Pop-Pop’s Magic Rule
He had hated Math. It made no sense — sometimes you multiply and sometimes you divide. How could anyone keep all these rules in their head? That was before Pop-Pop gave Rasheed his old slide-rule.
“Here Rasheed, keep this with you and your confusion will go away,” Pop-Pop told him. Since that day in November he never left for school without his slide-rule in his backpack.
He hadn’t learned to use it yet but if he had it with him, he always did well in Math class. He set it on his desk when he did his homework. He fingered it in his backpack during class. He figured, if it helped Pop-Pop become an engineer, it could surely help him with Pre-Algebra. And it worked! His grades had improved. From a near failure in Math he had become one of the top students in his class.
The school bus turned the corner as Rasheed ran to catch it. He thought to himself, “I have a Math test today. Do I have my slide-rule?” He remembered that his little sister, Mariam, was playing in his room last night while he worked on his homework. She was fascinated by Pop-Pop’s Magic Rule. It was amazing to her that the middle of the ruler could move.
The bus pulled into the parking lot and Rasheed walked to his Math class.
He had an an important math competition today. The student with the highest score would be given a season pass for their family to Glitter-World Theme Park. His family could not afford a season pass and he wanted to win it. He wanted his family to share in his good fortune. But was he ready for the test — did he have his slide-rule?
He walked into his classroom and sat down. Mr. Michaels distributed the Percentage Calculation exam and Rasheed opened his back pack.
