I recently read a story in the New York Times about free after-school programs that help high school students from lower income families get the test scores they need to be competitive in college. The subject of the article was a student from Newton High School named Nathaly Lopera. I believe in both the effectiveness and necessity of these programs, but Nathaly's self-reported statistics do not add up.
Nathaly says she has been attending after school programs since she was in second grade, and studies for hours a day, sometimes getting to bed well past midnight. Yet her SAT scores are so bad, she won't discuss them for the article. The article states that "to get a good grade (on the SAT), a student must read and write quickly," which are necessary elements for a successful college applicant. If Nathaly spends three to four hours per night reading just her AP Spanish homework, college will be difficult.
But what caught my eye were her performance in mathematics, which produced the only C grade to blemish an otherwise stellar record. According to the New York Times,
'Her first two semesters in math, Nathaly got an 89 and an 86, but then fell apart on trigonometry, exponents and logarithms. “Fractions, the pi thing, oh my God,” Nathaly said.'
I spent two years tutoring high school math for BYU Independent Study, where I helped countless Nathalys. And I've noticed the correlation between SAT scores and math grades. I talked to tearful parents who complained their child studies math four hours every day, yet does not score well on the SAT's or the course. They believed the system is unfair.
Each conversation had the same format:
- Let me talk to your son/daughter.
- ...Hello?
- Hi. I've just talked with your mother, and she says you are studying hard in geometry, but you are not doing as well as you'd like. How many hours per day are you studying on the course?
- Between four and five hours per day.
- Wow, that's a lot. And how much of that time is spent with Facebook or Youtube opened on another tab?
- (laughter) Most of it.
- So you really aren't studying between four and five hours per day.
It is unfair to judge Nathaly, but the article's title picture is her staring at her laptop as she yawns. I wonder what she's staring at.
There has been a steady decline in SAT scores since 1986, which is ironically the year Bill Gates took Microsoft public for $21/ share. I think at least a small part of that decline is a result of the ease with which a computer delivers distraction. Here's another conversation, this time on an online whiteboard I was using to show a student how to do a trigonometry problem:
- So if this angle is 160 degrees, what would this corresponding angle be?...Hello?
- Yeah, sorry. I got hung up for a minute. Yeah, I don't know.
- Are you chatting online with someone else right now?
- Yes. I'm sorry.
- This conversation is over. Email me when you are ready to focus.
I had these conversations weekly. But the sad part is that these conversations happened with the students who studied four to five hours per day, and whose parents raved they are the best everywhere except math and complained the system is unfair. Many students I tutored aced their other classes, but the common excuse for taking math through BYU Independent Study was "the teacher here is terrible." I've seen students who try to do math homework with their ipods blaring music in their ears; maybe the hated teacher's problem is that he's teaching terrible students.
This is why I love mathematics. You cannot run from it. I had parents who, on a regular basis, would confront me about their child's test score and tell me there is a glitch in the scoring system because there is no way their child can study for this long and do this poor, because their child is on the honor roll, and blah blah blah blah blah. But when I force the child to do problems in front of me and his parent, the dad blushes in embarrassment.
Mathematics requires the student to make connections between seemingly irrelevant pieces of information. You are given a problem, and asked to solve it without an instruction manual. A mathematicians two greatest weapons are focus and silence: focus to learn the material, and silence to allow the brain to make the necessary subtle connections. Both of these are difficult to find in the instant media and communication age.
I remember a particularly difficult math problem I had to solve for a college class. I had already spent several days thinking about a solution, but there was a gap between two important concepts I still needed to bridge. I was so consumed in thought that I decided to drive home with the radio off, preferring the silence. The answer to three days of contemplation popped into my head in between two stop signs. I am convinced that I would have failed the assignment had I listened to music on that ride home.
Students like Nathaly who complain about "the pi thing" should take a lesson from Archimedes, the Greek mathematician whose name graces the principles in their textbooks. Of him, Plutarch stated: "He placed his whole affection and ambition in those purer speculations where there can be no reference to the vulgar needs of life." And there is no event more exemplary of his life-philosophy than his death.
Archimedes was in charge of defending Syracuse from a Roman siege led by General Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who had given the order to spare the famous mathematician. The Romans broke through Archimedes' defenses and stormed the city.
A Roman soldier entered Archimedes' headquarters and, with chaos surrounding the building, found Archimedes drawing diagrams on the floor. The soldier told Archimedes that Marcellus requested his presence, but Archimedes stood puzzling, deep in thought, over his diagrams. Angry at the disrespect with which Archimedes treated his general's request, the soldier slayed him.
Archimedes' last words?
Please don't disturb my circles.
Nathaly says she has been attending after school programs since she was in second grade, and studies for hours a day, sometimes getting to bed well past midnight. Yet her SAT scores are so bad, she won't discuss them for the article. The article states that "to get a good grade (on the SAT), a student must read and write quickly," which are necessary elements for a successful college applicant. If Nathaly spends three to four hours per night reading just her AP Spanish homework, college will be difficult.
But what caught my eye were her performance in mathematics, which produced the only C grade to blemish an otherwise stellar record. According to the New York Times,
'Her first two semesters in math, Nathaly got an 89 and an 86, but then fell apart on trigonometry, exponents and logarithms. “Fractions, the pi thing, oh my God,” Nathaly said.'
I spent two years tutoring high school math for BYU Independent Study, where I helped countless Nathalys. And I've noticed the correlation between SAT scores and math grades. I talked to tearful parents who complained their child studies math four hours every day, yet does not score well on the SAT's or the course. They believed the system is unfair.
Each conversation had the same format:
- Let me talk to your son/daughter.
- ...Hello?
- Hi. I've just talked with your mother, and she says you are studying hard in geometry, but you are not doing as well as you'd like. How many hours per day are you studying on the course?
- Between four and five hours per day.
- Wow, that's a lot. And how much of that time is spent with Facebook or Youtube opened on another tab?
- (laughter) Most of it.
- So you really aren't studying between four and five hours per day.
It is unfair to judge Nathaly, but the article's title picture is her staring at her laptop as she yawns. I wonder what she's staring at.
There has been a steady decline in SAT scores since 1986, which is ironically the year Bill Gates took Microsoft public for $21/ share. I think at least a small part of that decline is a result of the ease with which a computer delivers distraction. Here's another conversation, this time on an online whiteboard I was using to show a student how to do a trigonometry problem:
- So if this angle is 160 degrees, what would this corresponding angle be?...Hello?
- Yeah, sorry. I got hung up for a minute. Yeah, I don't know.
- Are you chatting online with someone else right now?
- Yes. I'm sorry.
- This conversation is over. Email me when you are ready to focus.
I had these conversations weekly. But the sad part is that these conversations happened with the students who studied four to five hours per day, and whose parents raved they are the best everywhere except math and complained the system is unfair. Many students I tutored aced their other classes, but the common excuse for taking math through BYU Independent Study was "the teacher here is terrible." I've seen students who try to do math homework with their ipods blaring music in their ears; maybe the hated teacher's problem is that he's teaching terrible students.
This is why I love mathematics. You cannot run from it. I had parents who, on a regular basis, would confront me about their child's test score and tell me there is a glitch in the scoring system because there is no way their child can study for this long and do this poor, because their child is on the honor roll, and blah blah blah blah blah. But when I force the child to do problems in front of me and his parent, the dad blushes in embarrassment.
Mathematics requires the student to make connections between seemingly irrelevant pieces of information. You are given a problem, and asked to solve it without an instruction manual. A mathematicians two greatest weapons are focus and silence: focus to learn the material, and silence to allow the brain to make the necessary subtle connections. Both of these are difficult to find in the instant media and communication age.
I remember a particularly difficult math problem I had to solve for a college class. I had already spent several days thinking about a solution, but there was a gap between two important concepts I still needed to bridge. I was so consumed in thought that I decided to drive home with the radio off, preferring the silence. The answer to three days of contemplation popped into my head in between two stop signs. I am convinced that I would have failed the assignment had I listened to music on that ride home.
Students like Nathaly who complain about "the pi thing" should take a lesson from Archimedes, the Greek mathematician whose name graces the principles in their textbooks. Of him, Plutarch stated: "He placed his whole affection and ambition in those purer speculations where there can be no reference to the vulgar needs of life." And there is no event more exemplary of his life-philosophy than his death.
Archimedes was in charge of defending Syracuse from a Roman siege led by General Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who had given the order to spare the famous mathematician. The Romans broke through Archimedes' defenses and stormed the city.
A Roman soldier entered Archimedes' headquarters and, with chaos surrounding the building, found Archimedes drawing diagrams on the floor. The soldier told Archimedes that Marcellus requested his presence, but Archimedes stood puzzling, deep in thought, over his diagrams. Angry at the disrespect with which Archimedes treated his general's request, the soldier slayed him.
Archimedes' last words?
Please don't disturb my circles.
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