The Longest Lesson

Every Monday afternoon, I volunteer to tutor a grade 6 student, Nico (not his real name). I often start the lesson with a cheerful hello and a usual did-you-do-anything-fun-last-weekend. Most of the time, Nico would appear with his new LEGO mini-figure. He would eagerly tell me about every single little detail of the mini-figure. Seeing that I liked it, he would always proceed to parade his full squad. Then, I would be facing the tough question of picking the best one.

Sometimes, Nico would show up in a typical after-school and before-dinner low-energy mood. You may have experienced it when you were a kid. You had just finished a long day of school. You were hungry, but your parent told you that you could not eat any snacks because dinner would be served soon. On those days, I would usually ask him about his weekend adventure in Fortnite. Somehow, he would be energized in no time.

Two weeks ago, Nico showed up to the tutoring lesson with a very sad face. Immediately, his emotion touched me. I wanted to comfort him, but, at that moment, I froze. I silenced for a half minute while struggling to find the right words to say to a 12-year-old. After recollecting myself, I asked him, “are you okay?” He responded okay in a very quiet voice. Meanwhile, his face slowly drifted away from the camera. I asked him what had happened, but he wouldn’t answer. I asked him whether he wanted to take a small break or meet another time. He insisted that we should continue. Unsure about what to do next, I paused again. I looked at the clock, and it was 5:01. There were 59 minutes left to the end.

I started to talk about his favorite superhero, Spider-Man. To give you some context, Nico is a little Spider-Man buff. He had watched all Spider-Man movies a few times, not to mention his impressive collection of Spider-Man mini-figures. Hoping that it would cheer him up, I said I finally watched Spider-Man: No Way Home as I promised a few months ago. We started to talk about scenes in the movies. His favorite was the scene when the two Spider-Men meet and point at each other. Then, I asked him which Spider-Man was his favorite. He told me that his favorite is Tom Holland, and I said I still like the good old Tobey Maguire.

Nico started to talk more and more. Listening to his slowly lightening tone made me happy. Then, he mentioned that he caught a few Pokemon on Pokemon Go. I told him that I like Pikachu. He immediately lit up and proclaimed that Pikachu is the most overrated Pokemon. He complained that he caught so many Pikachu but not his beloved Squirtle. Unsure about what is a Squirtle, I looked it up on the wiki and I saw there was a catch rate of the Squirtle listed on the page. I looked at the percentage sign and thought, maybe I could still teach him some math today.

I started to draw Squirtle and Pikachu on the tablet to illustrate the math problem. Nico also did the same, except they are much better than mine. He said my drawings are good. However, I must admit that statement is a cute little lie.

I said that Squirtle has a catch rate of about 2/10. I asked him what it meant. He said he didn’t know. I showed him that we could convert 2/10 to 1/5 by dividing both the top and bottom by two. I also explained that 1/5 means that he will catch a Pikachu every 5 tries. Before you jump out of your seat and say, “that is not how probability works, there is actually a 32.8% chance that you will not catch any Squirtle after 5 tries”. I have to say teaching university-level probability to a 6 grader is not a good idea.

Then, I showed him that the catch rate of the Pikachu is 35%. We can convert 35% to 35/100, then 7/20. As I watched Nico begin to calculate the numbers on his own, I became more relaxed. We did a similar process to convert the catch rate of Squirtle, which is 2/10, to the same denominator. I was so happy when Nico figured out the equivalent fraction is 4/20. Then, I asked him to compare the catch rate of Squirtle and Pikachu. He exclaimed that the Pikachu has a higher catch rate than the Squirtle, and that is why it is so easy to catch. Then, he proceeded to talk about how Pikachu is overrated again.

I looked at the clock and realized that we had been talking for more than an hour. It was longer than any past tutoring lessons. In the subsequent lessons, we worked on even more Pokemon-themed math problems. Nico became more engaged and made more attempts to solve the problems on his own. I started to have more fun during the lessons and look forward to the next one.

I wished that I figured out how to teach Nico math with Pokemon sooner so that we could be lively, cheerful, and happy in every lesson. Then, I realized that I am learning too. It took me more than half a year to learn how to teach, understand Nico, and make him happy. The facts are personal development is not easy, understanding another person takes time, and my lesson could not be any shorter.