Monday, January 8, 2018

One of the Best Math Professors All Around and he is a Black American

     I need to discuss this, because it is prevalent and important to the progress of America's educational system.
      I went to four U.S. colleges and private arts related schools throughout my life, thus far. Most of my teachers and professors were in fact White Americans. One of the most difficult areas though, which was required of me were subjects such as Algebra.  Although I placed at medium levels in college and was able to skip a few levels of math, I ended up having to take various algebra classes and of course statistics.
     I took Algebra classes with a math professor named Michael, although since I don't have permission to relay to you who he is I will leave his last name out.  He was the type of professor, knowing that algebra may be difficult for some of the students, spend extra time, on his own time, unpaid, to make certain days, extra study days; whereas, he would invite us, the students, into the library into a study room to do extra studies. We all had his mobile phone number as well, for he told us, if we needed more help or an equation explanation, he was right there on the telephone trying to help us navigate our way through very lengthy math equations, sometimes that lasted pages.  Additionally, we worked our way through some calculus, defense-related math, scientific type of math, and large economic type of algebra maths.
     Some of us stayed in the learning center until late at night studying and working with math tutors to make the grade and learn long equations.
      Our classes consisted of many minority students, for we were a mix of races in an area with a large Black populace. Everyone got along fine, whether Hispanic, White, mixed, Asian, or Black.
      Our professor has a really good sense of humor, that is, he mixed his in class teachings with humor so we'd laugh at times, making it much easier to study and get on well. We felt like one big happy family, sort of, and Michael kept giving us ideas about various careers using math.
      He shared his life story with us as well: He relayed that as a kid he used to get in trouble and came from a very poor area.  But then he discovered math; he was great at figuring out math equations. He found his calling. From that point of his own self-discovery he was on his way, found a mission and purpose, and found his focus.
     Not only had the defense department hired him to manage and oversee others but our school needed him as a pt professor.  That is, until a predominantly White school above the line staff decided they didn't want him anymore. He was too good for them, actually. 
     I passed my math classes with straight A grades and that was partially because Prof. Michael was such a great professor.
     The discrimination of a White dominant educational staff was very apparent and scary at times.  It is actually the student's loss, when White people decide to resort to racism.
     Everyone in Prof. Michael's classes; that is, our math classes did quite well. There is a reason for this.
     There needs to be  a national stat check to check out how many students do well in class entirety in White taught math classes sometime soon and the teaching methods involved.  Who do you blame when students don't do well? Is it because a student doesn't bother to study, is not learning abled in the math areas, or is it because of teaching methods?
     Professor Michael took us all out for pizza to celebrate the end of the class and we all looked at our final grades.  They were terrific!  We discussed our grades and celebrated, took photos to remember, and ate some really good pizza and drank water and soda pops. 
     How many college classes do you know about that celebrate together at a pizza parlour and talk about how wonderful everyone feels about achieving a good grade or see hope in each other's future?
     Fact #1: There was absolutely no cheating at all on our weekly tests, midterms, and final tests!  We studied together, read our books together, worked out the equations in the learning center after school, helped each other work out the equations, and Michael led extra days in the library working on lengthy difficult equations.
     Fact #2: No math was skipped to make the class easier. We worked on some of the most difficult lengthy math equations that involved some of the more difficult areas of science, defense, medicine, and corporate economy. One of my equations, just one, was 20 pages long.
     Fact #3: A good portion of our class were Black Americans and mixed minority races, or mixed ethnicities.
     Fact #4: Everyone passed his classes, and yes, people who didn't even think they could do it.
     Fact #5: There was nothing wrong with Prof. Michael's teaching methods and everything right. He broke no rules, sacrificed extra time for us, gave more than required, and even made us laugh while we sweated and struggled at times through some very difficult maths, but the White school officials felt no need for him.
     Fact #6: Any school in America would be privileged to obtain Professor Michael's services.

   

No comments:

Post a Comment