Author: Dr. Jenny McCormack Walker, Literacy Texas Executive Director
When I was in high school, I sat down with my guidance counselor to talk through my college and career dreams.
“Jenny, what do you want to major in?” Ms. McGregor asked me.
“Whatever I can sign up for that requires the least amount of math,” I said boldly.
And, thus, a journalism major was born.
When I enrolled at the University of North Texas, I was a bit dismayed to find that despite my best efforts, I did have to take two math classes for my bachelor’s degree in journalism – college algebra and elementary statistics.
Over the course of the next two years, my fight or flight response kicked in, and flight kept winning. I finally ended up with a professor who wouldn’t allow me to drop the course the minute my math anxiety set in. He took baby steps with me through every office hour, every quiz, and every test. It was the proudest I have ever been to earn a C. Then came my reward: meeting the prerequisite to enroll in elementary statistics.
The first day, I walked in to meet Dr. Quintanilla. He was a brilliant professor with a CV that included an ivy league education and research studies with titles made of mathematic words I had never heard. I braced myself for another drop request. What I found instead was the power of good teaching and an instructor that cared about the success of his students.
Dr. Quintanilla not only crafted lessons and examples that helped math make sense, but he also did it with humor and a heavy dose of compassion for students who were reluctant mathematicians. What’s more is that he took the time to learn the names of every single student in the class, and it was not a small class. I enjoyed it so much that I never even considered dropping the course.
I learned so much about good teaching from Dr. Quintanilla, and I carried those lessons with me when I became an educator. Before I worked in adult literacy, I taught high school English. I decided that if Dr. Quintanilla could lead me to like math, then I could lead my students to like Shakespeare. It started with a love of the content and solidified with a genuine care for student success. I learned both of those things from Dr. Quintanilla.
As I started thinking about math education in preparation for our math theme this month, memories of being in Dr. Quintanilla’s class came to mind. I looked him up, and I was happy to find that he still works at UNT. I sent him an email to let him know that more than 20 years later, I still think about that statistics class. I told him that a bit of his legacy lives in every single lesson I teach and every training I present. I was thrilled to have a response from him. What a blessing to be able to tell people when they are excellent and that their work is impactful!
Years later, I went on to take three statistics classes as part of my doctoral studies. I’m thankful for the confidence that elementary statistics class, and Dr. Quintanilla, helped me build.
As we consider incorporating math education and numeracy into our literacy programs, it’s important for instructors to handle reluctant learners with care and help them build a sense of capability. They can do it. We just have to remind them sometimes.
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