I borrowed this title from the ESPN website. All students need to persevere in math the way the United States perserved against Brazil today in the quarterfinal match of the Women's FIFA World Cup in Germany. I would love to show this game to my students and relate it to solving a challenging problem in math. I think they would have to watch the entire two and a half hours of play to understand perseverance and its true meaning.
Brazil was a challenging problem and the U.S. found many ways to persevere and solve the problem. The game started around 8:30am and ended around 11:00am. I am not suggesting that students spend three hours on a math problem. I am suggesting that for the given amount of time a student works on one problem, he or she should work with the same amount of effort that the U.S. women gave today.
Here are some of the ways (individually and as a team) that the U.S. demonstrated perseverance: Abby Wambach scored the tying goal. It was the latest goal scored in soccer history. It was scored in the 122nd minute of the game. She played 123 minutes total. This goal was scored in a new dimension of soccer- extra time in the second half of a 15 minute over time period. The U.S. played with only 10 players (because of a red card) for forty-five minutes. The U.S. passed better and had better teamwork than Brazil. Hope Solo saved two penalty kicks. Goalies only have a 20% chance-- statistically speaking, of making a save on a PK. She did that twice- in one game. The U.S. was not rattled or discouraged by the inadequate officiating. Pretend like the officials were the math problem (as they were very problematic) the U.S. did not say, "This problem is too hard!' They kept their composure and persevered. I know the U.S. will win the World Cup again. I hope there will be an article that one day shows improvement of students making progress in persevering with high cognitive demand math tasks.
