THE DAY WE STARTED LOVING MATH
This is sort of a love story. But not the one with a girl.
This is about how we started loving Mathematics, “The most dreadful subject in
the world”. Two years back we also saw mathematics the same way. But now, it’s completely
different. We love math. Math is very interesting. It’s easy, fun and a lot
more. This story tells you how our view about Math changed.
Back in
tenth class, boring as usual. We slept in almost all of our classes. There was
one exception. Math class. We could not sleep. The class was so interesting
that we couldn’t sleep. Instead, we felt to suicide. We were sitting in that
class like dead bodies, with the eyes open. The cool thing about this was that
we got time. Time to think about many things other than Math. We were in
wonderland. We had to do nothing. Just look at the blackboard and sit. Teacher
happy, we happy. But the problem was that if the teacher notices the slightest
closing of an eyelid, the whole day is going to be world war 3. Then it’s going
to be advices. It’s your future. You have to face it and all that stuff. Then
its humiliation. After that it’s blackmailing. She says that she will stop
teaching us that instant if we don’t make a decision. She says she will get out
of the class. Then we say,” NO! NO! Please don’t go!!!” while in our mind we
say,” Ya sure. Go on. Please go. Let us be happy for some time”. Then she tells
us not to repeat it again. Then she gives a smile like nothing ever happened
here. We never understood what she meant by that smile. We thought she must be
mad. After all, who cares? And the next day she comes and the same ritual
happens again. We get used to this after sometime so much that each day we used
to expect todays ritual by looking at our watches. And most of the time it
happens just when we expect it. Thinking of it now, the Math hour was not so
boring at all. It was the teaching that was boring. The teaching was a
disaster. We understood nothing at all. And she also came in and taught Math in
all the free hours we had. This is completely true. No wonder none of us
(MIST()RY) got full marks for Math in the exams (all exams). Moreover, she was
our class teacher. That was a completely different experience. She scolded us
for nothing. I’ll tell you about an incident that occurred when she was class
teacher.
It was in
July. The science community of our school was going to be inaugurated. We all
were in the science community. So we planned a program for the inauguration. It
was about enacting the most influential and brilliant scientists to have ever
lived on the planet. Like always, our show was excellent. Everyone in the
school loved it. The principal called us and told that it was nice. But one
person was not satisfied. Our class teacher. The next day morning she started
scolding us one by one. She even scolded a girl who was completely innocent.
She was supposed to speak about the scientists in the background during the
show. We felt no problem with the presentation given that she didn’t get the
material on time. But still it felt great to everyone. But not for the class
teacher. She didn’t like it. She scolded the poor girl so much that she cried.
After tenth class she left the school only because of this teacher. What a
situation.
And on that
very day we took an oath. Never to perform anything on the stage, ever again. I
mean, what else can we do? What if this happens again? The funniest thing is
that from that day on, she started scolding one of us (Jeffin) every day for no
reason at all. The hatred he grew towards her was limitless. That hatred spread
to us. We also started hating her. But there was nothing we could do. She was a
teacher. So we patiently waited for the year to be over.The next year we were
afraid whether she will be teaching us. But that was not the case. A new
teacher came for us. She changed the way we saw Math.
She came
into the class. A young lady who just graduated from Post Graduate studies. She
looked like she couldn’t even pick up the Mathematics text book, which actually
weighed a ton. She introduced herself and asked the students their names and
started teaching. One minute into the class we thought, what a miracle!! She
can teach!! Moreover, we understand!!! That too Mathematics!!! How wonderful!!!
We thought we were dreaming. But no. We were actually listening to the class.
We were understanding it. More and more classes came and we were loving
mathematics like any other subject. This love could be seen in the marks of our
daily class tests. We got full marks for the first test. Then the second. Then
the third and it kept growing. We started forming a good relationship with the
teacher and vice versa. We had some doubts on some topics and she solved it
like putting a bandage on a wound, just easy as that. She stood by our side
when we had some problems (social) like the one we wrote about in “THE FIRST
MISTAKE OF OUR LIVES”, remember? Anyways her classes were great. Now we sit in
class the same way we did in the other teacher’s class, except we are actually
listening and are interested in the class. And she had no problems like the
other teacher. No issues or anything of such matter. Once again teacher happy,
we happy. It’s like a parallel universe. The same thing happens in both the
classes but with a difference. How interesting.
What we
learned from this experience is that nothing is impossible. We thought studying
and scoring full for Math was impossible. Teachers said,” you have to love the
subject” and we think,” What!!! How the hell can we love Math???!!!” But it
turned out to be possible. You might think the problem is with the teacher.
Well, that is true in some cases, most of the cases. But, think of it like
this. Math is fun. You have all these problems in your life. Some of them, you
are able to solve. Others, you need help. Same thing applies for Math. Some
problems you can solve, others you can’t. So, what you have to do is ask your
teacher. Talk to her or him about something. Start growing a ‘like’ towards
that teacher. Then you automatically start liking his/her class. Eventually the
subject. This worked for us. And we are sure it’ll work for you too.
Unfortunately we have no pictures on quotes to post here. So we will just type
what we have to say in block letters;
Nothing is Impossible
Thank you
for reading. Like always we don’t reveal the name of the main characters
involved. Please leave your comments below. The next blog will be on or before
20th March, 2016. So, stay tuned.
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