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The Enterprise
60 Main St.
P.O. Box 1450
Brockton, MA 02303-1450
(508) 586-6200
Do the math
By Seth Owen, Enterprise staff writerSTOUGHTON — The dozen and a half boys and a few girls debated and laughed. But they weren't discussing the latest video game or hot new recording artist. The topic, like it is every Tuesday at 8 a.m., was math.
"The numbers go up in a pattern," one student said at a recent South Area Solomon Schechter Day School math team meeting as he intently studied the board.
"Let's try it and see," said Shai Simonson, a professor of computer science at Stonehill College in Easton most of the time, but some mornings a middle school-level math teacher here.
The students were trying to figure out the solution to "Wythoff's Nim," a mathematical game that can be found in graduate-level college courses. But today it was sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders who were tackling the puzzle and enjoying it.
Meital Haas, 12, a seventh-grader at the Jewish school, said she has been going to math team for two years.
"Shai makes it fun. It's fun to figure out problems and it's something satisfying," she said.
Eighth-grader Reuben Aronson, 13, agreed. "I like the challenge and I like to figure out how to solve it," he said.
Simonson said the math team is an enrichment program that helps the school in its mission of teaching students how to think.
"These won't be people easily fooled," he said. "They learn to question and figure out answers for themselves."
Wythoff's Nim is a mathematical game in which the object is to figure out the perfect moves. The players alternate subtracting numbers from two piles.
They can subtract any number from one pile or the same number from both until both piles are gone.
The object is to make a move that forces the other player into a losing move.
For example, if a player can move so that one pile has two and the other one, that player is guaranteed to win.
If the opponent subtracts one from the second pile on his move, the player can subtract one from each pile to win. Every other possible move by the opponent also leads to a win.
Simonson said exploring math through games such as that makes the subject fun while getting the students to think.
"Let's try a different game," Simonson said.
Pointing to a chessboard-like grid on the wall, he said the object this time was to alternate moving a chess queen toward one corner, with the person getting to the corner winning.
"That's the same game," said Jacob Ahearn, 14, an eighth-grader.
"It took Jacob about six seconds to figure out what it took mathematicians years to notice," Simonson said, explaining that the grid version of the game was published in a math journal in 1960 without people noticing at first it was the same as the number version of Wythoff's Nim, first published in 1907.
"Today I felt kind of 'mathy,' " said Ahearn. "A lot of the time I'll throw out an idea as long as it makes some sense and I can think of some grounds to base it on."
Simonson said that enthusiasm is part of the reason why he likes teaching math at the school.
"College students are expected to do more on their own. Here I get to interact more," he said.
Jane Cohen, who is head of the school, said the math team and teachers like Simonson make the school special.
A member of one of three families who founded the school 14 years ago, Cohen said recruiting teachers like Simonson is only possible because of the religious aspect of the school.
"We couldn't, no private school could, afford to hire someone like him," she said.
Grounded in the Conservative branch of Judaism, the school is open to all Jews, although most are Conservatives, she said.
"We do have some Orthodox and we have many from secular families as well," she said.
The small classrooms are packed with chairs and desks, and Cohen said the 216 students in grades K-8 strain the capacity of the campus at 710 Turnpike St.
There are plans to build a new school on the Striar Jewish Community Center grounds at 445 Central St., she said.
Tuition at the school is $10,600 a year, she said, which does not cover the whole cost of education.
"We have to fund raise about $250,000 to make our ($2 million) budget," she said.
Simonson said he teaches at the school because it is important, as well as fun.
"It's a joy to do it," he said, adding that "to get a person like me, there has to be a personal commitment."
Simonson's personal commitment is his three boys at the school, in grades K, 4 and 5.
Ahearn, who used to attend Easton schools, said he is just glad Simonson is there.
"I like it because it makes you think," he said.
The Enterprise, 60 Main St., P.O. Box
1450, Brockton, MA 02303-1450
Telephone: (508) 586-6200