Firm Roots, Expanding Radius: Building Strong Math and Science Foundations That Reach Far

Why the new branding as “Root & Radius Tutoring"?” It has that old-school pub vibe to it (like “The Bearded Goat” or “Eagle and Child”) with a little alliteration (like “The Prancing Pony” or “Bird and Baby”) and hits some recognizable math themes. I like that “root” has the double meaning of roots on a tree and square roots - math skills in particular must have a strong foundation. Every skill mastered becomes part of a new set of skills and gets built upon, layer by layer.

I thought of a grade 12 student I helped last spring who was struggling in his Math 30-1 class. It turned out that he had trouble with understanding integers (positive and negative numbers) and combining like terms, skills that he should have picked up in grades 7-9 (when, it turned out, he was doing virtual classes because of Covid-19). I don’t know how he was able to get as far as he did in his math courses, but we had to go back and shore up those skills, and that’s when it started to click for him. His mom expressed wonderment that she’d waited so long to get him some help, and I felt bad for him that he’d had to struggle with math for his entire high school career because he’d missed these roots.

To grow, strong roots are a must. My wife has about 30 fruit trees planted in the yard, and we learned the hard way that how they’re planted matters. Sometimes after a transplant, there’s what looks like a die-off as the plant focuses underground and lets the leaves slough off, maybe even lets branches die. It needs those roots to be functional. Once they’re established, though, the tree will start noticeably taking off, new growth all over.

This can happen with students, too, and it’s a lot of fun to take some students who are already caught up and start racing ahead with them. I have a grade 8 student with a fantastic curiosity, and because he can do most algebra problems and enjoys the challenge, we are exploring high school physics together this summer, concepts and equations both. The radius of his knowledge and abilities keeps expanding.

This is what we hope for in our kids, right? Strong roots, and a far-reaching radius. That’s what I strive for with the students I work with, and I’m happy to see that reflected in the name of my business.