You don’t know what you have until it is gone rings true to one specific group of people in my life: my high school math teachers. The most underrated teachers in my experience but they set you up for the most success in the long run. They are the ones that teach you the basics. They give you wiggle room for making mistakes and let you make corrections. I can still hear them say “your college professors are not going to be nice as me and probably not speak English," then the whole class would roll their eyes and laugh. I really wish I would have taken the warnings a little more seriously because now that I am in college, all I wish I could have back is my high school math class.
Since coming to college, the thing I miss the most it the points we would receive for trying. That little buffer in my grade that I knew would always end up saving me in the end. My teachers acknowledged that I was trying and reward my effort. I miss homework that wasn’t graded. Again, giving me the buffer I needed to do well in the class and freedom to turn in the same assignment over and over again for credit in the case of forgetting to do my homework. I am thankful for the projects we had to do that seemed pointless and probably were, but gave everyone easy points for completing it.
I miss only having twenty students in my math classes instead of forty by the end of the semester. Back then the teacher could tell if I was confused by the look on my face, not my instructors would not even know if I showed up for class or not. Having time in class to work on homework and ask questions is unheard of now. Partly because once the instructor says class is over no one wants to stay, but with office hours like 10-10:30 on Wednesdays only, it would be helpful to have a time that students could have help from their teacher. In high school, you always knew exactly where your math teachers were: in their office or in the teacher’s lounge. You could always track them down when you had a question.
What I miss the most though is teachers that I could understand. Yes, professors and instructors are very smart and know exactly what they are talking about but that is not helpful unless you can understand what they are saying. Most of the math department speaks English as a second language. This is the biggest hurdle we have to overcome in college math classes. For some people, including me, math is already hard to understand and not being to understand the person teaching adds a new obstacle to overcome while learning.
High school math teachers knew all the struggles their students were going to face in the time coming and they thoroughly prepared all of us. The best gift they gave me and maybe the best one I have ever received is all the notes I took in high school. So thank you math teachers you may be under-appreciated now but once your students graduate they will be wishing they were back in your class.
