Challenging our youth

(Last of two parts)

Metrobank Foundation (MF) executive director Nicanor Torres said: “In the history of the competition (Math Challenge), students from private schools dominate our roster of winners.  We are very glad that… this year’s competition showed a significant achievement among public schools.  Whether you come from a public or a private school, you can be a winner through self-discipline, proper training by your coach and support from your parents.”

MF president Aniceto Sobrepeña explained why the foundation was involved in a mathematics competition, with the Math Teachers Association of the Philippines (MTAP) and the Department of Education. “At first, we just wanted to help arrest the deteriorating performance of our students in international math [surveys].  Then, we thought that we would be able to influence the youth to love and excel in math.”

Sobrepeña quoted educator Arvin Vohra, who wrote in his book, “The Equation for Excellence”:  “Math is important not because it teaches a student how to use trigonometry to measure the height of a building but because it develops a student’s ability to analyze and solve unfamiliar problems.  Math does not just develop skills that can be applied to science and technology.  When math is taught right, it develops the student’s fundamental cognitive architecture, increasing his intelligence.  His mind will become faster, sharper and more precise.  What lifting weights does for muscles, math does for the mind.”

Moving forward

At the awarding ceremony, MTAP president Sr.  Illuminada C. Coronel, FMM, said: “Math is important… A mathematician once told us that if a country wants to develop its science, it has to develop math 30 years earlier.”

She added: “Great scientists have found that without math, they would not be able to say what their results mean. A Nobel physics winner even called this the ‘unreasonable effectiveness of math,’ a gift we neither deserved nor understood.”

How does it feel to be a problem-solver?  Gold medalist Lorenzo Quiogue, in his speech, said: “I have had my share of heartbreaks and triumphs in the annual Math Challenge.  I know a lot of us have had experiences wherein if we had just remembered to factor properly or place the negative sign, we would have won … These are the lessons that we all learn from and, ultimately, these are the experiences that make us veterans of competition, the ones that we look back on and are thankful for.”

Pleasure

“Talent is statistically distributed and, as 90 percent of our elementary school students are in the public schools, we have to assume that 90 percent of the math talent in our country is there,” said national scientist and mathematician Fr.  Bienvenido F. Nebres, SJ, guest of honor at the awards ceremony.  “Studies in Western countries have shown that those who pursue careers in math and science generally come from the lower social classes.  The middle and upper classes go into law, medicine and business.  In the work of  the Ateneo Center for Educational Development, we have indeed found great talent in public elementary schools.  The challenge is to identify them as early as possible and nurture and support them.  So we identify them at Grade 4 and some of our high school teachers work with them on Saturdays.  Some from Culiat Grade School are now in  Ateneo High School and are among the best in math.”

Father Nebres quoted  Albert Einstein, who said:  “One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life.  The most important motive for work in school and in life is the pleasure in work, pleasure in its results and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.”

Father Nebres talked about a course he and I teach together every summer at the Ateneo, a high-level college problem-solving course for selected students.  Once, we had a female student in the dormitory who started working on a problem after dinner at around 9 p.m.  She persevered until she finally solved it and, when she looked at her watch, it was 5 a.m. the next day.

Father Nebres shared his own experience in a seminary from first year high school.  “There were hardly any math courses, so I learned my math by myself.  There were no awards or honors and we were not very aware of our grades.  So I studied math because I enjoyed doing challenging problems.  I accepted the frustrations of not succeeding many times at first and, to quote Einstein, found genuine pleasure in finally discovering a solution.”

He told the finalists: “Your most important motive should come not so much from external reward as from inside you in the joy and pleasure you find in doing math.  That is the only way to be a really good mathematician or scientist or artist.  Do not be too taken by praise or rewards.  Follow the beat of your own inner drummer.”

Father Nebres had an analogy for doing math.  “Solving problems is like mountain climbing.  If it is a challenging mountain, you will get tired, you may sometimes get lost, but when you get to the top and look at the path you have climbed, you feel a great sense of achievement.  And getting lost is actually not bad.  You may discover new places, like a cave or a mountain spring. And the next time, these will actually be exactly what you need.  Similarly, if you spend a lot of time on a problem and get somewhat lost, some other problem and time later, you will find that the things you discovered when you got lost are exactly what you need.”

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