Volunteering is a Gamble

One of the benefits of my work schedule (Friday-Sunday as a physical therapist at the hospital, the rest of the week to write at home), is that I get to volunteer in Sophia's first-grade class every week. For about 45 minutes, I help this group of energetic and distractible 6- and 7-year olds learn the foundations of math—from basic arithmetic, to counting by 5's and 10's, to money, to geometry, and even fractions. The teacher splits up the class into four groups, and assigns specific tasks for the students to do at the "parent table," of which I am in charge.

Sophia's class spans a wide spectrum as far as aptitude and behavior goes, which is normal for first grade, I'm told. Some kids get it fairly easily, some pay attention half the time, some kids never get it, some kids need to be constantly redirected to stay on task and respect adults. I try hard to be patient but it's challenging.

I'm only there for 45 minutes once a week, so I shouldn't complain. Their teacher is nothing less than a saint. But still, I'm not going to lie. I sometimes come home needing a nap. Or a shot of scotch.

Imagine my joy, then, when last month I walked into class and saw that I was going to be guiding the students through an activity where they rolled dice and charted the frequency of which numbers came up.

Uh, hello? Did someone say, Craps?

Without going into detail (though I sooooo want to), this task was essentially the basis for craps and why people lose tons of money in Vegas (except me, of course). The casinos bank on the fact that 7 has the most combinations out of the 36 possible rolls of two dice, and people bet on all the other numbers to come up first. If they do, a lot of money is up for the taking. It's happened to me a few times and trust me, it's exciting when it does.

Following my affinity for Las Vegas and the incomparable excitement of casino gambling, I dove headfirst into my job. I was involved, engaged, excited, absorbed. The time flew by. In my head, I couldn't help thinking: "Seven will definitely come up the most times. It has to, right?" The fears of the anti-gambling lobby would surely be justified. The house always wins. Don't waste your hard-earned money. 

But as the kids rolled the dice, I noticed something that buoyed my heart to no end: on many of the papers I scanned, 6 and 8 came up as I would have expected, but also 4, 5, 9, 10 and 11—numbers that pay out high odds at a craps table—came up more frequently than 7.  "This is a sign," I reassured myself, "that the house doesn't always win!"

I left that volunteering session with the lofty hopes of making this year's Vegas guys trip—I leave on Friday, May 3—the most successful one yet.

And, oh yeah, I think the kids might have learned a thing or two about math.