THE CHARLOTTE

OBSERVER

MISSIONARY FOR MATH

FOR UNCC`S HAROLD REITER

AND FAMILY, MATHEMATICS IS

A PASSION

TO BE SHARED

Saturday, March 9, 1991

Section: EDITORIAL

Page: ED

By TOM BRADBURY, Associate Editor

Memo: Tom Bradbury / This Time And Place

Illustration: PHOTO.2

Caption: 1.Reiter 2.Associated Press: Ashley Reiter displays

her winning project in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search.\

Associate professor Harold Reiter`s faculty office at UNC

Charlotte was orderly, but full: packed bookcases against the walls, boxes in

the corner, papers and computer on the desk, equations on the blackboard

and four students squeezed in.

Like any student hangout at tournament time, it was abuzz with

school names and scores, and assessments of what graduation

would do to this team and that around the country. But because

these students - advanced high schoolers who

take college math courses - are as crazy about mathematics as

Reiter is, the competition they were analyzing wasn`t the ACC or Sun Belt

tournament, but the AHSME (the American High School

Mathematics Examination).

One of the participants was Reiter`s daughter, Ashley, a senior

at the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics in Durham. She was

just back from Washington, where she took first place in the Westinghouse

Science Talent Search. She led her school`s AHSME team to a third place

finish in the state, and captured third place individually as

well.

First place in the state - and one of the top places in the nation,

It appears - went to the team from South Mecklenburg High

School, which includes two of the other students who were in

Reiter`s cramped office: Akira Negi, a junior who finished

second in the state individually and very high nationally, and

Robert Schneck, a sophomore who finished fourth statewide.

Rounding out the crowd was the state`s seventh place finisher,

Nate Bronson, a junior at Union County`s Parkwood High

School and a programming whiz.

Their skill is a little harder to demonstrate than an athlete`s,

perhaps. But their enthusiasm would have been instantly apparent to any

fan, and coveted by any coach.

That enthusiasm for math is a Reiter family trademark. Harold

Reiter and his wife - Betty, a math instructor at Winthrop - have steadily

Increased participation in the three years they have coordinated the

AHSME and a similar junior high exam in North Carolina.

They coach math competitors, and travel

with them to contests. Over the last four years he has organized

Saturday math clubs here that now reach kids from high school

down to fourth grade.

``The fourth graders are amazing. They can work a whole sheet

of problems, but they need a pat on the back after each one,`` Reiter said in a

voice brightening at the vision of those eager students waving their

hands to have each problem checked.

Math his way is not rote and drill; it is a joy, and a gift he can`t

Keep from sharing. Reporters, for example, find him ever accessible

for answers even to fanciful and trivial queries: How far can you see from

the top of the new NCNB building? How far does the platform

of the Carowinds Gauntlet travel on each revolution at the end

of its 25-foot arms (157 feet, an answer that brought Reiter some

ribbing from his colleagues since it only required knowing how

to calculate the circumference of a circle).

I`ve called on him, too, and found him like a coach, even a

teammate. Indeed, he once told a reporter he wants his students to feel he

is on their side - which perhaps explains why he was honored for

excellence in teaching at UNCC in 1989.

Good teachers, like good coaches, are enthusiastic about their

charges, but also analytical: ``The kids who come to math club

have already developed problem-solving attitudes,`` he explained.

When the solution is not obvious,

they keep trying all sorts of approaches to find one that works.

By contrast, students without that problem-solving attitude

Respond differently: If the problem is unfamiliar, they`ll ask why they

should be able to solve a problem they haven`t had in class.

They don`t have the confidence to plunge in.

Why? ``We set them up,`` he says with considerable passion.

Teachers will squelch students who offer solutions different from the one in

the book. The curriculum has too much drill, which drives the excitement out

of math and replaces it with drudgery that ought to be taken over by

calculators. There`s too much repetition, a drag on students

who can move faster.

Too often, he said, students ``don`t get the feeling that

mathematics is alive. They don`t get an opportunity to stretch their minds. They

don`t get the opportunity to reach inside themselves for ideas.``

Ideas, a problem-solving attitude, thinking - these are central.

Asked to list some topics that ought to be stressed, he included not only

some expected mathematical ones - graphs, number sense,

pattern recognition, probability and statistics, among others -

but a surprise: reading.

Reading? Math is not just computation any more than writing is

just typing, he suggested. ``The real meat of a math problem is

understanding,`` he said, and that depends on reading and thinking.

There, maybe, is a clue to his passion for sharing the power of

mathematics, even at some cost. His criticisms have made him

unpopular with some educators - though the National Council of Teachers of

Mathematics is similarly blunt. His off-campus activities with kids who aren`t

even UNCC students take considerable time, as do the competitions he and

Betty Reiter lead.

Yet he remains a joyous missionary, inviting kids and adults

alike to frolic in a world alive with mathematical possibilities.

``What is important to me is to try to make the world a little

better place. I can do that better by enthusing one or two students than

by writing a research paper,`` he explains - though research is

important, too, in fueling his own enthusiasm for math.

Certainly he had inspired an office full of kids, including his

accomplished daughter (who, emulating her parents in service

as well as achievement, publishes a newsletter for math students and

teachers). He`d love to spread the message farther, and to

supply problems to teachers who`d like to form clubs in their own

schools. (Office: 547-4561; home: 364-5699).

Meanwhile, he plans to keep on doing what he`s been doing, he

says. ``I`m having more fun every year.``

All content © 1991 THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

and may not be republished without permission. THE CHARLOTTE