We have many titles. We’re warriors and peacemakers, readers and builders, students and teachers. More importantly, we’re the strangest anomalies in high school. We’re teenagers that actually like our math class. To most people, however, we’re just the kids that take SIMMS .
It has come to my attention that some (obviously jealous) students doubt us. They call our class a joke, our knowledge inadequate and our workload too light. They don’t realize that the real difference between their class and ours is much simpler.
At South, I’ve taken some pretty amazing classes. None of these, however, managed to break free from the competitive culture our school fosters. Somehow, SIMMS has done that. It’s not a very test or homework heavy class. I’ve never stayed up late finishing a math assignment. But despite half the stress, I’m learning twice as much.
In SIMMS, I learned trig and how long it takes a baby bird to opens its eyes (usually within four or five days). I can create cartoon characters on my calculator. Not only can I predict and graph the change in owl populations, I can draw pictures to go alongside it. Above all, I know high school would have really sucked without Mamma Hollingsworth. True, not all of it was math, but we learned our fair share. It just didn’t involve the kind of stress that takes five years off your life.
In fact, the class reduced a lot of stress. Whether it was spending a class reviewing physics or taking ten minutes to vent about college, SIMMS made South just a little more bearable.
We’ve built the sort of community that every high schools dreams of obtaining but never quite achieves. After four years together, we’ll even open up about a break up. I’ll share things in our weekend updates I don’t tell some of my friends.
One day, when Ms. Hollingsworth noticed a particularly sour mood, she passed out heart shaped post-its. While we also worked on some math, she instructed us to write notes for each other on the pink hearts. By the end of that class, everyone was covered in the notes they’d received. Some were heart warming and others were more than a little goofy. We were giving hearts to peers we probably wouldn’t speak to if not for SIMMS. When the bell rang, everyone was smiling and headed off to D Block in a great mood.
These are the things I tell people who consider taking the class. My actual favorite part, though, is far more personal than any of these. It’s just that, until SIMMS, I thought I was bad at math. I’m not super and there are plenty of more talented kids in my class. But I’m a lot better than my middle school teacher thought I was. I don’t learn math well when it’s taught according to the normal Newton curriculum. The real life applications, the group work and the pressure free atmosphere of SIMMS allowed me to realize I actually grasp the subject pretty well.
After spending years resigned to the fact that I just wasn’t a “math person,” this revelation was life changing. It’s made me wonder. If I can handle math after all, what else can I do? Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m no athlete, but maybe that’s just a result of poor NGS coaching. I haven’t gotten around to testing my theory, so I can’t say for sure. But if 20 years from now, you find me kicking a soccer ball with the best of them, I’ll have SIMMS to thank.
