Greg Tang: Making Math Count
By Katherine Pierpont, Senior Editor

Greg Tang has a resumé that could get his foot in the door to a lot of places. A graduate of Harvard with both a B.A. and M.A. in economics, Greg has found success as a business executive, a speechwriter, a software designer and owner of a Tae Kwon Do school. After the publication of his first best-selling book for children, The Grapes of Math (all of his titles are with Scholastic Press) in 2001, Greg Tang has since been trying the title "unexpected math missionary" on for size.

If I'm having trouble teaching something to a kid, it's not that he or she can't understand it, it's that I don't yet have it clear enough in my mind to teach it right.

At the heart of his lively, math-centered books for children lies his very simple theory that every child can be good at math. Add to that his belief that math should be fun, and you've got an equation that's making sense out of math for kids everywhere.

A basket full of inspiration. As the father of three kids who are heavily into sports, Greg spends a lot time sitting on bleachers. "I found myself at the rink with my son for six or eight hours a day in the summer," he told us. "So, I started bringing a laptop with me and began writing." Soon after he began entertaining thoughts of becoming a writer, Greg started tutoring in his daughter's first grade class and witnessed firsthand how kids were struggling with math. He was picking up a basket of dominoes and just happened to notice how every dot on the dominoes had a pencil mark. "Kids were counting them one at a time, and the key to math is thinking in groups," he said. He was immediately struck by the pattern of dots and started thinking that a more effective way to teach problem-solving was to get kids to approach math visually.

Tricks of the trade. "A lot of kids think they're adding, and their parents think they're adding but they're not – they're just counting on their fingers," he said. Instead of teaching kids to count when figuring out math problems, Greg's books employ tricks and techniques such as looking at groups of items as "squares," counting by fives, looking for pairs, etc. Instead of dots on dominoes, his books offer a smorgasbord of wacky items like chili peppers, pairs of socks, flocks of geese, ears of corn, camel humps, strawberry seeds and the list goes on. "You have to make math relevant to kids," he explained. "What is truly relevant to kids? Only one thing: having fun."

Fun and games. Behind all this common sense lurks a sly wit. In Greg's latest book for kids, Math Potatoes (2005), the title poem reads:

Boiled and baked and often mashed,
Peeled and fried and sometimes hashed.

No wonder spuds hide underground –
Life is painful when they're found!

Can you add up these poor souls,
For whom the bell already tolls?

In groups of ten you'll hear their cries,
"Please don't turn us into fries!"

Each of Greg's books take similarly clever cracks at problem-solving and, even better, they're really fun to read for those of us who are among the mathematically challenged. Perhaps what's most surprising for an author who primarily writes about math is that Greg Tang has found an outlet to celebrate his love of language and games as well. "I have two sisters and growing up we used to play bridge, blackjack and hearts – we played games all the time. I think that's why all of my books have a game element to them," he commented.

Not only are his books chock full of math to encourage kids' confidence in their skills, but they also shine a spotlight on the math to be found in not-so-obvious places like art history (Math-terpieces, 2003), seasons and holidays (Math for All Seasons, 2002) and fables (Math Fables, 2004).

A math person. Since the publication of The Grapes of Math, Greg's schedule has become action-packed, which suits him just fine. In addition to spending plenty of time with his wife and kids at his home in Belmont, MA, Greg makes sure that his schedule allows time for school visits (he traveled to a whopping 110 schools and conferences this past spring!). "My school visits allow me to constantly refine my message," he said. "I generally do student sessions, but more and more I've been holding teacher workshops after school and parent sessions in the evening. So, I think I have a pretty good idea of what's going to work or not work by the time I go to write a book!"

Greg Tang (right) and Teaching K-8's Dr. Maryann Manning (left) share a laugh.

Miraculously, with all this on his plate, Greg is still able to find plenty of time to write. "Luckily, I'm not writing a story, so I don't really have to worry about a storyline," he said. When he initially sits down with a book idea, he knows that it will most likely feature 12 to 16 short poems, so he works in small bits at a time, usually on a plane or at night. "My whole thing about writing is that I'm not a great writer; I'm a great rewriter. So I rewrite everything hundreds of times until I get it right because I'm more of a math person." Even still, as a self-described "math person," writing is not something he looks at as a chore or a "job" – "I always look forward to writing when I get out my laptop at the end of the day," he said.

New directions. Not only is Greg continuing to think about new ideas for math books, but he's also looking forward to adding a few more lines to his resumé. He just recently started his own company where, in an effort to reach even more teachers and students, he will be creating and producing his own teaching material – "I'm trying to take kids from counting to calculus," he said. He has also designed a series of flash cards that is not based on rote memorization but instead teaches a verbal, visual and abstract approach to concepts. Instead of being overwhelmed by all of these ventures, Greg is excited about the new directions in which his career is headed. "I've also been hoping to create a science series for a long time," he shared. "Problem-solving can really explain scientific concepts to kids the way I've done with math."

But rest assured, even though his sights are set on the possibilities the future holds, Greg Tang and his laptop will be faithfully returning to those bleachers, dreaming up new books for a long time to come.

January, 2006, Vol.36, No.4