One of the Dunkin’ Donuts in town is right across from the
high school and has turned out to be a good place to tutor. When I am working for the school system, I
use the designated tutoring site, which is a school-owned building. When I tutor privately, I might use the
library or some other public spot like the Dunkin.
Yesterday I met with a sweet teenage girl, whom I tutored
all last school year in common core algebra.
She has just begun geometry. I am
pleased that this year, they have actually given the students textbooks, and
the books seem to have the materials organized in a logical fashion….NOT TRUE
last year.
In any event, I met with her from 5:15 to 6:15, a time when
that Dunkin is very quiet. The only
other people who were there most of the hour were a middle-aged woman seated
across from a young adult man. I was
focused on my student’s geometry homework, so I didn’t hear much of their
conversation. My general impression was
that the relationship was professional, and that the woman was managerial. I wasn’t sure whether she was interviewing
the young man for a position, or whether she was above him in the hierarchy and
was mentoring or advising him. I thought
she may have been a local or regional Dunkin manager.
Whatever, the nature of their meeting, they finished up
before we did. He left first. As she passed us, she stopped. She asked my student if she was working on
her homework, and then asked what the subject was. When my student said it was geometry, the
lady turned to me and said, “And how do you happen to know geometry?” She said this in a very pleasant
fashion. I wanted to respond in kind,
but what followed were several seconds of silence, as I tried to come up with
an answer that was truthful and didn’t sound arrogant.
*I majored in math in college….that would be a logical
explanation, but it’s not true.
*I am a retired math teacher…..another logical answer, but not
true.
*I am a tutor…..true, but not an explanation. Most tutors won’t touch high school math and
science.
*I am a math genius….not true and also arrogant.
*Don’t all 70 year old grandmothers know geometry?....just
plain silly.
What came out of my mouth after the lengthy pause was, “I’m
a whiz-bang in math and home-schooling my son gave me a chance to review.” True….but a tad on the arrogant side. It was just the best I could do under
pressure.
So how do I happen to know geometry, a subject I studied 56
years ago when I was 14?
*Isn’t it like riding a bicycle? Once you learn how, it comes back quickly.
*Math feels good inside my head. When I work on math problems, I actually have
a physically pleasurable sensation in my brain.
*I have a life-long love affair with math!
Well now…doesn’t all of that make me sound like an
oddball? I hadn’t really thought about
the fact that seeing a granny tutoring a teenager in math in the middle of a
Dunkin Donut might seem strange.
At least, I got a coffee while I was there. When it comes to coffee, it is my considered
opinion that the only place that might tie with Dunkin is Tim Horton. I prefer both over Starbucks.
Also, if C is the midpoint of line AB, then line segment AC
equals line segment CB. If AC = 3y and
AB =42, you can easily determine y=7.
And that’s the truth from Ruth
