What is the probability of Mathematics and Love Island having anything in common? Zero. To me at least it was zero until one afternoon I binge-read a series of articles that this secondary high school maths teacher writes.
Bobby Seagull, his unique name had me googling him and my quest to know more about his mathe-magician tricks brought us to a discussion on the importance of number literacy among today’s youth on a Sunday afternoon at a café in East Ham.
“Table no. 9- it’s a square of 3!” he quickly notes, with an eyebrow raised.
“And that means 9 is not a prime number!” I finish off and he laughs at my reminder of his FT article. But how did this maths teacher venture into a tangential journey of writing Mathematical content for the newspapers that eventually culminated into a book for the budding author?
“Well I once went to a financial awareness campaign where I happened to meet this money editor and she told me about how they wrote financial content over mortgages and housing loans etc. And that they didn’t run anything about number literacy. Why don’t you write for us? she asked!”
And the writing solution was as simple as finding ‘x’ for this South-Indian guy of humble origins. Born and brought up in London, he talks about how in the UK, Maths is seen as a subject of the elite. This perception extents to such a degree that as many as 17 million adults, nearly 50 per cent of the working-age population of England, have the numeracy levels we would expect from primary school children.
But where does this anxiety about numbers stem into a child's psychology and more importantly have we as an education system failed to understand the basic needs of a child, I wonder aloud. To me the Pythagoras theorem is as important thought that leaves Bobby silent for a minute.
“I'm torn in two worlds. As a mathematician I want to say that trigonometry and other theorems should remain part of the curriculum. But my other half, the teacher in me is cognizant of the fact that not everybody wants to go ahead and become an engineer in life...!” he shrugs off and animatedly delves into explaining the basic maths that every adult should have a grasp of.
To Bobby, the concept of number literacy centres around the idea of youngsters not getting fleeced while out on shopping sprees when they cannot calculate the percentages off their heads and don't understand the difference between “upto 60% off” and “60% off”. He intends for the “Pay-as-you-go” youth to make comparative analysis of the interest rates offered, calculate their savings and take prudent investment decisions in terms of mortgages and car insurance.
While these concepts don't stretch to hard to be taught, most of the days trying to getting children interested in the subject is an uphill task in itself. So how does this Mathe-magician come up with abstract “twitter-trending ideas” and throw them into his ratio and proportion equations in class?
“Social media is the best thing. Instagram is the most approachable way of getting in touch with today's generation!” he says matter-of-fact. “But I also spend time with my students after class. I ask them about their plans for the day, and what's going on in their life and while talking to them if something strikes me...then that's that!”
And although, the idea of using Love Island as an engaging theme to teach probabilities and venn diagrams sounds interesting, Seagull's unconventional methods are quiet awhile met with skepticism from teachers across the board.
“It is unconventional but confrontation solves nothing. Rather if and when the teachers are present during my teaching sessions and if they see that the kids are more responsive to my way of learning methods then perhaps, they might deviate slightly from the patterns of strictly following the textbook!”
Today's GCSE syllabus has Bobby says amended quite where the questions now have more to do with the maths of day-to-day life. But he is quick to add how a lot more needs to be done.
“If there was one thing that I would change immediately after coming to power was ensuring that I made it mandatory for the kids to remember their times tables! They are somewhat comfortable upto five but beyond six and I see them struggling. I can bring in all elements of the great British Bake Off and things related to the teens but if they don’t have their basics ready then there is only so much that I can do!”
The young author who now has a logical formula to solving the rubric is intent on following through his new year's resolution of starting his own Wordpress Blog and possibly his own Youtube channel as well to release explainer videos. These initiatives are likely to save the day for those like me who struggle with compound interest calculations and in the meantime, then dive into The Life-Changing Magic of Numbers is published by Virgin Books.
