In my sixth grade, Mr. Dogra, my math teacher, called me to the board to answer a question that I was having difficulties with. He had already explained the problem two times in the class. The problem involved the addition of fractions; finding the common denominator, then cross-multiplying each numerator, before adding them up. Mr. Dogra could have asked me to see him after class, but instead, he had me solve the problem with his help at the board. He used this approach for the whole year with all his students. His approach worked. I fell in love with math.
Only later did I understand the significance of that moment in Mr. Dogra’s classroom, when we worked together at solving the problem. I understood the power of walking through a problem, instead of writing down or pointing to an answer.
When I entered eleventh grade, I had been out of the Indian education system for four years. Although I cherished the schooling I received in England, it did not prepare me well for my transition into the eleventh grade in India. I struggled with courses especially with math. The confidence that I had developed from Mr. Dogra and that was nurtured by other excellent teachers was falling apart. I was lagging in trigonometry and geometry, and had little idea about integration. While my classmates easily solved problems and drew the snake-like symbols, I felt doomed.
“I can’t do this question” quickly became: “I’m no longer good in Math,”
and then it was: “I’m not good in Math.”
But before it became, “I hate Math,” another teacher came to my rescue.
Ms. Upal saw that I was struggling. One day she took me aside and asked why I would not even try to solve the problems. She offered to give me marks just for attempting to answer the questions. I went home and worked hard on my homework. The next day, in her class I was convinced that she cared and was invested in my learning. At one point in her narration she smiled and asked me for the next step. Still smiling, she encouraged me to take my time and gave me a few hints. When I got to the next step, she asked me to go to step three. Soon, I was solving the math problem, completely forgetting that I wasn’t good at math. Ms. Upal taught me that practice and confidence could make a student good at math – that these are the guiding principles of the learning process.
When my students say that they are not good at a subject, I think of Ms. Upal and tell them to work on the problems I try to help them through their confusions. Hopefully when they begin solving problems, they will also start to believe in themselves.
