Teachers subtract fear, add reality

"A lot of times, kids say: 'I'm too stupid to learn this.' I don't let them get away with that. I keep on telling them: 'I know you're smarter. I know you can handle it.' And I don't think I've ever come up against a situation where kids were unable to improve."

That's the approach of math teacher Candace Combs at Saratoga Central Catholic High School.

She and her colleague, Charles Becker, recently spoke with The Evangelist about teaching mathematics in a Catholic school -- and how they inspire students to cultivate a fascination with the subject outside the classroom.

Math and life

Mrs. Combs tells students "that some of this they may never see again, but it's part of a learning process, and the ability to learn is so crucial at this point in their lives."

But she also notes that math "pops up in very strange places -- if you become an engineer, if you build houses or become a mechanic. And even if you're as rich as Michael Jordan, you need to know how to manage your money."

She admits that math can be dull for students who feel they can't wrap their brains around detailed geometrical concepts and mathematical theories. That's where a good teacher comes in, she said, to "make it understandable; once it's understandable, it's interesting."

Mrs. Combs helps her math students connect their studies to real ife by having them create a project based on a mathematical concept -- the history of math, how math has an impact on a basketball game, or how doing math explains how an igloo can stand.

New aids

Mr. Becker pointed out that computers and calculators help students explore math more easily. But, he added, teachers need to be on the lookout for students who rely on a calculator's push-button ease because getting the right answer isn't always the goal of the exercise.

"Mathematics is difficult for some people," he noted, "but you try to make it as palatable as you can. You have to lift the students up if they are weak in any area."

Like Mrs. Combs, Mr. Becker -- who is also a football coach for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy -- sees the application of math in ordinary life: High-speed computers make the study of statistics ever more important; and developments in biology and physics are based on the central theories learned at Saratoga Central Catholic.

"Obviously, in this world, there are people who have taken mathematics and technology, and tried to destroy the world," the teacher said. "It's up to us to develop skills and try to use technology to help the world, to make it a better place to live. Math, put in the hands of good people, will make our lives and the lives of others much better."

Mr. Becker describes the students at Saratoga Central Catholic as having "attitudes, upbringing, faith [that] improve the character of the student. The type of student I am seeing here is a decent human being, has good values, cares and is concerned about the world."

(Mr. Becker spent more than 30 years teaching math at Saratoga High School before retiring. Mrs. Combs worked in a hospital and government offices as a marketing specialist and in finance before going back to school to earn her teaching certification.)

(1/29/04)