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MANILA, Philippines – Pietro Boselli has been the face of Armani (and now Bench), been on the pages of fashion magazines, and loves math – he is, after all, an enginner with a Ph.D and used to teach at the University College London (UCL). (WATCH: Meet Pietro Boselli, the ‘World’s Hottest Math Teacher’)
Pietro started modelling at the age of 6, when he was scouted by Armani. He stopped for a bit while he was 11 years old, and went back to it when he was 18. He was around 15 years old, he said, when he discovered his love for math and physics, after reading Einstein’s The Evolution of Physics.
He was teaching math for engineering to second year students at UCL when a photo of his went viral, and publications like People named him the “World’s Hottest Math Teacher.” This, before he earned his doctorate in 2016.
Not everyone shares the same passion for math, though. “Whenever I say, ‘Oh yes, I teach mathematics,’ or ‘I love mathematics,’ or ‘I study engineering,’ the most common reaction is ‘I hate mathematics,’ or ‘Oh my God, I was so bad at mathematics in school,'” Pietro told the media at his press conference at Bench Fashion Week on March 12.
“But truly most people who say that actually don’t know any mathematics,” he continued. “It’s hard to say that you don’t like something when you don’t know it.”
At the press conference, Pietro gave some sage advice for those struggling with his favorite subject – and he had some tips on how to teach it too! Here’s a look at what he had to say.
It’s all about hard work
Pietro may have been that classmate – the one who sits in front of the class and tries to prove the teacher wrong – but he earned his high marks and worked to understand what was being taught.
“It’s always been hard work. When they see someone performing well, they say ‘Oh yeah, he’s just clever,’ or whatever, but I think it’s all down to the hard work, you know,” said Pietro.
More people, he said, could get the grades too, if they put in the hours. “Whenever I got good results in university people would say like, ‘Oh you’re just a genius.’ Hey, no, if you saw how much work that I put into this, you would be so impressed, you know, like you could have been the same.”
Just because you don’t get it at first doesn’t mean you’re bad at it – with math, practice makes perfect.
Learn to appreciate it
On Sunday, Pietro also compared math to music – everyone can appreciate music’s end result, he said, but it’s not like that with math, because its result can seem like jargon.
“But the more you learn mathematics, the more you understand that you don’t know mathematics, there’s more to learn about mathematics,” he said. “And once you start learning, your eyes are opened to a new world and you can do so many things with it, and it’s like a new discovery.”
He admitted that not everyone would be inclined to that, but added, “If you’re a young student, and you feel like you don’t like mathematics, just try hard, because maybe you just have this idea in your head that you don’t like something that you potentially could like.”
Learning isn’t just about the teacher
Pietro also spoke about helping others learn math, and how he’d change up his teaching style, depending on who he’s talking to.
For his undergrads at UCL, the challenge was to simplify things, but not too much – getting the information across in a straightforward way. The class could, after all, figure it out and ask questions later.
Kids are a different story. “I always make a comparison between programming and teaching to a child – and people always thought I was crazy – but when really, when you have to write a computer program, you have to explain to the machine what it has to do, so you have to break it down in your head before you do it to the simplest concept,” said Pietro.
“And it’s the same when you have to teach a child, in a way, you have to really think wait, I always do things this way, but what is the actual schematics of it?”
For a broader audience, it’s all about creating an awareness of the problem and then getting them interested in solving it.
Regardless of who he’s teaching though, it’s always up to the students to learn on their own.
“I can’t do the work for you, you have to be the one learning, you have to be the one who is interested and is pushing yourself to learn that,” said Pietro. “That’s the most important thing about teaching, you can’t really instill knowledge into someone like you’re pouring from a jug, you have to sort of guide them to do the work themselves.”
Phone a friend
If all else fails, find a friend like Pietro who can help you out.
“I was the guy who was helping like, you know, in high school, people would, like, copy from me in the tests, and at the university, people who wanted to do well they would sit next to me,” he recounted to the amusement of the press.
“And I was always happy to help because I always loved talking about the other different academic subjects. It was a way for me to recourse the knowledge, in a way, so it’s good to confront yourself with others. You can’t just be the nerdy guy in the room, it’s good to talk about it with other people.”
Between modeling and engineering, 28-year-old Pietro has his hands full, traveling, learning, and keeping in shape (as of writing, his fitness-themed YouTube channel has more than a hundred thousand subscribers).
After spending time with his fans and closing Bench Fashion Week on March 12, Pietro spent some time with the indigenous community in Marilog district in Davao, and is set to meet fans at The Atrium in SM Lanang Premier on March 14.
Are you a math geek and proud of it? What are some of your tips for learning the subject? Sound off in the comments! – Rappler.com
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