Once upon a time, there was a mathematician, let’s call him Marty. Marty had two young daughters, who attended a small primary school, a public school strong in community spirit but not swimming in money or mathematical expertise. So, Marty often pondered about offering his mathematical services to the school. For this reason and that pandemic, however, he never got around to it. Then, one day, Marty was contacted by one of his former students, let’s call him David.
David was a teacher at a nearby secondary school. David’s school was swimming in money and mathematical expertise. The students at David’s school were required to take a subject focussed upon community service, and David wondered if his students may be able to somehow help out at Marty’s school. So, David and Marty and another parent, let’s call her Moneypenny, met to chat about it. Then they met with the Principal, let’s call him Peter. Peter was happy to give things a go. Thus, Maths Club was born.
Maths Club began with David’s class coming once per week after school, helping out a dozen or so weaker students, with Moneypenny having the students practise their multiplication tables, and with Marty “administering”, which mostly consisted of making sure everybody received their fair share of cookies. The Club was a success.
After a couple months, David’s students were finishing up their subject and were due to leave. Moneypenny and Marty had to decide what to do with Maths Club. They talked to Peter and they decided together that Maths Club should continue. Which it did. And it grew. A lot.
Maths Club became large and chaotic, including many students at all year levels and of all abilities. Other parents began helping out, while Marty “administered” and administered: as well as purchasing and distributing the cookies, Marty printed out and distributed worksheets, on both arithmetic fundamentals and on harder problems. A number of students were more intent on the cookies than the mathematics, and more than a few parents used the Club as afterschool care. Nonetheless, a lot of students practised a lot of mathematics.
Although of course Marty was pleased with the success of Math Club, he eventually realised he was only administering. There were smart, keen students for whom he could never find a moment to chat. So, Marty talked to Peter about running extension classes during class time. Peter was more nervous about this but he talked to the 5-6 teachers and they eventually agreed. And so, Marty began meeting with a dozen or so students, once per week, to work on puzzles and problems and Smullyan. Later, Marty arranged for a couple dozen Club and Extension students to take part in the Australian Maths Competition, which was paid for by David’s school.
The next year, Maths Club and Extension Mathematics ticked along happily. Mostly. Marty requested to also teach 3-4 Extension Mathematics and Peter agreed. The 3-4 teachers, however, disagreed. They argued to Peter that none of the 3-4 students were ready for Extension. This was false, of course, and Marty knew by way of explicit examples that it was false. But Peter would not overrule the teachers. This left Marty with a very bad taste.
Nonetheless, Maths Club and 5-6 Extension Mathematics ticked along happily, and grew. David returned with a new group of students. Moneypenny kept drilling students on their tables. Marty’s companion and the mother of their daughters introduced the game of 24, which then took over a sizeable fraction of the Club. Marty again arranged the AMC and many more students participated, again paid for by David’s school. At the end of the year, however, Peter announced that he was not returning to the school.
The next year the school had a new Principal, let’s call him Richard. Richard was a Leader. Richard was a Rules man. Richard didn’t like chaos. Richard had a thing against “baubles”. David’s class did not return. Maths Club ended. Extension Mathematics ended. None of the students at the school that year participated in the AMC.
The End.
A new Principle or a new Principal?
Not all Principals have Principles (which I’m guessing is the moral of the story).
No. The Principal, in the parable, had principles. They differed, in the parable, with Marty’s principles.
I was (in a roundabout way) trying to point out that you said Principle when I think you meant Principal. Final paragraph, first sentence.
Ah, stupid me. Corrected now. Thanks.
Well that has sent me down a number of interesting rabbit holes. Very sorry the new Principal lacked any common sense.
On the contrary, I think the Principal’s sense is very common.
And therein lies the problem.
This reminds me of a Grade 7-8 teacher many years ago who taught a very popular mathematics course heavy of mastering basic techniques but also with interesting extra stuff. He would bring his kids occasionally to the university for a session, and the kids were great. However, it was seen by the local board as “elitist”, he was given no encouragement and his offer to give workshops for other teachers were rebuffed. He eventually quit his job and founded a school called Spirit of Math which is still operating.
However, a lot really does depend on the principal and regardless of the rules from above, a progressive principal can often find cracks in the system to do some good work.
A friend of mine who was a principal at a secondary school said there are two kinds of principals: the teacher at the top of their career and the administrator at the bottom of their career. The former hangs around the school a lot, talks to the students and teaches and generally is on top of the situation; the latter is often off to meetings, leaves a lot of the heavy lifting to the vice principal and generally does not want to rock the boat. Marty’s second principal might have been the latter.
Oh that is a loss to so many students across two schools.
What would be better is having these programs run by the primary school itself and the government ensuring they were appropriately funded.
Chaos, cookies and baubles – where all the magic happens.
What a pity! I’m afraid that the gravity in the system will usually eventually win. It’s like Evaluation Units in the public service – many Execs don’t really want to know if things don’t go well (unlike ordinary public servants who are interested in doing better). So an enlightened exec sets one up and then moves or is promoted and the next exec gets rid of it when the next round of cuts is due (and then of course in comes Deloitte etc to the rescue).
These things last while good people are in place and my take is to focus on what was achieved in a short space of time, rather than to get upset when the (probably) inevitable takes place.
The Principal is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO important (and unfortunately there are only so many really good ones to go about). Also the older ones may have mellowed, made their mistakes and learned and can understand the importance of bending the rules, but they tend to retire – sigh …..
Everything inside the box, nothing outside the box, everything so that DoE/parents/unions can not have a “problem” with.
We are truly in mediocrity civilization now.
But, even Escalante got smashed by his school management (latter one, after the successes) and (enough of ) fellow teachers.
May be it is all destined to be the jib for private after school small companies? It should not but..