There are twelve rows of pews on each side of the aisle at a church. Each row contains two pews, and each pew can fit up to eight people. If three hundred and ninety five people show up for church on Sunday, will there be enough seats for everyone?
8 x 2 = seats per row x 12 = seats per side x 2 = total seats in the church
Good job! Now just multiply.
I have to draw it out first.
Okay?
384 seats in the church
See? You don’t even need my help. What’s the answer?
I don’t know.
Well, there are 384 seats and 395 people. So, what do you need to do to find the answer?
I need to figure out if there are more seats than people.
Right! So, what’s the answer?
I don’t know.
What do you mean?
I don’t know how to tell which number is bigger.
A DAUNTING REALITY
My heart broke when my teammate, Susan, shared this experience with me after helping her buddy do the math homework I assigned my class.
How are these students expected to do word problems, long division, and multiplying fractions when they can’t even tell when one number is bigger than another? I have some 16 year-olds in my sixth grade class of which most the students are only at a third grade level in math. Why are these students being pushed forward before they are ready?
These questions burned within me as the daunting reality came to the forefront of my mind: This is an issue too big to be solved in just a few weeks.
MEET THEM WHERE THEY’RE AT
Despite this daunting reality, I knew I had to try.
I began the lesson out of the teacher’s guidebook as I was instructed. I wrote a word problem on the chalkboard as I asked the class, “Who can come up and solve the problem?” I turned around to face the class only to find that not one hand was raised. This was not the normal level of confusion when learning something new. For the first time, I truly saw the desperate plea for help in their eyes.
“Okay, everyone put away your notes. There should be nothing on your desk but a pencil. You have ten minutes to complete this ‘times table.’ Ready? Go!”
Every head simultaneously looked down, and the only sound in the room was the scribbling of pencils. As I walked around the room, I saw quiz after quiz marked up with tally marks. Equations like 12 x 12 had 12 groups of 12 tally marks drawn next to it. Rather than being able to easily identify a basic answer, these students were taking the time to draw 144 tally marks for one problem.
“Time!”
That night, I went through each quiz one by one and calculated the class average… Forty percent. A solid “F.” I put down my pen and buried my face in my hands. What am I going to do?
And in God’s gentle whisper, He simply said,
Meet them where they’re at.
BACK TO THE BASICS
In that moment, I was reminded of the many times God demonstrated His perfect patience for me by meeting me where I was. I can’t even recall the number of times I “re-learned” lessons God had already taught me because I had forgotten or it still wasn’t registering with me. Although life moved on, God did not – not until I was good and ready.
He could have let me move right along with the flow of life, pushing down feelings and pushing away the hard things that needed to be addressed, avoiding healing and growth, but then it occurred to me, it is possible to move on without moving forward.
Sometimes, we need to take a step back before we can step forward. We must go back to the basics, back to the problem, back to where we decided to push things down in order to truly grow. Because where there is growth, only then can we move forward.
FREEDOM CALCULATORS
I administered those times table quizzes every day for the next few weeks. The students would get so excited to beat their previous score. They monitored the clock, eagerly awaiting the last ten minutes of class and an opportunity to work on something a little more their speed. I watched in amazement as the class average steadily climbed… 40%…52%…61%…74%…80%. I felt like Hilary Swank in Freedom Writers (except my movie would be Freedom Calculators).
Not only did the class average steadily climb, but so did the confidence and self-esteem of each student. By the end of the month, tears filled my eyes as I looked out at a completely different group of kids, transformed by the simplicity of someone taking the time to slow down and work at their pace.
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