Monday, December 11, 2006 Numb3rs By Karl A.E.F. Cabilao
IF I’d be asked to point out my Achilles’ heel, mathematics would be one of them.
My only consolation is that I share an abhorrence for the numeric with a lot of people. That’s why I steered clear of engineering in college, but it seems like there’s no escaping math; architecture still had calculus in it.
It is safe to declare that I don’t belong to the same breed as this young mathematics educator from Mandaue. Thirty-something Rhett Anthony Cabahug Latonio, school administrator of the Sotero B. Cabahug Forum for Literacy (Forum), loves math and imparting his knowledge on this tricky subject to others. Recently, he did Cebu proud as he was among those chosen to present their masteral thesis in a conference of the Philippine Council of Mathematics Teachers & Educators (MATHTED) at the Ateneo de Manila University.
This penchant for numbers, though, was not congenital. He admits: “I struggled with Math when I was studying at the Cebu City National Science High School, so I had to study harder than most of my classmates. This gave me the chance to learn more about math and that’s when I started appreciating the subject. I still struggle with new math concepts, but that is part of my enjoyment in studying the subject. That of challenging myself to understand these concepts,” he shares.
Now, he’s looking forward to the opening of their High School Department next school year with the near completion of their new school building at the Consolacion Campus. And yes, he will be teaching Mathematics there.
What was the masteral thesis about?
It’s entitled An Exploratory Study in Determining Algebra Learning Readiness Levels of Randomly Selected Grade Three and Grade Four Students of a Private Elementary School in Central Visayas. It dealt with algebra in elementary levels. I was lucky enough to have as my thesis adviser Dr. Catherine P. Vistro-Yu, one of the finest and most dedicated math educators not just in the Philippines but also elsewhere. She also happens to be married to a Cebuano, Dr. Darwin Yu.
Tell us about your presentation at the MATHTED conference in Manila?
I was just one of several Math educators who were asked to share the results of our studies. The audience was composed mostly of Math educators from private and public schools. Also, during this conference, my fellow math teachers in Forum and I, in partnership with Dr. Peter Howard of the Australian Catholic University, conducted an action research on teaching fractions, probability, equality and patterns in the elementary years. The results of this action research were also presented during the conference through a workshop. That was the first ever Math Education conference I attended and I found it not only educational but also enjoyable. Incidentally, MATHTED’s next conference will be held in Cebu on October next year. This would be a great opportunity for math teachers here to attend this event and update themselves on what’s going on in the world of math education.
Why do you love Math?
There are, as some of my Ateneo professors would call, “times when the jumble of numbers which you’ve been staring at for so long starts making sense and the feeling of triumph and sense of fulfillment that one feels every time I started to understand a concept”. I can still remember pumping my fist when I solved a problem in high school even if it was a very simple one. It’s like the emotional high I feel after successfully issuing an assist when playing basketball, hahaha.
What do you envision about the soon-to-open Forum High School?
Forum has always been a shared dream of my parents (Raul and Guadalupe)–to establish a school that puts a prime on academics and the values of hard work, honesty and integrity. The opening of the high school department is an expansion of this dream. Forum high is envisioned to provide responsive education to its students. Its core subjects would still be English, Science and Math while co-curricular and extra-curricular activities are aimed at providing students with knowledge and skills which the administration feels may help students succeed in the global community. Of course, there will always be that strand of values strengthening throughout high school.
What is your advice to young people who don’t like Math?
Get to know math better first before dismissing it as just another difficult subject. The more you know about it, the more you will appreciate its importance in today’s technology-driven world. Knowing a subject better can only be done if more time is spent studying it. Just like sports, you have to practice in order to become better at it. Also, Math has always had that stigma as a feared or hated subject so spending time with people who enjoy or appreciate math might make one see the subject from a more positive perspective.
How do you think Math can help in most of today’s real world problems?
Most of the technology we’re using has some form of math in their foundation. That alone is already a big contribution of math in solving real world problems. But what I would want my students to also learn from math, which I hope they would apply to their everyday lives, is perseverance—that even if faced with a difficult problem, they won’t back down [until they solve it].
