03/08/2018

Discovering young mathematical talents

Behind the talent of all 576 gold medalists of the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad are dedicated teachers capable not only of identifying but also encouraging the individual effort of their students. Yesterday, when Luigi Monteiro Santos Rangel from Rio de Janeiro received his ninth medal in Olympiads, his third in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools), he did not hesitate to attribute his success to the first teacher who saw in him the potential that was still dormant.

Luigi was talking about Maria Isabel Melo, a mathematics teacher at the Ceará Municipal School in the Fazendinha community, in the Alemão complex. Having been at the school for 9 years, Maria Isabel has already amassed dozens of medalists in various competitions across the classes she has taught. Some of them were part of the group of 33 students she brought to attend one of the public lectures at the International Congress of Mathematicians.

For Maria Isabel, seeing a student receive an honor of the magnitude of the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools) is a feeling of accomplishment. “Even though we see that teachers aren't valued in our country, this is a moment that makes everything worthwhile. When Luigi received his first gold medal, I cried. Yesterday, with the third, I was also moved. When he joined my class in 7th grade, he was already a brilliant boy, but he had never explored that potential,” she recalls. To discover these talents, the school promotes Mathematics Week, which will be in its sixth edition this year.

According to the teacher, 7th-grade students are still very curious and imaginative children who approach the proposed activities as games and play. The older they get, the harder it is to compete with other typical adolescent interests. With the support of teachers, who prepare materials for extracurricular math classes, the students escape the violence that surrounds them and come into contact with a world where they can shine and be a role model for other children.

“We have to show them that they can excel away from the negative issues and violence that surround the school,” says Maria Isabel, who participated in the Congress with three other teachers from the school's Mathematics department and inspector André Luiz da Silva, who will graduate in Mathematics at the end of the year. “This is our form of resistance. Our struggle is to get them to participate in various Olympiads and events like today's lecture,” she explains.