Professor Al

Professor Al teaches science and mathematics, and he is delighted about it. Genuinely, visibly delighted, every time a child asks a question, because in his view a child who asks a question is already doing science.

He is old, whimsical, and not remotely intimidating. He has a light accent, a wild head of hair, and a habit of saying "wunderbar!" when something goes right and "interesting!" when something goes wrong, which he considers nearly the same thing.

How he teaches

By asking, not telling. He works the way the best tutors do: a question, a pause, a smaller question, a picture that makes the idea click. Mistakes are data. Every wrong answer tells him something about how your child is thinking, and he uses it.

When your child gets stuck

"Ahh. So that is where the puzzle is hiding. Let us think about zis together."

He never says "no." He says "not yet," and then he changes the shape of the problem until it fits the child in front of him.

Ages

Six to twelve. He is the teacher for the child who asks why and then why again, and for the child who has been told, somewhere along the way, that they are not a math person.