James Ferguson: Math

I taught at two schools last year long-term, for PE and Math: Mary Collins for PE and Analy for Math. The school offered me a job, and I knew some of the students here, so I took the job. It’s a good school. I’ve subbed here before and it’s close to my home. I think math is specifically important because you need to deal with frustration, and math is very frustrating. It’s like a sport; the more you practice, the better you get at it. Like Steve Jobs said, ‘There’s a lot of beauty in simplicity.’ It’s way more difficult to think of a simple idea than a complicated idea. That’s all math is: taking big, complicated problems and making them simple problems. My goal is to make it to the end of the year and think ‘Oh, I did it. I taught a whole year.’