Mr. Jim Clarke is a retired math teacher who previously taught at Punahou School. Now he’s a volunteer math tutor here at KapCC. If you need help with math homework, head to the Kahikoluamea Center on the second floor of ʻIliahi. It’s the big glass room above Subway.
The following is a very casual conversation with Clarke that took place one late October morning. I hope this encourages you to visit him. First get your homework done. Then ask him about that time he was Barack Obama’s PE teacher.
Mr. Clarke with two students.
Photo: Hanul Seo/Kapiʻo
Hanul: How’s your day going, first of all?
Clarke: So far so good. Went for a two-mile walk, went to the farmers market.
Alright – so how did you end up tutoring here at KCC in the first place?
Oh, my friend Carl Wheeler recruited me. Right there (He points; Mr. Wheeler waves
back). He’s the guy with his picture right here. With the profile. He’s the guy, really, he’s something else.
And how exactly were you recruited, or when?
Well, I’m a retired math teacher. I taught MidPac for six years, Punahou for 31. I just had the time and I really enjoy helping people here.
And it was during your time at Punahou that you ended up coaching Barack Obama.
Yes. I was teaching math there at the time, but they wanted people to help with other activities, and so at that point in time I was in charge of after school PE basketball and he was in the basketball program. So I gave him some grade. I have no idea what it was and I’d love to know.
I was talking with my advisor about questions to ask you, and he really wants to know if there was anything special going on with this guy, if you thought that he was going to do something –
No. I’ve lived through the civil rights riots and stuff like that and here we have this black kid; there’s no way in hell that I would think that this kid would be president – I would’ve bet my firstborn against it.
Any anecdotes about him?
He was a good ball player. He wasn’t great, he was good. And as a basketball player, that’s all I can rate on.
Did he ever remind you of any professional basketball player?
No. I never thought of it. No. He was either a junior or senior in high school. After school PE was first semester and a lot of them played basketball so it was like getting ready for the season. We mostly played games and I mostly officiated and stuff like that.
So what do you think of him now – his policies, etc.
He has the hardest job in the world, and I think he’s doing a good job. What can I say – what’s going on in congress now is terrible. And holding us hostage because of Obamacare – if you go down to North Carolina they’re all Republicans, voted against all of this – 20 percent of the people in that state are uninsured and they want to remain that way. It’s stupid. They don’t have health insurance. He wants to insure millions of people. Most of the civilized countries have this. We don’t.
Ok. So you’re originally from –
Massachusetts. I think that I have credit at 10 different colleges.
And you’ve been tutoring here for how long?
Oh, maybe eight months or so. And I really enjoy tutoring here, I enjoy the people I help, and I’ve got all this mathematical knowledge. I love to share it.
So what were you before you were a teacher?
Well, I started teaching at upstate New York. Taught there for six years. Then at MidPac for six and Punahou for 31. I’ve taught all my life.
And what motivated you to start teaching math?
Well, I was good at it. I thought I’d give it a try, but once I gave it a try I just fell in love with it. There’s no better profession. Carl and I also go to South Africa and we’ve done workshops down there. Under apartheid, the black were not allowed to take math. And yet right now, the apartheid’s gone, and these same people are teaching mathematics in high school. We would go down and we would help the teachers.
How long were you there in South Africa?
Well, I’ve gone twice and I think he’s gone about four times or so. But we go down for about a month.
And the earliest you went down was:
(In) 2001. That was the first year that the program existed. So we went down there.
So in your eight months here, what are the most common problems you’ve encountered?
It goes anywhere from times tables up to calculus.
So you do get calculus students too?
Oh yeah. We get a few. And I taught advanced placement calculus at Punahou. And both Carl and I were readers for the AP exam. We’d go to the mainland and correct the exams. So we’re both very qualified to do that.
Do you have anything else from your time here you want to mention?
I think teaching is such a noble profession. And when you’re helping somebody, all of a sudden they get excited: “I got it! I got it,” that gets to me also, and it’s so good. And there’s just no way you can buy that with money.
Do you have any specific teaching tips or observations? Methods that work, or don’t work?
Not really – I’ll just point at something and then they’ll stare at it and “I know there’s something wrong because he’s pointing at it…”, and then they figure it out themselves. But there’s no – no, I can’t give you any secrets. But I just want people to get it themselves instead of me teaching them. I try to lead them.
I think that’s about it then. Do you have any questions you would like to be asked?
No, I’d just like it to go out that we’re here every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, from 11 in the morning to two. And if anybody needs our help, that’s what we’re here for. Just spread the word.