Jacob Pharoah Co-Editor-in-Chief Mr. McArthur is the newest edition to Latin’s math department. He has fled the East Coast to come and join us this year, growing up in Rochester and teaching in Boston for the past seven years. Growing up, McArthur went to a large public high school where he was into music and sports; he played the trumpet, the piano, and even baseball. When I asked him what he thought of his high school experience, he quickly responded, “it was great” with a smile. It is because of his past that he believes he will bring an East Coast sensibility to us here at Latin School, but despite his background, he already loves Chicago and the Midwestern friendliness we’re serving up every day of the week. He was fascinated by Chicago and was then drawn to Latin School after hearing about our undoubtedly brilliant reputation. Despite the fact that I’d interrupted him during a well-deserved lunch, he lit up instantly as I asked him what his goals for the year are. He wants to join a club, coach a sports team, but most importantly he wants to get to know us all. In fact, that’s why he got into teaching in the first place, the kids. He’d had office jobs but just gravitated towards the energy that kids have and how every day is “a little different.” His favorite and funniest classroom memory is leaving a kid asleep in a classroom and resetting the clock to 4pm. But what about math? Mr. McArthur will be teaching Honors Algebra 2 and Functions and Trigonometry this year. He describes his teaching style as mainly lecture-based but aims to make his classes as interactive as possible. He doesn’t curve much, but regularly curves when kids do poorly, which doesn’t sound too bad to me. To top it all off, Mr. McArthur doesn’t even mind teaching first thing it the morning, he assured me that it’s “totally fine.” When I asked him what he liked about math, he energetically informed me, “everything! I love functions!” Note to incoming freshmen, Mr. McArthur will be joining you on your retreat this year. For the rest of the year (aside from when he’s teaching, eating, sleeping, living etc.) he’ll be in room 309, so feel free to stop in and say hi now that you know so much about him.]]>