Like many students, there was a point in my academic career when I questioned the relevance of school. I had convinced myself there was little possibility that I would “ever use this stuff again” once I left the classroom.
So, feeling brazen, one day I challenged my teacher with my “rationalistic” perspective. I raised my hand and blurted out, Why do we have to LEARN this, anyway? It’s so BORING!
The class went silent. Luckily, my teacher had a seasoned rebuttal and without blinking replied, “Well, are you planning on eating lunch today?”
Taking a stance, I nodded.
“What do you have in your lunch?” He asked.
Frowning, I listed a cheese sandwich, an apple, a yogurt, and an oatmeal cookie.
“I see," he replied. ‘You know, without geometry and fractions, you wouldn’t be eating ¾ of your lunch today.”
Cynically, I pondered the point of his statement. Of course, after class as I was gathering my books, my teacher sat down next to me.
“So, Sallie, it seems like you are frustrated with fractions.”
Nodding, I told him that yes, I thought fractions were dreadfully boring, not to mention I just couldn’t see myself ever needing to use such a thing ever again. Plus, studying fractions on flashcards was lame.
"Well, do you like to cook?” He inquired.
Yes, I do it all the time with my mother.
“Great!" he announced as he stood up and strolled over to his book case. After taking a few minutes to run his fingers along the spines of a few of the most weathered in his collection, he wiggled one out, let it flop open to a random page, read a few lines, and then in a dramatic swoop, he tore out the whole page and then tore the page in half.
Looking at the shard of paper, I saw that it was a recipe for spaghetti sauce – but, he had removed all the measurements for each ingredient.
“That’s your homework assignment for tonight. Make this sauce.”
Later that day, I presented my mother with my assignment. She smiled and said she couldn’t express enough how excited she was to have a night off from dinner duty. And so it began – I pulled out all the ingredients listed, set them on the counter and surveyed the scene.
Ground beef. Salt. Pepper. Olive oil. Celery. Carrot. Onion. Tomato paste. Tomato chunks. Red wine. Garlic. Basil. Bay leaf.
Oh, this is going to be easy, I thought. Following the instructions to a T, I tossed in a hunk of beef, veggies and olive oil. I let it simmer down and then sloshed in an unknown amount of tomato paste and tomato chunks, followed by a good half bottle of red wine and the listed seasonings.
Cool, I thought, as I covered the pot. Now I let it simmer for 25 minutes, and the sauce is done!
Twenty five minutes later, I lifted the top off the pot to survey the scene. My mother, who was standing next to me, peered inside.
“Wasn’t this a recipe for tomato sauce?”
On my tip-toes, I looked into the pot. To my dismay, I was met with a pot of tomato soup.
I looked at my mother.
“Well, how much wine did you use,” she asked, poking a spoon at the bubbling liquid.
Oh – maybe half a bottle? I shrugged.
Doubling over in laughter, when she was finally composed, she reached for one of her cookbooks and flipped to a spaghetti sauce recipe that called for wine. A quarter cup of wine, that is.
The next day, my math teacher eagerly approached me before class.
“So, how did it go?”
I shifted my gaze a bit uneasily.
It went, well, I guess. But I ended up with SOUP instead of sauce.
“So something was off – do you know what?”
I nodded.
Too much wine for the amount of everything else in the pot.
“Ah," he confirmed. "So knowing how much of an ingredient you need per whole recipe is a KEY component to the successful outcome of – any dish?”
I sheepishly blinked in silence. Indeed, he was right.
For a while, I thought that my lesson was solely related to math. It wasn’t until I found myself dreading practicing Latin grammar rules with a high school classmate that I realized if we could commiserate, couldn’t we somehow find a way to make studying together fun?
Hence, the second part of my lesson on fractions sprung to life. Heading into the kitchen, we decided to cook an entire meal – using only vocabulary words from our study list and attempting to construct sentences using proper Latin grammar rules. The next day we both received A’s on our Latin grammar test, and we vowed to study the fun way for the rest of the semester.
Here are a few more ways to make studying fun:
Multiplication Tables: Grab a deck of cards, and throw down two. Shout out the product. This game can be played with one person at a time answering as quickly as possible, or it can be played as a competition to see who can come up with the answer first.
SAT Vocabulary Words: Pin index cards with vocabulary words around the house in key places like mirrors, the refrigerator, or next to the front door. Consider laminating word lists and sticking them in the shower or using them as place-mats.
Language Skills: With a friend, pick a fun activity like cooking, a board game, or riding bikes. Communicate and play during that activity using as little native language as possible.
