Dream of being good at math
Unexpectedly, when studying in sixth and then seventh grade, there will be a series of difficulties New towels came to me again. Math is not just arithmetic anymore. It added the subjects of geometry and algebra. The most disturbing thing is the geometry. But it is geometry that I am most interested in.
When talking about geometry, we have to talk about drawings. If you draw pictures well, your solution will be good. With feet, it’s difficult to just hold a straight ruler, let alone draw tricky horizontal and vertical lines that require precision.
My job is to practice how to hold the ruler securely when placing it on the paper. You can easily spread out two fingers and press the ruler. As for me, I can only use the big toe of my left foot to hold it, so when I use the pencil to draw a ruler, it’s often misaligned. So suddenly the straight line turned into a curved line. Many times, when the drawing is almost finished, I have to abandon it and redraw it. Having drawn the picture five or seven times, it still doesn’t work. Seeing that it was time consuming and wasting paper, I thought of a way to draw pictures without a ruler. At first, I drew with a pen and ink, the images were shaky and sometimes inaccurate.
Later I gave up the pen and used a pencil. When drawing is damaged, I erase it over and over again. This way of drawing helps me draw relatively accurate pictures when solving exercises without having to ask my friends to draw them for me. But we cannot be satisfied with that result. I think I need to find a way to draw beautiful pictures like you guys. That means I have to practice being able to use a ruler and pen when drawing.
I switched to practicing holding the ruler with my left heel. When drawing, the ruler no longer moves like before.
But a new difficulty occurs: The ruler is too small, so the heel often obscures the whole image. So I was always the one who launched it because I couldn’t see anything clearly. As a result, some lines that need to be short are drawn long, and some lines that need to be long are drawn too short. Sometimes I even want to draw a straight line and bracket the heel image into the article to form an arc.
How to fix this?
< p style="text-align:justify">It took me a long time to figure out how to make a very wide ruler with a handle on top. Now I don’t use my heel to measure the ruler anymore. I immediately used my index toe and thumb to grab the handle and press firmly on the paper. With this initiative, I was able to draw quite accurate images.
I thought everything was fine and I didn’t worry about drawing anymore. But not. I kept the compass in my hand but I still struggled not knowing how to turn. Turning right also gets stuck, turning left also gets stuck. My toes were so stiff that I couldn’t move the compass. In my panic, the compass nose tore through several pages of my notebook and I still haven’t been able to draw a single circle.
Since the day my mother bought me the compass- Every day I practice filming like that. Regardless of noon or night, whenever I have free time, I practice. Practice while waiting for meals. If my mother hadn’t urged me to go to sleep, I would have stayed up many nights practicing. But it’s been more than a week and still no results. Many times the Father said:
– Let me film for you.
– I don’t necessarily have to Practice turning it.
I no longer turn the compass with one foot and instead practice turning it with two feet. I used my right foot to hold the handle and put my left foot on the pencil holder to spin. But then I still can’t draw. Trying to bend my foot, I could only trace half a circle as far as it could go, but that half circle was also very off and broken. I suddenly came up with a way to spin twice. After turning half a turn, I lifted the compass and turned the paper and turned the other half. If only I had a good compass that didn’t change the aperture, maybe I would have succeeded. What should I do now?
The compass of a close friend
In the meantime something happened happened by chance. As usual, like every other afternoon that afternoon, when I got home from school, while waiting for lunch, I took out my books and “stirred up” the lessons when, oh my, a box almost as big as a dark red notebook page was right at the bottom of my book bag. I was stunned and didn’t know who put it there. I tremblingly opened it and was surprised to see a shiny nickel-plated Chinese compass along with a rose postcard and a short letter. I quickly picked up the letter:
“Give NNK, my dear friend, this small gift as a souvenir. Wishing you forever happiness, health and continuous improvement. . Your new best friend.
Signed: L.”
After reading the picture The letter moved me to tears. I kept thinking and still couldn’t figure out who L. was. Probably a classmate. But why “an unknown close friend”? Is there anyone in this class I don’t know yet? The sixth grade has been together for one year, nothing more. But why did he give me a compass? Did you know you needed a really good compass like this? The next day in class, I realized: L. was none other than Lieu, a girl in my class. I realized that when I saw the girls sitting at the next table staring at the “commemorative compass” I was practicing, giggling.
Since I got Lieu’s compass, my exercise has become easier. When I’m turning, I’m no longer afraid of the compass changing the distance because it’s controlled by a spiral.
Now I’ve switched to practicing turning the compass with Different ways. I used my two big toes to grip the end of the compass and turn. I was able to spin all the big and small circles to my liking.
But that was only success when spinning on a notebook to do normal exercises. As for the tests, I was confused. Because you have to rotate the compass on odd sheets of paper, when the compass tip rotates, the paper also rotates. So it was very difficult for me to control the pencil tip on the paper. I thought again: I don’t do math tests on separate pieces of paper anymore, but bind them into a book. In order to quickly have the assignment to submit to the teacher, I figured out how to use a needle to make a hole in the spine of the notebook like the border of a stamp. After completing the assignment, I just need to tear it up and submit it to the teacher.
But this method is still not satisfactory, I feel very constrained. too. I want to be able to use just one leg to turn a compass on paper like you can use your hands. The process of practicing spinning from before has made my toes soft, so I believe I can do it.
Seeing that I can spin a compass with one foot, teacher Chau is very happy. The teacher stood there watching me do the drawing exercise and nodded and said:
– Very good, you have a lot of good prospects!
And difficult math problems
Indeed, I got a score of five on that test (During this period, schools in the North still used a 5-point scale: a score of 5 was the maximum score like a 10 days now). Teacher Chau loves me very much. He has everything for me. I was short on paper and ink and he bought them all for me. My friends often jokingly call me “teacher’s pet”. Even though I have to walk up to 5 kilometers, I still love going to my teacher’s house to play on Saturday afternoon. Especially when the teacher gives me more difficult math problems to do, I really enjoy it. Knowing what he meant, every time I said hello to him, he always put a very special gift in his pocket for me. The teacher said happily:
– Here is Ky’s gift. When you’re done “eating”, remember to let the teacher know! – He smiled and told me.
That gift was a small piece of paper with difficult math problems that he had just collected and selected. I excitedly walked home quickly, eagerly opened it, read and re-read those math problems until I memorized them. No matter how difficult the problem is, I’m sure I can do it. I don’t think it’s possible in the afternoon so I leave it for the evening. If I don’t finish solving it that night, I’ll ask my mom to wake me up early to try again the next morning. Today is not finished, tomorrow we will continue. Just like that, no matter where I go, where I stand, where I sit, there are not many times when my mind is not awake thinking about a difficult problem. There was a math problem that was still puzzling when I was awake, but in my dream I suddenly found a good solution.
Teacher Chau was very pleased to see that I could do the picture problem. that. One afternoon I went up and explained the solution to the teacher in detail. The two teachers and students were so engrossed that it became dark without realizing it. Just in time, the northeast monsoon swept in with drizzle. Afraid that it wouldn’t be safe for me to go home alone, he took a flashlight and he and his students, wearing the same raincoat, led me home. As they walked, the two teachers and students talked about many things.
Preparing for that year’s district-level math excellent student exam, I was selected by Mr. Chau to be on the list. alternate books. I am both happy and sad, both happy and sad. Why did my teacher love me so much and not hesitate to put me on the official list? Only later did I understand: science is science and love is love. For me, those two concepts are never confused. Any indulgence towards science is a suicide knife to itself.
And indeed it was with that decision that Mr. Chau saved me. Freeing myself from subjective illusions ignites more intensely within me the fire of self-esteem, self-love, and determination not to rely on myself but to surpass myself with tireless efforts to best prepare for the upcoming exam. Day and night I worked hard, passionately awake and happy to the point of tears when I found a new solution to a difficult problem. My math progress continues to improve day by day. And one day my whole class shouted with joy when the school announced: in the recent exam for excellent math students, I won first prize in the entire district and then third prize in the entire province.
Nguyen Ngoc Ky (born June 28, 1947) in Hai Thanh Hai Hau Nam Dinh. He had both arms paralyzed since he was 4 years old; When I was 7 years old, I went to school and used my feet to write. Twice he was awarded badges by Uncle Ho for his achievements in overcoming difficulties and studying well. In 1970, he graduated from University with the Faculty of Literature, then taught and became an Outstanding Teacher in 1992. He was the first Vietnamese writer to write with his feet.
Excerpt from the work “I go to school” – writer Nguyen Ngoc Ky
According to First News Publishing House
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