Patrick Parkhurst, 2024 Texas Voyager Cohort
The ninjas of feudal Japan bear little resemblance to the black-clad action heroes from today’s film and TV. Referred to as ”shinobi” in their time, they were more spy than assassin; solving problems with wit, stealth, determination, and athletic prowess.
In many ways, they resembled Patrick Parkhurst.
Patrick takes classes at what he calls ‘ninja school.’ “It’s more like tricks, but he calls it a ‘ninja’ class,” his mother Tamara explains. Coached by a former stuntman, the class combines gymnastics and martial arts. There, Patrick works on trampoline flips, kick combinations, and other movement skills. “I can do a backflip now,” he says proudly.
But of course, a good ninja must possess stealth and determination. And like any experienced shinobi, Patrick has gotten himself into trouble.
In first grade, his teacher had him banned… from the “Imagine Math Facts” teaching app. It turned out that Patrick was secretly completing his classmates’ work for them after easily cruising through his own. “I asked if they wanted help with it, and they always said yes,” he explains with a shrug.
Patrick’s cat-like academic reflexes developed at a very early age. In kindergarten, he became fascinated with space. Soon, he’d memorized planetary temperatures, moon counts, and the sizes of distant objects — all before his classmates could even spell “solar system.” By first grade, he’d quietly mastered multiplication and division. When he ran out of assigned problems, he wrote more complicated ones on the backs of finished papers and solved those too.
Mastery of math and science came easily to Patrick. Finding ways to nurture those talents, however, turned out to be the hard part.
While Patrick’s abilities obviously outpaced his school’s curriculum, he ran into roadblocks when trying to move forward. School district rules did not allow for enough flexibility or support.
Patrick was given grade-level work long after he was ready for more. Even when he began tackling algebra-level material on his own, district requirements still demanded that he finish routine assignments on apps like DreamBox and ST Math before he could move on. He had to do advanced learning on his own time.
Because there are only so many hours in a day, regular classwork kept eating into the time he could spend on more challenging and exciting work. The constant revision began to wear on Patrick’s passion for learning as he ascended from grade to grade.
“We had the same problem in second grade and in third grade, and we were starting to see a little bit of that love of it kind of going away just because he was bored,” Tamara explains.
After all, a warrior’s blade grows dull if not regularly sharpened.
When National Math Stars entered the picture, however, things changed almost immediately. NMS advisor Kayla convened a meeting with Patrick’s school and helped find ways to clear away the redundant assignments. By fifth grade, he was deep in AoPS coursework and will be learning 9th-grade math as he hits 6th grade.
“National Math Stars definitely opened his eyes to so many things he didn’t even know existed,” Tamara says .”They brought the love of math back to him, “Before that, he was starting to just not care as much.”
NMS also helped Patrick gain entry to math programs he couldn’t crack before. For his application to Math in the Mountains, NMS mentor Avi taught him to explain his mathematical ideas — a skill required for camp acceptance. He’s earned himself a spot for the upcoming session.
Patrick’s love of math and learning have persevered. Away from the problem sets and off the trampoline, he plays soccer and works through an ever-growing collection of Rubik’s cubes. Different disciplines, same approach: stay patient, find the pattern, don’t stop until it’s done.
Patrick started out as the kid secretly helping others with math. Now he’s getting the help HE needs. A math ninja in training, he will undoubtedly be known as a Master in the not-so-distant future.
