“Most people never get to see how brilliant they can be. They don’t find teachers that believe in them. They get convinced they’re stupid.”

— ‘Tom’ played by John Mighton in “Good Will Hunting”

John Mighton is a playwright, author and math scholar working out of the Fields Institute at the University of Toronto. With the unique combination of mathematics and theatre backgrounds he was asked to consult and eventually appear in “Good Will Hunting”. John empathized with the character of Will (Matt Damon) in that he received lackluster grades in high school mathematics but always wondered if his grades reflected his potential.

Early inspiration came to John when he read the works of poet Sylvia Plath. He was impressed with Plath’s mastery of prose in that she learned the art through calculated and applied effort. Speaking of Plath he notes:

“Reading about the methods that Plath used to teach herself to write gave me a great deal of hope.”

John’s grades in English Composition were average but he decided then that his grades would no longer define his potential. Going forward with the mantra that grades were not destiny – fast forward a few years – and John is an acclaimed playwright and was granted a PhD in mathematics.

In high school, I wrote an essay titled “Are we all as naïve as marks?” outlining several problems I saw in education. The first was the idea that class averages should be 60%. I wondered then as I continue to wonder now: doesn’t that entail that we systemically set a goal whereby we fail to inspire 2/3rds of our students? The second problem came from the musings of a few teachers in the hallway remarking that a course had gotten much better in that the grades of the students had dropped, implying that the material presented was more advanced. The counterpoint to that is that if the presentation of said material improved, shouldn’t the course get better by having the grades raise?

Speaking with John was like breathing in a long awaited breath of fresh air. Not only does he agree that these faulty bases of education are in error, he’s gone on to prove them to be fallacious. John established JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies: www.jumpmath.org ), a charity aimed at improving teaching techniques and math curriculum. In his work he’s discovered that math education, perhaps counter intuitively for such a logical subject, is a question of belief.

John feels that ability, mathematic and otherwise is an ‘emergent’ phenomenon. Many of us performed ‘titrations’ in high school chemistry where we added reagent drop by drop into a solution until suddenly, with one drop, the entire solution suddenly changed colour. Likewise with math students John has observed that: “many kids seem to be at the limit of their ability. Then with one drop they’ll suddenly leap to a whole new level of talent. If you’re not willing to rigorously add those drops, you’ll never see that emergent talent if the belief isn’t there.”

Regarding the assumption that a bell curve should be present in every class (another way of saying that the average should be around 60%) John notes that: “if 2/3rds of the class aren’t going to get a good mark then those kids will either convince themselves that they’re stupid or the subject is stupid and then you get a drag on the class and a very inefficient method for teaching.” John promotes tests a vehicle for highlighting students’ abilities rather than a ranking. In his book “The End of Ignorance” John remarks that “test scores say more about the teacher’s ability to teach rather than the ability of the students.”

John’s work with JUMP is invaluable in that it provides concrete proof that “if teachers teach math with the right materials, training, and philosophy then they can ensure that virtually every kid will do well.

“John Mighton may well become the nation’s math conscience. He not only knows that all children can master genuine mathematics but has repeatedly proved so with his brilliant, no-nonsense … program.”

– Andrew Nikiforuk, Education Writer and award-winning author, commenting on JUMP founder John Mighton

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More information can be found at: www.jumpmath.org