“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery”
Mark Van Doren
Throughout the five years that I spent in primary school, I never grasped mathematical concepts. Whether it was equations and inequalities, probability, or even number theory, my mind blanked. I didn’t hate maths, but it definitely made my heart skip a beat whenever my teacher announced another test or he cold called me on a question I definitely was not paying attention to.
Looking back at it, I was a overreacting a tad as I spent more time watching film and talking with friends than putting pen to paper. (Or pencil to paper as I made a lot of mistakes) Though, once I reached middle school, I began to change how I approached maths. I didn’t abandon a problem when I couldn’t solve it, instead I stuck to it, and tried my best to understand the problem than get done with it. I became stronger at maths as a result of this, and to the shock of my parents, actually found delight in the subject.
This soon was shown in my grades. I started scoring well on tests, better than I ever had in primary school. I also finished tests much more swiftly and was aplomb when I handed them in. Seeing this trend in my results, my maths teacher offered me to tutor the subject during break hours, and I contentedly accepted. I never knew that was the moment that my zeal for teaching began.
With each Tuesday, I taught my peers equations and inequalities, probability, and yes, number theory. As I taught, I became more passionate and did anything that I could to support their learning, whether that was figuring out how to design fresh problems, learn different methods of solving (still hate completing the square), and create personalized study material for them to use. I soon grew a knack of working with people and learning how I can help.
Nonetheless, this was the first step in my teaching tenure. As I reached towards the end of middle school, I started to gain an interest in the game of chess. Though I used to learn it in the past, I never appreciated the richness of chess. But, the game found its way back to me, and I decided to pick it up again. This proved to be a life-changing choice.
I swiftly learned the ins and outs of all sixty four squares on the board, and the distinct characteristics of the pieces. My instructor was taken aback, but was further inclined to work with me, and day by day I was able to become a natural at the game. Now, a half decade later, I am a tutor, a teacher, and an instructor myself to students across the country.
To get to the point, the reason why I am writing this is that teaching is valuable for the student and the teacher. Though my chess activity has fell stagnant throughout the years, teaching the game constantly refines my knowledge of theory and openings. Most of all, teaching provides a sense of delight that cannot be mimicked by any other trade. I would describe that euphoria in words but perhaps I let you undergo that sensation yourself.