PERSONAL GLIMPSES FROM TWO GIFTED STUDENTSAuthor(s): Jeremy PrimerSource: The Mathematics Teacher, Vol. 76, No. 4, Gifted Students (April 1983), pp. 236-237Published by: National Council of Teachers of MathematicsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27963457 .

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PERSONAL GLIMPSES ROM TWO GIFTED STUDENTS

Jeremy Primer

By the time I completed seventh grade, I had received a good foundation in math ematics. I had been tutored in algebra by older students and had taken Mary Dell Morrison's excellent honors geometry and

precalculus courses at the local high school.

Socially I was not a high school student, but I accepted my situation and had a fine time learning mathematics. Miss Morrison was in charge of th?

school mathematics team, and with her en

couragement, I began to participate in mathematics contests?county, state, re

gional, national, and finally, five years after

my debut, the International Olympiad. Mathematics competitions were good prac tice in handling pressure and brought together many students with similar aca demic interests. While participating in a mathematics contest during my ninth

grade year, I heard about the mathematics summer program at Hampshire College* and pr?mptly decided to attend.

At Hampshire I learned a great deal of mathematics and developed an intense in

Jeremy Primer is an undergraduate student at

Princeton University majoring in mathematics.

terest in studying mathematics for its own sake. Professors and students from several universities taught for four hours each

morning and held problem sessions at

night. No pressure was applied to compete for grades; there were no grades! The fifty students who attended Hampshire cooper ated with each other in an informal atmos

phere. Although this six-week summer

program formed only a small part of my mathematical training, it had a tremendous

impact on my life. What is special about the Hampshire

College summer program? Why is the pro gram so popular with gifted students?

1. Even in the classroom, students devel

op the mathematics themselves to wh?tever extent they can, with guidance from the teacher and without a cookbook textbook.

Everyone, including the teacher, is welcome to lead the entire class astray occasionally. Even false starts are educational, and so the time they require is well spent.

2. The mathematics is fresh?new to the students and exciting to the teachers. Most of the mathematics taught at Hampshire is not taught in American high schools?

subjects like number theory, simple topol ogy, combinatorics, and graph theory?all ideal topics for genuine enrichment and some m?re applicable to our computerized world than most of the traditional cur riculum.

3. No overbearing pressure to succeed nor any explicit competition is involved. The motivation comes, instead, from a sense of community and excitement,

Hampshire uses subtle psychology to good

* The deadline for application to the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics program is 15 May. For information and applications, write to David C. Kelly, Direc tor, Box SS, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA 01002.

236 Mathematics Teacher

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advantage, creating a cohesive community with mathematics at its core.

I think it an admirable goal to create a

peer group of teenagers that is, in fact, a

small mathematical community. And if stu

dents can understand the value of a math

ematical community, then they have, in my

opinion, discovered the only real use for

unapplied pure mathematics.

Jeremy Primer Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544

Susan Staples

Two questions I often hear are "How

did you ever get interested in mathemat ics?" and "Why do you think you do well in it?" My reply is that an encouraging teacher is behind any successful, bright stu

dent. I had one and would like to share with you some of my experiences from high school.

As a junior, I was given the opportunity to take calculus with the seniors. Although at first I was somewhat wary of working with an older group of students, I am very

glad now that I was in a class with others. Whenever possible, the advanced student should not be isolated. So much more

learning can take place when working with

peers, and the feedback is invaluable. As a senior, I studied some number

theory and additional geometry in individ ualized and small-group reading programs

Susan Staples is an undergraduate student at Case

Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, ma

joring in mathematics.

when I had completed the courses my school had to offer. I feel I benefited from this work, primarily because my teacher and I set specific goals and followed up on

plans, discussing any necessary changes. An individualized program that lacked struc ture might not have been as successful.

The geometry class I took as a senior was quite special and deserves more men tion. My teacher checked at neighboring schools for other students interested in ac

celerated courses. Three of us met once a

week and discussed the previously assigned problems from Coxeter's Geometry, We tried to answer each other's questions and fill in any gaps left from our reading. This was more valuable than studying alone, for interest spirals when you have some way to share what you are learning with fellow students. Mathematics education does not have to

end in the classroom. The mathematics team was one of my most rewarding activi ties in high school, and I will always have fond memories of the work and the team

spirit. Some of the team-round questions reinforced topics from the curriculum in an

enjoyable way and certainly developed co

operative skills. I was also lucky enough to

attend Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics,4' a program for high school students sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

In closing, I want to thank my high school guides to success in mathematics, Veronica Flangheddy and Martin Badoian, and hope that my article has inspired the readers of this note to reach out to a gifted student.

Susan Staples Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 44106

April 1983 237

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