Walking back
to my seat, I smiled and said,
“Jenny,
maybe I can help you. Let’s try something new. Would you mind giving me your
hands?”
And with
this, the young lady pushed her hair back, and put both of her hands in my
corresponding outstretched hands.
“Okay,
forget everything you ever learned about adding and subtracting. I’m going to
touch each of your fingers, and as I do you count out loud for me.”
Jenny duly
complied.
“One, two,
three, four, five, six…”
(Me) “Okay.
We counted up to six. Now, let’s add seven more. Start with the number seven,
and we’ll use both your hands again, and we’ll add seven.”
(and)
“Okay. Let’s
do it.”
As I touched
her fingers, Jenny counted the five fingers on her left hand, beginning with 7,
and stopped as she verbalized the 12 and 13 on the first two fingers on her right
hand.
Suddenly, my
momentary student’s eyes grew wide, and her face shone like an iridescent bulb.
And just about that time, Mrs. Watson glanced across the room, and, well, it
was just so obvious, that she involuntarily clapped her hands together. (Needless
to say, this got her students’ attention).
Before Jenny
and I concluded our little exercise, I had shown her how to subtract single
digit figures using much the same method. And each time, without fail, she got
it. She got it!
Afterward
A couple of
decades have come and gone since I sat in Mrs. Watson’s classroom, and no doubt
she has long since retired, and my young student is approaching the mid-point
of her life on this planet.
And it
suddenly occurs to me that among the dozens of elementary, middle schools and
high schools in which I was privileged to ‘sub,’ and among the thousands of
students with whom I had the opportunity to interact and impact, Jenny was my
favorite, the one for whom I did the most good, and the one who will reside in
my memory the longest.
(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary. Vol. 66. By William McDonald, PhD. Copyright pending.
If you wish to copy, save or share, please include the credit line, above
(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary. Vol. 66. By William McDonald, PhD. Copyright pending.
If you wish to copy, save or share, please include the credit line, above
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