Seeing Reuben come back to supervising mathematics after years of retirement was a great surprise. Reuben has been the pillar when it comes to teaching mathematics in his time. He was so great and everyone would hail him “the best of all time”. He has always been the chairman of the mathematics competition panel.
“Honey! Now you can rest your head instead of thinking mathematically all around the clock”, his wife said.
“Oh! Yes. I will rest my brain since I have retired”, Reuben replied.
He has been at home all this while and would sometimes help out in his wife's boutique shop. He has a bookshop, where he also stays from morning to early evening before proceeding to his wife's boutique shop. Likewise, he was known by all and still has this mind that something had left him. Parting the teaching field was not his fate, but it was time to throw in the towel.
“Honey, your boy has brought home some mathematics assignments from school”. Tayo, Reuben's wife, said.
“He's my boy and my blood. He should be able to do that work without my help.” Reuben has taught his kids to solve mathematical problems thoroughly. He has never, for once, let his children rest without teaching them how to solve mathematics.
After years of retirement, he was invited to witness a mathematics competition which he had once chairman before now. He got there and sat quietly, just like a guest. Others were also invited to witness.
The competition started. It was a quiz competition where questions must be thrown to the competitors to answer within 39 seconds. Questions were thrown, and the competitors answered quietly. One group got Reuben carried away just by the way, they answered their questions without waiting for 10 seconds. “They answered as if they were the ones who set the questions. I think the members of this group are well-prepared and are also genius” Reuben soliloquizes.
That group was group B. A question was thrown to the group B which was a tough question. Reuben thought they would miss the answer, but to his surprise, they gave the correct answer to the question. “What! You guys are the best”, he said, without raising his voice.
The moderators said, “Your answer is wrong”.
The boys began to argue that their answer was the correct answer. Group B began to cry as their answer was rendered incorrect. Group B was allowed to answer the question as a bonus question. They chose the correct answer from the moderators' sheet.
“What?” He shouted from the audience. He aimed not to join them, but then he had to correct the mistake. This was his habit when he was part of them. He has always been objecting to incorrect questions. He has also argued justly without mistakes.
“The answer you gave was the correct answer," he said while standing up. Others who saw him said, "Oh, if it is this man, I guess these people have given the wrong answer.”
“Please, just pause the time a bit and let's see to the question thoroughly”, Reuben said from behind.
“But,” one of the moderators wanted to speak, but then Reuben immediately cut him short “There no but.”
He followed them to an office just to test the correctness of the question.
“Please, who vets these questions?” He asked.
The community kept quiet without saying a word.
“Why are you quiet?” He asked,
“Don't you see the reaction from these students? They got the answer, and you people gave the wrong answer as the correct one. I thought you people would be capable after my retirement, but then you guys are all a bunch of mess.” He was a soldier and still a soldier while speaking. He spoke authoritatively, just like before.
Their present chairman was called to come at once as there was a problem. He did not waste time before coming as he was not far from the venue. When he came, he immediately bowed to Reuben as the ex-ex-chairman
“I have been asking your boys to tell me the one who vets these questions, but they were keeping me quiet. What's the problem here?" He asked.
“Where is the question?” The present chairman, Mr. Agas, asked.
He was shown the question, and to Reuben's surprise, he also chose the wrong answer. “You picked the wrong answer here," Reuben tried to explain to the present chairman. The best solution to the question is the answer the group B chose," Reuben said.
This caused arguments between him and Mr. Agas. “Let's solve it together, and you will see your mistake,” Reuben replied, as he wanted nothing apart from clarity.
Mr. Agas has to solve the question and get the former answer. “This is where you made a mistake," Reuben showed him, and then he bowed to him. “I think you should come back to your days,” Mr. Agas continued.
Group B was awarded their point. This made them feel so happy. They finally won the competition.
“It was a tough day, my dear," he said to his wife.
“What happened?” His wife asked.
“I went into arguments over a wrong answer given to the group that got the correct answer," he said.
“This means you have not let go of solving mathematics," his wife said.
Interesting story. Even after years of retirement, Reuben is still mathematically capable and alert.
I guess the saying is true that one may leave his profession but his profession will never leave him. Reuben was still very good at mathematics after retirement. It's a good thing he was at the competition or otherwise a lot of things would have gone wrong and it might have affected the reputation of the school negatively. Thanks for writing.
What a great read, I love how Reuben even after retirement couldn't ignore his instincts when something was off in the competition. It's admirable how he stood up to correct the wrong answer.
Reuben is brave and if he didn’t do that, it is possible that Group B won’t be granted their point but I’m happy they achieved that
I loved your story. The experience made all the difference. Professor Rubebs kept his confidence.
Thank you for sharing it @abigail04
I liked it, the story is very interesting. Really after spending years doing the same thing it is unlikely that a person forgets how to do what he did and in this case luckily Ruben has not forgotten how to apply math 😁.