MY MATH VISITOR

MY MATH VISITOR

By Tagamayana

Except for private institutions, the country’s federal state universities and colleges were plagued with teachers’ union strike. Students stayed at their homes waiting for trouble to settle and resume their classes afterward. But one student refused to stop her schooling!

So I am lucky to teach in one of the private universities. No teachers’ union strike! 

In one of my visit to the university library to read some local newspaper, one of the students approached and requested me to have some explanation on the math solutions previously discussed in the classroom. “Okay, what part of the topic?” I told her. She opened her notes and showed the steps where she got the problems and I did the explanation and discussion. Satisfied, she said, “Thank you Sir, I understand already”, she said. Then I said,” How was the result of your last quiz?” “I got 90 % score, Sir”, she smiled. “Good, and on next quiz you must get a perfect score”, I replied. Then she slowly walked away. I paid little attention. She got a good score. So nothing to worry!  She may just serious enough and want to do more on her study every day.

Then, the next quiz came. Only 5 out of 234 students in a class got perfect score. And she was one of them!

It was then that I gave her an attention. I noticed that during class session, she sat at the end of the last row of the seats in a packed and overcrowded room. She listened intently and focused to my discussion. No friend, no talking even on her seatmates as if she knew none of her classmates! “She must be too shy”, I guessed. 

The semestral math course was about to finish. I gave the final quiz before the final exam. “This would be the last quiz”, I told the students. Then what was the result? She got perfect score again! She had done it! “She is a good performing student” I told myself.

The next meeting I returned the quiz scripts. She was absent. For almost two weeks I could no longer see her. Then I inquired the course representative and her classmates what happened to this girl. To my surprise none of her classmates knew her. She vanished and I received no word from her and her whereabouts! I am completely blank!

After two weeks my phone rang. The girl was alive and informed me that she returned to her school at federal university since the teachers strike was over. She thanked and told me that she learned and enjoyed math during her stint in my class. It was then I knew that she was my math visitor. She was not my student! She refused to stop schooling! Then she returned to where she belonged!