Every time the subject of middle school mathematics reappears in conversation with friends, the seventh grade memories rush back to me. I can remember the delightful Mrs. Deborah Barcheski lecturing us in her typical garb, consisting of a denim dress and those famous bluish crocs. Unsurprisingly, her outfit is not the only thing I distinctly remember. The equation of a parabola remains stark in my memory. Three years has gone by since Algebra 1, but Mrs. Barcheski’s cheery classroom and the math concepts she made simple were still memorable.
Starting young, Mrs. Barcheski already held a dynamic relationship with mathematics, one that would span her whole life—much like her students, including myself, who too are forever endowed with “the Barcheski Way” of algebra, as the class dubbed it. Her father was a programmer and analyst for IBM and the New York Stock Exchange, and he surrounded her with math at an early age. By her elementary years, she was excelling. There were no advanced math programs for gifted students in Paterson, NJ, so she skipped grade levels. “I was 2 years younger than my peers beginning 6th grade,” she told me. Despite falling behind in other classes, her math grades stayed perfect. Her love for math and education soon combined; the realization came that teaching math would be her lifelong dream.…show more content… Nothing in Deborah Barcheski's teaching career would be more prestigious and profound than that of a former student's gratitude, and he spoke on behalf of all of us. A senior at Sparta High came onto the football field to thank her profusely and publicly for her guidance. He lacked motivation and effort, but Mrs. Barcheski challenged him constantly, unlocking his potential. In high school, he became a passionate mathematician, on par with Mrs. Barcheski herself, and he credits her for everything. “That moment in time will stay with me forever,” she
