Most people know the misquoted line from the Apollo 13 moon mission when Jack Swigert and Jim Lovell, the main astronauts on the aborted mission, sent word back that “Houston, we have a problem.” It is a catchphrase now, one we use whenever a problem arises, which in truth is often! We have a problem. We do indeed have a problem, a big problem. For most people the fact that we have a problem is a problem!
One child wrote, “Dear Maths, please grow up and solve your own problems. I’m tired of solving them for you” while another one said, “Dear Maths, I’m sick and tired of finding your X. Just accept the fact that she’s gone.” Charles Darwin is attributed as saying, and doing so with a certain degree of frustration, that “A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn’t there.” Perhaps as a result, Laurence J. Peter proposed an easy way out: “If two wrongs don’t make a right, try three.” John von Neumann, in turn, explained that “Young man, in mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.” Maths is a serious problem, whichever way we look at it. However, for mathematicians, a problem is a delight. It is what they live for! They thrive on the challenge and the complexity. Solving a problem is a victory, a success.
Maths though is like life. John W Gardner once said that “Life is the art of drawing without an eraser” while someone else decreed that “Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil. It has no point.” Remember, we use erasers and pencils in our Maths lessons. Life, like Maths, is about adding to our experiences, subtracting what is unnecessary, multiplying our talents and dividing our time; it is about balancing equations and solving problems. Life is like Maths.
Now that is the key in life, solving problems and solving the right problems. In today’s society, a major problem we see is addiction to drugs and to alcohol. We express it along the lines of ‘People plus drugs or alcohol = problem’. Here in Zimbabwe, as in the rest of the world, let us not kid ourselves, alcohol and drugs are indeed a serious problem. The fact that parents must have alcohol while watching their young child play sport is a problem. The fact that parents offer their child alcohol while underage is a problem. The fact that parents drive their child while under the influence of alcohol is a problem. The fact that parents do not see their child taking drugs is a problem.
However, that is not the real problem; the problem is we have not seen the real problem to solve. It is not a matter of ‘People plus drugs is a problem’ but rather, more importantly, ‘People plus problem = drugs’ — there is a big difference! Our efforts tend to be drawn to solve the first problem when the second one is the real one. What is causing people to turn to drugs? That is the problem.
What is interesting is that parents again may be the problem and the solution here. The problem children face that leads them to look for release in drugs or alcohol might be unrealistic parental expectation of the child’s ability. It might be peer pressure (though that is often an excuse as it is not taken consistently). It might be social media, sexual activity, sporting expectations. It might be abuse (in any of its forms). The problem may be found in denial, in blindness, in rejection. What we must solve is such problems and then the youngsters will not be drawn to finding peace of mind and soul.
So, Zimbabwe, we have a problem. Do we give up on solving that problem? We need, as one person said, “Do maths, not meths!” We need to help youngsters, as well as parents and staff, to look deeper and ascertain or discern what the real problems are. Too often we come to a problem behaviour and deal with consequences instead of considering the causes. That is not the solution.
Unlike those people above who addressed Maths, one correspondent was more hopeful in saying, “Dear Maths, thank you for giving me hope. Now I know every problem has a solution”. Every problem does have a solution. We must have hope and believe we can solve the problem for each individual child, not least as there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Is it just a matter that in life, like maths, “you don’t understand things. You just get used to them”? No! The mathematician Andrew Wiles pointed out that “Just because we can’t find a solution it doesn’t mean that there isn’t one.” There is a solution here; we must find it. Come on, what’s the problem? It is easy!
- We have real problems
