For people curious about my teaching style or even what my personality is like, I’d like to share two stories with you.
First Story
A few years ago, I was teaching AP Calculus and AP Micro/Macroeconomics at a high school in China. I had incredibly small classes with only three or four students in each class because the school was struggling financially. It was also struggling on an interpersonal level; a wave of distrust and resentment had swept through the ranks of those who remained on the otherwise beautiful, neoclassical campus.
In one such example of the school’s breakdown, a teacher had used a permanent marker left near a whiteboard by accident; the permanent marker had stained the board and made the board unusable. The teacher who left the marker blamed the teacher who used the marker, saying they should have been more careful. The teacher who used the marker blamed the person leaving the marker, saying their routine had been disrupted by their careless action.
Since I guess both had a point, neither planned to do anything about the stained board. Of course, if the board was not treated, it would become permanently unusable. Also, something like glass cleaner could get the stains off, but none was to be found nearby. Instead, I discovered while using what I had that you could remove the stains with some hot water, soap, and about 20 minutes of elbow grease.
I decided then that I would remove the stains. A Chinese girl who was in my class saw my cleaning and came by to talk to me. She was an artist and generally disliked math very much. When she saw me cleaning, she turned to me and asked why I would clean someone else’s mess.
I remember turning to her and responding, “Because I want to.”
I also remember from that day on that the student and I grew in our relationship, and that she became much more engaged with what we were doing. She may have even grown to like math once in a while.
Second Story
I had recently purchased Ethereum on Paypal, admittedly a stupid idea for many reasons.
I then noticed that my Ethereum was for some strange reason no longer in my account.
When I called the customer service agent up to ask where my ETH had gone, the agent informed me that it may have been stolen from my wallet. I told her it shouldn’t be possible because the wallet is a “virtual wallet” for which no public or private keys are issued. She didn’t seem to believe me, but then asked me to hold while she asked her manager about what was going on.
Fortunately, I had the foresight to not get angry and the situation, and even told the agent, truthfully, that I didn’t mind waiting.
I would wait for something like 10 hours over 5 days and many phone calls after.
In the end, they were able to recover my ETH and credit my account. I never got mad once.