SUMTER, S.C. — One Sumter elementary student is helping out his fellow students by getting them excited about multiplication. Melvin Cabbagestalk is a fourth grader at Alice Drive Elementary School, where he gets dropped off a little early every morning to help his peers with their math facts.
At 11 years old, Cabbagestalk said his times tables are memorized; however, just a year ago, he didn't know how to multiply.
That's a feeling third graders Daniel Flippin and Caisen Richardson understand now that they're learning multiplication for the first time in school this year.
"Whenever I started off, it was hard," 8-year-old Flippen said. "I didn't understand the x."
Cabbagestalk realized how important it was to know his times-tables by heart.
"Once I learned my multiples in my head, I got all of them right," Cabbagestalk said.
According to Cabbagestalk's former teacher, Amy Chua, he picked up multiplication quickly last school year.
"Melvin was a math superstar. Melvin really got excited when it was time to multiply. He loved being able to see math on paper and what it actually meant to multiply with big numbers," Chua said. "He was always practicing every minute, every spare minute in the classroom that we had. That's what Melvin was working on: mastering those facts."
While Cabbagestalk said he enjoys math, he also recognizes it's a complex skill to learn.
"There's some people that kind of struggle," he shared.
Now in fourth grade, Cabbagestalk returned to his old teacher with a suggestion to help her current students.
"He calls it 'Multiply with Melvin, so any students that want to join him can go join him on the rug, and they work on flashcards and just different facts that the kids are struggling with," Amy Chua, a third-grade teacher at Alice Drive, said. "This was Melvin's idea. So for it to be something that he came up with on his own, his idea, his compassionate heart wanting to help my current students, that was a full circle moment, and I just could not be more proud of him."
For students like Flippen, the morning sessions have been helpful.
"Melvin helped me," Flippen said. "Whenever our test was coming up, he helped me with eight times six. It really helped me on my test."
For Richardson, having an older student to look up to is helpful.
"It's pretty helpful," Richardson said. "That's helping us prepare for the next grade."
"If they're older and have higher grades, they're going to know more about the stuff so we don't get it wrong," Flippen added.
Both the third graders said they've not only learned a lot from meeting with Melvin in the mornings, but they're also having fun. It's an impact Chua notices in the classroom.
"I have some students, especially the boys. They're the ones who tend to love to hang with Melvin in the morning, but some of those students were struggling with their facts, I think, more so than academically," Chua said. "You know, as far as a score on a multiplication test, I've seen more excitement toward multiplication from some of my boys, who maybe were a little hesitant or lacked confidence."
"When they see Melvin and how excited he is about multiplication, they think, 'Multiplication is for me too.' And, 'It is fun to multiply!'" she added. "So I've really seen kind of a shift in perspective and attitude towards math in general because of what Melvin has shared with us."