Teaching is fun at Candy Math

It used to be #20! Yes twenty naira for an hour. And that timing was not even strict; at times it could stretch to two and even three. That was back then in 2003. I was fresh from the secondary school and #20 then though not that much, but when you make it in ten places and especially in the hand of a boy who was making money for the first time, it was a lot. It was enough to get me my first chicken pie and ice cream from Mr. Biggs’. I am sure that was the first time I entered Mr. Biggs. I can’t remember how it really started neither can I remember my first student but I can still remember parents sending their wards to me during my secondary school days to teach them one topic or the other in mathematics or to help them with their assignment. My fame increased the more during my first post secondary school education. For a reason, I didn’t stay in the hostel and this gave me time to spend with my students; most evenings and especially during the weekend. For a reason I don’t know, many people in the neighborhood assigned me the tag of “Mathematics tutor expert’. My students then made a lot of contribution to this, they spread rumor of a perfect mathematician everywhere they found themselves. But far from it I was neither a ‘mathematics expert” nor an expert in teaching, I was not even a trained teacher! So what did they all see in me? One thing I can’t deny is my passion for teaching. I have it in abundance. I could teach for hours and I so much love it. Another thing that I think helped me and is still helping me till today is my love of writing. By the time I was in my first year at Senior Secondary school, I was already writing a story that takes an entire sixty leaves exercise book. And by the time I was in my final year in 2003, I was known all over the school for my writing Prowess. Any student of School of Science, Ondo road, Ile-Ife, Osun State around 2001 to 2003 can testify to it. They might not know me by name but just tell them that guy that used to write… Sorry if I sounded ‘prouding’ back to the matter at hand. You wonder how my love of writing made me a better teacher? In writing, novels especially, we seek to narrate events in the most interesting way possible, and that is what I brought into teaching mathematics. Though initially, my knowledge of content matter was low, once I read it, I have a way of conveying it in the simplest manner possible. One of my most memorable events in teaching came three years ago when I was still based in Ile-Ife. A woman called to tell me she would love me to coach her child for the upcoming Examination. Her daughter made all her papers except English language in the immediate past WAEC. All my explanation that while my education as a computer scientist afford me the opportunity of being versed at Mathematics, the same cannot be said of English Language did not impress her. She claimed she got my number from some students who were discussing me in a commercial vehicle on her way to Ilesha. (Ilesha is a neighboring town to Ife) The students really poured so much encomium on me that she actually thought I was a university don. Though she offered to pay me what I considered obscene money then I did not take the offer. I instead got one of my colleagues at a school where I was working then to help her. The rest is history; the girl passed her English paper with distinction. And I was able to make up to her when she was preparing for her UTME. Fast forward to 2014, the least I charge for an hour is #1300. The economic condition in the society is bad and many parents can barely afford to provide the basic needs of their ward let alone pay for extra home tuition so that minimum fee comes into play. After all said and done I have two students that are on scholarship. God has been good and nothing stops me from helping others. I no longer have to combine the lesson with a daily job again; this has given me more time to pursue other things like my writing which has taken a back bench due to inadequacy of time. I work less than three hours a day and I earn more than triple what I earn before working eight hours a day. In addition, I have an opportunity of helping others get extra money in their free period. And on top of it, I contribute my own quota to the raising of mathematics geniuses of our time and a generation of students who sees mathematics as fun rather than something frightening or boring. Our aim as always at Candy mathematics remains presenting mathematics to students in the simplest possible way. We are devoted, passionate and ready to help your ward anywhere in Lagos and it’s environ. We are not there yet but we continue to strive, till we have presence all over the country … (All except the last two paragraph are adapted from my yet to be published book; GROWING THROUGH THE YEARS)