Rebecca Lim - Aussie STEM Stars - Eddie Woo: Super Maths Teacher

Aussie STEM Stars series

Published by Wild Dingo Press

Melbourne, Australia

wilddingopress.com.au

This work was first published by Wild Dingo Press 2021

Text copyright Rebecca Lim

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

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Cover Design: Gisela Beer

Illustrations: Diana Silkina

Maths diagrams: Eddie Woo

Series Editor: Catherine Lewis

Printed in Australia

Lim, Rebecca 1972-, author.

Eddie Woo: Superstar Maths Teacher / Rebecca Lim

ISBN: 9781925893403 (paperback)

ISBN: 9781925893410 (epdf)

ISBN: 9781925893427 (epub)

I only have one rule in my classroom and I call it the human rule. Its very simple. I will treat you like a human and I expect you to treat me like a human, too.

Eddie Woo

Disclaimer

This work has been developed in collaboration with Eddie Woo. The utmost care has been taken to respectfully portray, as accurately as memory allows, the events and the stories of all who appear in this work. The publishers assume no liability or responsibility for unintended inaccuracies, but would be pleased to rectify at the earliest opportunity any omissions or errors brought to their notice.

Contents

A target for bullies

Whatve you got there, slant-eyes?

Eddie hugged his backpack tightly, mentally kicking himself. Why had he brought his favourite adventure puzzle book to school? He must have read that puzzle book cover to cover at least 400 times. It was one of his most prized possessions.

Eddie stared up at the ring of bigger boys standing around him, his stomach churning with the usual sick feeling he had when he was cornered. No matter how fast Eddie ran, or how hard he tried to catch a teachers attention, the bullies always found him and hurt him, and no one ever saw anything. One of the bullies today was even from Eddies own Year 3 class! But when Eddie tried to look him in the eye, the boy looked away quickly. They all knew that what they were doing was wrong picking on someone just because he looked different to them, who was smaller than they were. But they still did it every single day. That was the worst thing.

Eddie couldnt change the fact that he was Chinese or skinny or short for his age, that he had serious asthma, and eczema so bad that his face was usually swollen and puffy and he often scratched until his skin bled. He couldnt help that he was born so allergic to dust that he was always sneezing, sniffing and blowing his nose. The old books and carpet at school, even the carpet at home which his parents didnt have the money to replace, often made Eddie really sick, and his mum, Angela, did at least one full load of laundry a day to try to keep Eddies allergies under control. Eddie was always covered in Band-Aids and Vaseline. He couldnt change the way he looked, or the fact that he loved to read and think and do puzzles. He couldnt change any of the things that were a part of him and made him who he was. But the bullies still hated Eddie just for being himself. And since his protective older sister, Kylie who used to look out for him in the playground had gone to high school last year, the bullying had only got worse. While he was at school, it felt like he really had no one in his corner.

Eddie had known what was waiting for him that day at school more shoving and tripping, punching and kicking, chasing and name-calling. Hed told his mum that something just like this would happen but shed said, You have to go to school today, Boh. You have to try. Please? For me. Eddies mum always called him Boh, which means treasure in Cantonese.

Hed wanted to stay in bed this morning. Hed tried so hard to pretend he was asleep long after the time he knew he was supposed to be up, dressed and at the breakfast table, eating. But his mum didnt give up on him getting to school today, and now here he was, in the firing line again. Hed packed his favourite puzzle book without thinking, just to help him survive lunchtime and recess on his own, hiding out in the schools small, pokey library, or under a tree. Now he hugged his backpack tighter, knowing hed made a terrible mistake.

Please, not this puzzle book, he thought desperately.

Eddie couldnt understand what the bullies wanted, why they kept coming after him or why they never stopped. Almost the hardest part about the bullying was not the physical injuries that Eddie often received bruises, grazes and cuts but the feeling that no one, not a single other student or teacher in the entire place, cared what happened to him. There were only two other Asian children at Eddies school, and Eddie often wondered if they copped it like he did. He hoped they didnt. No one should ever have to go through the things that he went through at school. It was the un-safest place in Eddies life.

At that moment, the morning bell rang. Eddie had run to school so late today that the bullies didnt have enough time to land any proper punches or kicks. There was no time left to do that. So all the boys did this morning was bump him with their shoulders so hard as they brushed past, laughing loudly, that Eddie fell over in the dirt, on his face. He landed on top of his backpack and on top of his already dog-eared, precious book. The hard shape of his lunchbox dug painfully into his ribs.

Catch you later, one of the boys hissed over his shoulder at where Eddie lay face down on the ground.

Drop you later, you mean! another one hooted over Eddies head.

For a long moment, Eddie didnt move, a slow tear trickling down his cheek and hitting the dirt. As usual, none of the teachers had even noticed what had happened and certainly hadnt jumped up to protect him, or to punish the bullies. Eddie reckoned that even if he blew a whistle and waved his arms in the air while standing on tippy-toes or jumping around, no one would see him or pay him the slightest bit of attention.

As Eddie sat up, scrubbing at his face with the back of one hand, he felt invisible. He wished he could stay that way forever, but he knew that, before too long, the bullies would find him again.

*

During class, when their form teacher wasnt looking, the boy in Eddies class whod stood with the other bullies turned and mouthed things at Eddie like