Life's Learning Journey

Life’s Learning Journey
During lower secondary school, I was an average performer in the class. I would usually attain B’s and the occasional A’s. However, there has always been one subject that I struggled to do well in, Mathematics. Mathematics has haunted me throughout my lower secondary school experience that I totally gave up on it as a whole before I even first stepped foot into high school. It seemed as though numbers and I do not click or maybe so
I thought. That however, was all about to change. On the first Mathematic lesson I breathed a sigh of despair and said to myself, here we go again... With me already having decided to give up on Mathematics the door opened and a young Indian man around his late-20s walked into the class and greeted us.
His eyes swept the entire classroom in one glance but we didn’t find him intimidating or anything. He instructed us students to introduce ourselves to him one by one, row by row.
During the introduction, we were required to state one factual matter about the
Mathematics subject that we have studied in the past. I wasn’t sure if this was to test our knowledge regarding the subject or just his analytical approach to getting to know us better. But this definitely got me nervous as it made me start to sweat. When it came to my turn, I stuttered and couldn’t recall the Mathematics fact that I had chosen to recite in my head. In a slip of the tongue, I just simply said that I hated the Mathematics subject.
Surprisingly, his reaction was rather docile. He nodded and said that my perception towards the subject will change. With this new thought in my head, I looked forward towards classes with him as he provided me with a good first impression.
Throughout the next few classes, he never discriminated between the under-achieving
Mathematics students like yours truly or the over-achieving Mathematics students. He did however hold the poorer performing students back after school hours for extra
‘reinforcement’ lessons. He had this bond with students that made us feel comfortable around him although we didn’t particularly enjoy the subject that he was teaching.
Unbeknown to us, most of us started enjoying Mathematics and because of this new found fondness towards the subject, our attention increased during his classes. Furthermore, he employed a method of teaching that was very student inclusive in the sense that classes became more fun instead of just sitting down and dealing with numbers and equations which we found boring thus making us dislike the subject.
It was through his perseverance towards his students that we are now able to embark on life’s ever-continuing journey of learning by being admitted to our college of choice.
Without Mathematics, we wouldn’t be able to go far because numbers make up the equation of life. With my fierce eagerness to learn, I look forward to in a few months reach the benchmark of where my parents were. To be able to live the dream and join the prospective college. I can now imagine myself as a professional in the bustling streets of
New York, clad in a business-suit on my way to meet a client to seal a business deal. With this statement, I end with the phrase that life is a never ending learning process.
Adrian Ong
5th Dec 2012