Learning math... beyond college!

October 9, 2009
I think I maybe know why I was sent here this year. Not that there had to be a reason! I mean, working with orphans for 8 months would have totally been enough, but after seeing the kids results from their last exams, I have a much clearer picture!

Here in Nepal, kids take all the tests for their classes at once, every month or month and a half. So, for a week, it’s kind of like finals, and this happens maybe 6 times a year? Well, today they all got their results from the tests they took right before we had that long holiday, and most of them did pretty well in all their classes, except one... you got it, math. Out of 15 kids, about half of them failed math. And the cutoff to pass is at 40%. So, needless to say, we have our work cut out for us!

Basically, it goes like this: I wake up and arouse 15 sleeping beauties from their sweet wonderland for morning prayers. Then, I come back to my room and read/play guitar for about an hour while they do their morning chores. Then, it’s morning math tutoring time for the next hour, helping whoever I missed the night before. Now comes the much anticipated breakfast and getting everyone ready for school. And it’s off to school for us all, and for the next 3 hours I’m continuously breaking down the math for kids who are pseudo-fluent in English. With very very heavy accents. And very different ways of saying general math operations (in the US, the word “into” typically refers to division: how many times does 3 go into 9? however, here it means multiplication, and it took me a couple days to realize that 3 into 9 really is 27 here!).

Then I walk home and spend my afternoons here without the kids preparing for teaching the next day, doing laundry, reading, whatever. Then, I pick up the younger kids 2 hours later, and we jump into a few games, waiting about an hour before study time hits. Thankfully, all the young ones are pretty decent in math; it hasn’t gotten hard yet! But once that clock hits 4 pm, it’s over for me. I do math with different kids until devotionals at 6:30, then they have dinner, then I have dinner, and by 8:15 we’re back to math. Usually for another hour or two. At this point, I’m ready to collapse. That brings us to approximately 10 hours of math, including the prep time, most of which is tutoring 3-4 different math classes at the same time!

Oh, did I mention that we DON’T use calculators?! Yeah. We’re taking the fifth roots of 5 digit numbers by reducing them to their prime factors and then going from there. I don’t think I can explain how well I’m learning math at this point. I thought I knew it when I got here, and yes, I know all the processes and such, but the mental math is a new game for me! I realize now that not only am I (hopefully) helping the kids with math (we’re aiming for a 100% pass rate next round of tests in a month and a half), but my understanding is growing exponentially! Pretty awesome all around :).