``I got 8.5 out of 9 in math,'' Tim texted during his Saturday night out with
friends. ``Thank GOD! I am so proud of you!'' dad replied. ``The secret was to
visualize the problems,'' Tim let on later.
Caculus AP had become an albatross since late last fall after a few
early-decision colleges, including his dream school, let Tim in. The good news,
after the initial exhiliration, worried the family sick, however: they could
rescind admissions in spring once they see the high-school senior's first term
academic results. The question ``Which engineering school is to take a student when
they see a D in math?'' was constantly gnawing at everyone.
Throwing money at the problem, mom's MO, by hiring a tutor, proved not working
by the end of the fall term. Tim was smart as careless and spent too much time
on robotics which his parents thought a mere sideshow. Next, dad sat down with
the kid and tried what had worked back in his own high-school days. Together,
they went through pages of basic integration problems dozens of times over the
winter break.
Since then, Tim felt good after each quiz but his scores stayed low. ``The teacher
docked points for the tiniest slips,'' he complained once. Worksheet solutions
Mr. Gonzalez sent in the small hours on the same day before the morning quiz
didn't help his students either.
Dad's view, however, was that the boy lacked, as young people often do,
attention to detail, a key to engineering. Caculus AP obviously challenged Tim
in more ways than one and if he gave up, he'd be better off pursuing other
fields. Born in the U.S., he had many options and dad did not fret as much about
the boy's future. To his son's question ``What if I had to go to a community
college as no uni's going to take me because of math?'' dad answered as if that
were what he actually wanted: ``Then I'll drive you two more years.'' Dropping
the boy off before Friday morning's quiz, dad's parting shot as if he were
commanding William Wallace's army was:``Just go and face it and you win.''
So Tim's hard work did pay off. More importantly, these days, dad doesn't even
sit with him through homework anymore. He has been completely on his own.
By mid March, the assurance from Mr. Romano, Tim's college counselor, when the
family panicked before Christmas break, started to make sense. None of the
early-admissions had walked out and regular admissions kept coming. Dad's
conclusion was that they turned a blind eye to the poor math score because of
Tim's leadership in robotics. It was a surprise to dad but there was no other
reason his Chinese engineering mind could think of.
