He was worried about losing them. He could write equations on the blackboard all day long, but if he didn’t find a way to connect with them soon, they’d never master multiplication up to 100. One day, once again concerned about reaching his third-graders, he was lost in thought and wrote “3 x 4 = 16” on the green-tinted slate.
“Hahaha,” Marvin called. “Mr. Edwards, that’s not 16! 3 times 4 equals 12, everyone knows that!” “Oh, of course. You’re right, Marvin, looks like I slipped up there.” He was about to continue business as usual, but as he wiped away the chalky numbers, a thought hit him and he paused mid-swipe. Did Marvin just volunteer the correct answer to a problem? All because he had…? What if…?
The next day, Mr. Edwards wrote down another block of equations. On the seventh of eight lines, he wrote “20 / 5 = 5.” This time, he slipped it in there on purpose. The response promptly came. “Uhm, Mr. Edwards?” Anna was shy, but she held her hand up high. “Yes, Anna?” “That’s not right. 20 divided by 5 equals 4.” Bingo! He mustered all his enthusiasm and said: “Oh! Wow, what an amazing catch, Anna! Great job! You’re a real math detective, aren’t you?” The 9-year-old was beaming in her seat.
Over the next few weeks, class 3c’s math teacher seemed to get worse and worse with his numbers—but his 18 pupils did not. The more mistakes he made, the more they rallied to come to his aid. Some did it for the credit with their classmates, others for a metaphorical pat on the back from Mr. Edwards. Others still simply couldn’t stand a wrong line on the blackboard, while some plain loved to play math detective. And the few rascals who truly didn’t care about math? By the time half the class had joined in on the continued scavenger hunt, they simply didn’t want to be left out.
One day, the principal ducked into Mr. Edwards’ class and could hardly believe her eyes. “How do you get over a dozen 9-year-olds to lean forward so attentively in their seats?” she asked him during recess. “It’s actually a lesson they taught me, Mrs. Declan,” he admitted. “As it turns out, life is not about finding someone with the answers and then trying to remember what they say. It’s about finding someone who’s not ashamed to fail in front of you—and then figuring out the answers together.”