| ever one of those students for whom schooling came | | | | my math lessons for the next day. Hour and after I |
| easily. On the contrary, there were several significant | | | | would sit in our dining room and struggle over problem |
| factors to which I owe deep gratitude for getting me | | | | after problem. My struggles in mathematics were |
| through high school and then my years at university. | | | | enough to make me hate everything about school and |
| The first and most significant factor that contributed to | | | | the prospect of continuing my education. |
| and I'd even say caused my eventual success in | | | | Thankfully Mr. Jonness and his calculators entered my |
| academia was undoubtedly my mother. She was a | | | | life just in time and I was able to learn the benefits of |
| constant source of encouragement and confidence | | | | calculators and begin to make significant progress in |
| for me. Another source of inspiration for my studies | | | | math. Within a year of being introduced to Mr. Jonness |
| came from my teachers. One math teacher in | | | | and to the magic of calculators, my mathematics |
| particular believed in me like no one else had. He would | | | | abilities had improved enough to wear I didn't dread |
| allow me to stay after school for an hour each | | | | going to school each morning. I was never at the top |
| evening and he would go back over the lesson from | | | | of my class in math, but I was able to pass each class |
| the day in order to ensure that I knew it well. He | | | | with hard with but few tears. |
| introduced to calculators to me and even purchased | | | | I think my childhood struggles with math, while they |
| one for me because he knew I'd never own one on | | | | were terrible and heartbreaking at the time, served a |
| my own. | | | | great purpose in my life. I learned that hard work really |
| Calculators literally transformed my abilities to get | | | | does pay off and I saw how something as small as |
| through school. Before my math teacher, Mr. Jonness, | | | | calculators could make all the difference. Mr. Jonness |
| got me a calculator and taught me to use it, my lack | | | | likened my life to a calculator and mathemetics to the |
| of natural talent and practice in mathematics brought | | | | world. He said that in the same way that calculators |
| me to tears almost each afternoon after school. I | | | | had made math easier for me, so my one small life |
| would head home and begin right away trying to do | | | | could make the world easier and better for others. |