An illiterate guy I knew desperately asked me to teach mathematics to his 16-year-old son who couldn’t multiply two one-digit numbers and was months away from failing his 16+ exams - he was at a below-average state school and was doing pretty badly there.
I agreed to his father's request, but I didn’t teach the kid any mathematics. Every week I just spent 15 minutes telling him and then reminding him that unless he sorted his life out he’d be cooking burgers for the rest of his life.
I explained in detail what that actually meant. Apart from hating his job he’d be driving home in a 20-year-old Datsun to his tiny house, he wouldn’t be able to give his kids things that he’d want to give them, etc…
And it would, in all probability, be too late to do anything about it, in part because he’d be mentally defeated.
I did tell him there’s nothing wrong living an honest life like that. In fact, it’d be admirable if he could contently do so. But he’s actively making a choice that will, in all probability, lead him there.
Just over five years later he graduated from King's College London, one of the top 25 universities in the world, in Computer Science.
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