An exceptional 89-year-old woman from Virginia, United States named Delores Spencer has set an outstanding record after coming out of retirement to keep teaching students mathematics.
Delores Spencer who had started teaching mathematics at a young age retired from teaching about 30 years ago. However, due to her passion for helping students worldwide, she returned to teaching through Facebook Live videos and YouTube.
She kept up her skill over the years and now has over 70 years of teaching mathematics, one of the longest-ever in the world. “I just really wanted to help students get over that fear of math,” Spencer told GMA.
“So many parents and students have fear of mathematics. And it really, it’s beautiful. If I can find out what blocks you, then I can remove that block, and usually you don’t need me anymore until you get to another block. And that’s what real tutoring is about,” she added.
Spencer described her journey as a wonderful experience citing that she derives happiness to see people solve mathematics as much as she can.
“It’s been a wonderful experience to reach out to so many people. If I teach you how to do it, you can do it just as well as I can. It’s so great when you see the light come on in their mind [and] they say, ‘Oh!’ And that’s [when] they got it,” she said.
She explained further that her tutorship is focused on ensuring people understand the basics of mathematics. “My thing is emphasizing and understanding the concepts because that’s what transferable when you go to another level,” Spencer explained.
Spencer believes her age is just a number as she believes she will continue teaching people until she can no longer do so anymore. “You retire when you can’t do anything else,” she said.
“As long as I can do this — as long as it’s helping — I’m really willing to do this,” she added.
