A teacher’s extraordinary response to his student who couldn’t do her math

This math teacher wasn't going to let the quarantine stop him from (safely) doing his job.

The majority of teachers around the world are pulling out all the stops to help keep their students on track with their studies while in quarantine. From sending countless emails, to navigating new software to do online teaching, it’s an exhausting experience that requires patience, determination, and a lot of effort. So when one teacher received an email from a pupil who couldn’t come to grips with her math, he went above and beyond to make sure she understood the lesson.

Armed with a whiteboard and marker, Chris Waba went to his pupil’s house to teach her from a safe distance on her porch. The 12-year-old student, Rylee Andersen, explained to CNN, “My mom got all the questions wrong when she helped me before” — so she reached out to her teacher.

Waba replied to her email but realized that his student still wasn’t quite grasping the concept of graphing a function in algebra. Luckily Andersen was his neighbor so he was able to cross the street to make sure he could get the concept across to his young student.

My 6th grader emailed her math teacher for some help, so he came over & worked through the problem with her on our front porch. @Chriswaba9 , our neighbor, MMS teacher & MHS Wrestling Coach. #KidsFirst @MadisonMSNews @MarkOsports @dakotasportsnow @dakotanews_now @stwalter20 pic.twitter.com/aniqt2goPB
— Josh Anderson (@DakSt8Football) March 27, 2020

The teacher of 27 years at Maddison Middle School in South Dakota shared that he is more comfortable with face-to-face teaching and when he saw his pupil smile, he knew she’d finally understood the lesson. “That’s what teachers are looking for, those smiles. That’s the joy of being a teacher and that’s what we do it for,” he shared.

Andersen’s dad, Josh, shared the effort of his daughter’s teacher on Twitter. And it’s not a surprise that the post garnered thousands of likes. As everybody begins to adapt to this restrictive lifestyle, it’s so important to see these uplifting stories that show how there are people out there who won’t let a deadly virus stop then from safely carrying out their duties, albeit in a more unusual manner.