More Than Words
One of the biggest reasons I am a great observer of my students’ body language, facial expression, eye movement, and especially their tone of voice is from my own experience in math class. As you may well guess, math was definitely not my forte. In fact, that would be a GROSS understatement.
God bless Mr. Anthony McGowan, my math teacher 3 out of 4 years in high school. The guy really tried to get me to understand. To give you an example of just how bad I was, here is an algebra example: X + 7 = 10. I was the kid in the back of the class, wildly waving my hand, “What is X?”
Mr. McGowan would answer, “Great question, Russ. That’s the problem you have to solve… WHAT is X? So what do you say, Russ? Do you know?”
Oh, man, I was SO lost. In my mind I was thinking, “How the hell can you add letters and numbers together?” I seriously did NOT get it. I was convinced, math and I would never be friends.
Mr. McGowan disagreed. He offered extra help after school. Reluctantly I went. For me, it was as bad confronting the class bully outside after the closing bell. I KNEW I was going to get my ass kicked… hard!
Oh, Mr. McGowan was calm and patient enough. He would write things on the board and ask me if I got it? I would pretend I did and say the obligatory, “Uh-huh…” Now, if Mr. McGowan had been a student of body language, facial expression and eye movement, he would have easily and clearly seen that there was nobody home upstairs in Russy’s world.
After about 30 minutes of Mr. McGowan chatting and chalking up the board, and me staring blankly and throwing in the occasional, “Uh-huh…” just so he knew I was still alive, Mr. McGowan would send me home with some extra pages to practice.
Inevitably, the next day in class I would be the first one chosen to go to the board and demonstrate the homework example. I could feel my face getting hotter and redder as the class snickered and sneered. This was the ‘comic relief’ part of the day; way better than cartoons, and my classmates reveled in seeing ‘Russy the Dunce’ go through his routine.
“But you got it last night!”, Mr. McGowan would say, trying not to show any frustration.
My familiar dull “Uh-huh…”, is all I proffered.
Mr. McGowan then would walk me through the problem, virtually doing it for me as I worked through each painful step on the board. My classmates were beside themselves, trying to stifle their laughter. Thankfully, my daily torture eventually came to an end and I returned to my seat to a mock standing ovation.
If ONLY Mr. McGowan would have looked into my eyes and listened to the obvious tone in my voice!
And that’s why, to this day, I watch and listen to every one of my music students whenever I introduce a new music concept. Having mastered the art of the dull “Uh-huh…” I KNOW that sound means, “I don’t get it yet.” Instead, I will continue to engage my student in conversation and various illustrations until I see and hear, “Oh, you mean it’s like THIS?”
YES!
My students tell me it is one of their favorite stories because it tells them that I UNDERSTAND what it’s like to try to wrap your head around difficult, if not impossible to grasp concepts. It also tells them that I won’t believe their dull “Uh-huh…” I will stay with the new subject until they can prove to me that they actually get it! So far, I have yet to hear a student balk at this kind of help.
Oh, BTW – I finally did overcome my math deficiencies, having picked up some self-study math tutors on my computer. At least I know what X is! You know I Love That Feeling!
