When people ask me if there was a teacher that prompted my interest in maths, I always answer with a definitive “yes”! Most of my maths classes in elementary and secondary school were not very inspiring. The teacher would share some methods and I would power through textbook questions, trying to finish them quickly. I was “good” at maths and so when it came time to choose 4 subjects for A-level years, I chose maths to be one of them. I went to a public secondary school called King Edward VI school, and wore the uniform that students are still wearing, according to the photos on their website. A-level classes are for students in the last 2 years of secondary school – when they are 17 and 18 years old. I chose “pure and applied mathematics” which is when I met Mrs. Marshall.
My first memory of Mrs. Marshall was her running up the stairs to our classroom, coming into the room out of breath, throwing herself against the door which she slammed behind her and panting – sharing with relief that she had just missed the head teacher (principal), who would have reprimanded her for wearing dangly earrings. I was immediately in awe of this rule breaking woman – who was so personable and friendly and different from any other maths teacher I had ever known. Then she did something even more remarkable. She told us that we would learn the calculus ideas she was teaching us by talking to each other in groups. This was my first time of discussing mathematical ideas with my friends and it gave me access to a depth of understanding I had not even known possible. I am forever grateful to Mrs. Marshall for this experience, as my friends and I delved into limits and derivatives, discussing what they meant and how they could be used. It was many years later, when I first became a professor at Stanford, that I conducted a research study of students learning calculus and found that students who discussed the ideas in groups developed wholly different – and better – relationships with mathematics.
I have talked about Mrs. Marshall so many times in interviews I decided to try and get in touch with her last year. I contacted the school and found her email and reached out to her. She is in her eighties now. I told her how inspirational she had been to me and we had a lovely interchange, sending each other photos and news.
One conclusion I drew from this experience was this. It only takes one teacher to change students’ mathematical relationships and life trajectories. Even though my experience with Mrs. Marshall was one maths class and all others had been the repetition of procedures, my experience learning calculus, collaboratively, changed me forever.
