The Special Creativity Class
"So, what you're saying is... he's some kind of math prodigy? Is that it?"
"Well, I can't say for sure either, but he's already finished the middle school curriculum. Of course, there are kids who do that at his age if they've been pushed ahead early, but Cheol-jun was actually far behind his peers until just yesterday, and then in a single day..."
"So his mathematical learning ability is quite good?"
"It's not just 'good.' The moment I briefly explain a concept, he grasps it instantly and applies it flawlessly..."
"Haha..."
Hyeong-man looked toward Cheol-jun's room.
To think he's smart enough to leave a tutor this flustered.
"I get the gist of it. Please continue with the lessons as planned, but try to cover other subjects evenly as well, not just math."
"Yes..."
As soon as the tutor went back into Cheol-jun's room, Hyeong-man tapped his phone and created a group chat.
Hyeong-man clicked his tongue.
He had created the group chat with only those he could reach immediately because he couldn't find an answer on his own, but in the end, they were all acting like this.
Well, he did manage to gather some useful advice.
He quickly tapped Leave Chat.
Diverse experiences. Avoid getting consumed. Do not force studying. Diverse books. Exciting and happy.
Hyeong-man narrowed his eyes and looked at the closed door where the tutoring session was in full swing.
This was going to be tough.
"Then, if we pick another point extremely close to that point, find the slope between those two points, and pull the closer point even closer... doesn't it eventually become the exact slope of that single point?"
Cha Se-young completely erased the textbook explanation she had prepared in her head.
To think it could be explained so cleanly.
"...Uh, yeah. That's differentiation."
Cheol-jun smiled brightly and tapped the formula he had just learned with his pencil.
"Then, h is the extremely close distance, and sending it to 0 is the limit."
"..."
"Wow. So if we send h to 0, we really get the instantaneous slope. But I heard that as you get closer to the speed of light, mass becomes infinite. Is that a limit too? Since mass increases as speed approaches the speed of light, does that mean the exact moment you reach the speed of light will never actually come?"
"..."
"Planets orbit in ellipses, so the direction a planet travels at each point is the tangent of that point. If the sun's gravity suddenly disappeared, the planet would fly straight in the direction of that tangent, right?"
"..."
"Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light-years away. But while the light travels for 4.2 years, the star must keep moving. So what we see now is its position 4.2 years ago. To know where the star is right now, we need to know how fast and in what direction it's moving. And that would ultimately be the star's instantaneous velocity, right?"
Cha Se-young's jaw dropped.
Her eyes were practically trembling.
Though his approach was rough, the words coming out of the child's mouth were hard to believe even as she heard them.
Applying differentiation to astronomy, and even special relativity?
Cheol-jun smiled brightly.
"Wow, this is so cool."
Ever since he saw the nameless star at the NIS, he had been searching for anything related to stars. Seeing everything connect like this was incredibly fascinating.
Se-young quickly closed her mouth and quietly shut the Suhak-ui Jeongseok.
The guardian had requested it.
He wanted her to teach all subjects evenly.
Honestly, she wanted to delve deeper into this child's mathematical genius, but she held back.
In truth, she had nothing left to teach him.
It felt like he would do perfectly fine on his own if she just handed him the math textbook.
There was one hour left.
"Uh, I think we can stop here for math today. Have you ever learned English?"
She had been too shocked by his math skills to keep her composure.
This was the first time she was asking about other subjects.
Ethics or Korean history were subjects he could easily master just by reading the textbooks and memorizing them.
Elementary-level science was also mostly memorization.
For a child like him, those were subjects he could easily handle on his own.
The only other subject she could teach besides math was English.
At her question, Cheol-jun knit his brows.
"I still get confused when writing, but my dad taught me a bit of listening and speaking."
"Really?"
Since he had lived in China, he was bound to be fluent in Chinese, but she had heard that English education in China lagged far behind Korea's.
That was a relief.
At least there was one thing she could teach him.
After all, she had gone through intensive language training in the Philippines when she was young.
Thanks to that, she had even flirted with foreigners in English at clubs.
"Well, shall we try conversing in English from now on?"
Cheol-jun smiled brightly.
"Sure. But I should warn you that my English may sound somewhat unusual. It was not taught for school. Is that acceptable?"
Se-young's eyes shook.
What is up with his pronunciation?
"Uh... um... ye-yes?"
"I genuinely enjoy mathematics, but applying it is even more fascinating. I have learned a great deal thanks to you. I am truly grateful."
"Ah... you're welcome..."
"I was told that a British accent is more refined. Do you prefer this accent as well?"
His accent suddenly shifted completely.
He's asking if I prefer a British accent, right?
Se-young swallowed hard.
"Ye-yes!"
An hour later.
Se-young barely finished the lesson, clutching her completely shattered soul.
Am I even allowed to take money for this?
For some reason, she felt like she should be the one paying him.
Waiting for the elevator, she fell into deep thought.
Hanyoung Private Elementary School Principal's Office.
"Pardon? Ah... we've never had such a case before... There might be backlash from the parents, and since admission is based on a lottery system, if rumors get out that we allowed a transfer, people might raise issues of fairness... What? The group's vice chairman requested it directly? Huh... Is he a close acquaintance? ...Ah, that's not it? A fifth grader... But is it really fine to just accept him? We don't have to place him in the gifted class or anything like that, right? ...Yes, we can manage that. We do have a class with a vacancy. ...Yes, understood!"
Hanging up the phone, Principal Jang Gye-ook knit his brows.
The vice principal, sitting next to him with a highly curious expression, spoke up.
"Is it true that the official request came directly from the chairman's office?"
Principal Jang Gye-ook tilted an eyebrow and nodded.
"Yes, but we don't need to pay too much attention to it."
"Pardon?"
"It's a request from the group's vice chairman, but apparently, it came through a few mutual connections. It seems to be just a formality to save face."
"Ah..."
"He's in the fifth grade anyway, so we just need to look after him for two years and let him graduate."
"If it's a class with a vacancy..."
Principal Jang Gye-ook chuckled.
"Teacher Go's class. We can put him there. Even if rumors spread, the other parents won't say anything about that class."
"Ah. Teacher Go Chang-ho? Right, right. Since everyone avoids that class anyway..."
The vice principal quickly nodded.
In times like these, a class in Gangnam that insisted on a creativity-focused curriculum was a rarity.
Of course, it looked good educationally to have a differentiated approach, but when students reached the upper grades, parents were bound to throw a fit if classes were actually conducted that way.
Since most kids had already studied ahead, regular school classes were merely review sessions.
For that reason, other teachers turned a blind eye even if students did their academy homework or studied other materials during class, but Go Chang-ho, the homeroom teacher of that class, absolutely never tolerated such behavior.
Consequently, the parents of that class were always highly dissatisfied.
By the end of the first semester, requests to change classes or even transfer schools entirely were common.
It was a massive headache for the school, but they couldn't just fire him.
Teacher Go Chang-ho was the star teacher of Hanyoung Private Elementary School.
Harvard Graduate School of Education.
He was the only teacher among all private elementary schools in the country with a PhD from Harvard GSE.
Thus, they were stuck in a dilemma, unable to do this or that.
As a result, they naturally guided children who had slightly lower academic achievement or hadn't received much private tutoring into his class.
The so-called Special Creativity Class.
Ironically, despite being the class of the school's star teacher who graced the front page of the school's website, it ranked dead last in average grades, had zero achievements in various competitions, ranked first in parental complaints, and had the highest rate of class changes and school transfers.
"Let Teacher Go know in advance. But keep it quiet so rumors don't spread."
"Yes, Principal!"