Jan 18 2008
Stand & Deliver
tand and Deliver is a movie about a group of high school students in an underprivileged Los Angeles neighborhood. An inspirational teacher starts them out with basic math, and works long hours with them and gets them through calculus. 18 of them take the AP Calculus exam, and 18 of them pass.
Great story, and a true one. Today was the first official meeting with my three math mentees. I brought them to my house, and after Nugent barked at them a lot, we watched the movie. I remember watching this movie in 9th grade myself. I’m not sure if it had the same impression on them as it did on me, but they did pay attention and didn’t seem bored. We talked some about the movie, but not a lot. I’m still trying to get them to open up to me.
Overall, though, it went quite well. The one girl, M, who seemed pretty introverted the first night i met them, held her own with the other two, who seem to be good friends already and talk talk talk. M seems the most determined to get something out of this program, though.
We ate pizza and i showed them some math card tricks i know, which they seemed eager to learn so they could show off at school. Then one of them said “you know what i’ve always wanted to learn? how to play poker…” So… we went over the basics and the order of hands. I hope i don’t get into trouble with the parents for that. There’s a lot of math in poker, though, no arguing that!
Nugent barked some more, and then we left for Ben & Jerry’s, the prearranged meeting spot. Got a sweet snack, and sent them on their way.
I’m definitely out of touch with what it’s like to be a 13 year old girl. I wish i could really get across the idea that the fact that the social studies teacher isn’t fair isn’t something that will matter when they’re out in the Real World. But, the truth is, whatever is going on in our lives is what matters to us right now. The Real World for an 8th grader is the unfair social studies teacher. And that’s cool. And it’s not right for me to think that doesn’t matter. I need to just let them talk and be themselves. At least some of the value of this program is just hanging out with an adult who isn’t related to them, and i need to remember that i don’t need to always be trying to teach them something, or make it about math.
I’m looking forward to our next event, about 4 weeks away. They get to miss a day of school, and i get to miss a day of work!