Algebra as Community Service

Recently I agreed to try tutoring at University High School, which is where I attended high school and graduated in 1997. I was told that I might be teaching anything, and especially kids who are in serious jeopardy of failing in one way or another.

I was also told that motivating the student was probably going to be the most important and hardest thing to do, and that many of the students would probably rather not have a tutor, and that I should go for an entire semester even if I hated it after the first try, because a lot of these kids have been abandoned or let down by adults in their lives.

Add to that the normal stereo-types of high school that are presented in the media, the fact that there was a fatal stabbing at UHS recently, and my own memories of insecurity and inadequacy from high school, and you end up with a mix of thoughts and emotions similar, I would think, to walking a plank on the high seas. You'd rather not, it won't be pleasant, but you're there and all there is to do is jump.

So, jump.

I found the cafeteria where the displaced Algebra II class was currently meeting. Turns out, the class was honors, and the student was very sharp, he'd just been away from school for about a week and needed to catch up. We did polynomial division. We factored. We solved an open-ended puzzle type problem. And then I left.

I did not feel inadequate, and I did not feel insecure. It wasn't hard to teach the student, and the class was taking a test and was very quiet. The lessons were not trivial. I did not feel the material had been dumbed down. It was a good thing to do.

So, after only one myopic experience, I conclude that the demise of our public schools and our teenagers is a bit overblown.