachers who fail to realize the hidden talent with numbers that is shrouded by troublesome words. How then do you emancipate the math whizzes that are currently neglected? The knee jerk response from the Ministry of Education would refer to the need for math and science clubs but its obvious that the target group we are looking at would likely be too intimidated, based on their linguistic abilities, to participate in such a venture. So I don't have an answer, and realistically math becomes useful when it is immersed in word problems and as a tool for physics and other advanced topics. It would seem though that math would be the academic entry drug for left brained children to put more effort into the rest of their subjects, especially the languages.

 

27 October – Last night while I enjoyed an iced mocha (one shot of espresso from the aeropress, some cocoa powder, sugar, irradiated 2% milk and ice cubes) I marked a short test I had given to the grade 9. The test was simple, convert 35 days into hours, minutes, seconds and weeks; exactly the same stuff we had been working on all week. The results were interesting. Having just been thinking about what is written above I was watching closely to see which kids would score well on this little exercise. I made each question 3 points and took the score out of 10 to help them out. Eight kids made a 10, 11 or 12. Several other demonstrated an adequate understanding but scored lower because they failed to show enough work to satisfy my red pen. The disturbing part is the number of kids that got 1 out of 10 and probably deserved a zero if I wasn't feeling generous. But none of that is interesting. What made this test different is that by my count half of the kids that did "well" on the test do not usually make such high marks. Half of the good grades went to the usual suspects but several that typically get 3 or 4 out of 10 got 7 or better on this test. One test isn't enough to prove a theory but it offers some credence to my ideas. Unfortunately a cursory understanding of the situation doesn't immediately generate a reasonable solution.

 

My other good news is that after the head girl was removed (I think I wrote about this last time) a girl from my class was selected to replace her in that honored and powerful post. She happens to be the smartest kid in my class and my female class captain but so far has shunned any real responsibility or leadership role. She is good kid and hopefully being selected as head girl will spur her towards more active leadership. After a lousy week I have to intentionally focus on the kids I have seen develop positively this year. Another girl in my class that I have butted heads with too many times this year has been really well behaved over the last couple weeks, maybe we finally figured each other out. My biggest problem with her is that she is really loud, always yells instead of just talking but now she realizes when she is inside and will talk to me in a normal voice, what a relief. Some of my boys are as close to lost causes academically as I can imagine but one in particular that is the smallest kid in the class has progressed well. I've written about him before but I like this story, during the second term this boy started hanging out with the two that were suspended and his grades dropped quickly. When I would discipline him he always complained so I started asking him "Whose behaviour can you control?" Now the whole class knows the answer to that question and its almost a joke, but he learned the lesson. Other kids can misbehave and ruin themselves but he is making better choices and improving in class and specifically on this last test. He got all the answers right, but didn't show any work and forgot some units so he only got a 5 out of 10 but had the pride of knowing how to do the work. This is one kid that is a prime example of a quick mind for math that seems to struggle unnecessarily with other subjects.