Ian Pulizzotto is a math whiz, the kind of kid who`s so utterly gifted that his high school classmates sometimes stop him in the halls and ask him to multiply a couple of numbers on the spot, something like Dustin Hoffman in
”Rain Man.”
We give it a try in a math classroom at North Miami Beach High School, where equations creep across the walls like numerical vines. Quick, Ian!
What`s 78 times 142? The kid who has been grinning and clowning around suddenly loses all expression. A bystander is still punching the numbers into a hand-held calculator when Ian blurts out: ”11,076!” The calculator blips out that the product of 78 times 142 actually is 11,076.
This is the stuff of perfect 800 scores on the math portion of the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (his verbal score was 610, a mere 96th percentile). It reflects an 18-year-old mind that was doing intermediate college algebra in 6th grade. For two years in a row, Ian has placed first in the David Essner math competition at the University of Miami, a grueling, two- part exam open to Dade County students.
Brilliant? He sure is, said math teacher Jack Grippo. In fact, Ian just qualified for the prestigious USA Mathematical Olympiad; he is one of only 140 such students in the nation.
Yet in 27 years of teaching, the most awesomely gifted student Grippo has ever taught is not Ian. It is Derrick Bass, Ian`s best friend since 7th grade and twice runner-up for the Essner prize.
”I`ve had some really brilliant students, but Derrick is without a doubt the most brilliant student I`ve ever had,” Grippo said, his voice infused with teacherly admiration. ”He has a rare quality of being able to do extremely difficult stuff on his own,” digging out the mathematical theory behind the raw numbers and symbols.
Astounding talent
”You don`t really teach these kids,” Grippo said of his two star students, both juniors. ”You expose them to things.” The students then go off and teach themselves, exploring new concepts and sharing whatever they learn.
”Their talent,” Grippo said, ”is mind-boggling.”
Ian has had his lapses. He competed for the Essner prize for four years, after stalking out of the competition in 8th grade. ”The problems were shockingly difficult,” he complained.
The next year they were relatively easy; he finished second and Derrick finished sixth. Their sophomore year, like this year, they finished Nos. 1 and 2, leaving 40 other test-takers in the competitive dust. Of 115 possible points, Ian scored 95 and Derrick 87. The next-highest scorer got 59.
In nine years, this is the first time the same student won two years in a row, said Paul McDougle, a University of Miami associate professor and a co-administrator of the Essner prize. The award, which carries a $250 first prize and $150 second prize, is named for David Essner, a Miami graduate student who was killed in a 1980 motorcycle accident.
Yin and yang
Derrick is a kind of yin to Ian`s yang. He is quiet, reflective and controlled where Ian is uninhibited and boisterous. Why does Ian score better in formal math competitions? ”Too many dumb mistakes,” Ian said with a laugh, ribbing his friend. Derrick isn`t sure, but he points out that he`s narrowing the gap in the Essner competition. He did score better on the PSAT, with a 650 in verbal-40 points better than Ian-to match his perfect 800 in math.
Derrick, 17, lives with his divorced father, who once ran a women`s clothing store in Miami Beach, and his 13-year-old sister. The family is not academically gifted; his mother left high school after two years. The best he can do by way of genetic explanation is to cite family lore: A great-great-grandfather was a Russian mathematician.
His interest in math kicked in during 2nd grade, when he asked his grandmother what profession paid the most. ”Medicine,” he was told, and that meant math and science. In junior high, he switched his allegiance to physics. It may not pay as well, he said, ”but I get to apply all the math I`ve learned to something I can use. Physics answers the basic questions I`ve always had: Why is the sky blue? Why is grass green? Why do rainbows form?”
In 6th grade, he pulled far ahead of his fellow students. A gifted teacher (he remembers her only as a high-energy, hyperenthusiastic ”Mrs. Thomas”) relearned algebra just to help him in his advanced classes. In 7th grade he met Ian, who made friends by approaching him with packets of quirky, challenging math problems.
Ian, an only child, was new to the school system. He had been tutored at home by his mother, Ricki, who described herself as a ”cognitive
rehabilitation therapist,” or someone who works with people with head injuries.
”There`s a fringe who feel very strongly about home education, and I was one of them,” she said. But by age 9, Ian had become so advanced in math that he began studying with a math tutor from Miami-Dade Community College, where his father is an audio-visual specialist.
Math trophies
Away from parents and teachers, Ian and Derrick are preternaturally modest. In an hour`s conversation, Derrick never so much as hints that last summer he was ranked the No. 1 high school physics student in the nation, winning a trip to Poland for the International Physics Olympiad (he finished 70th of 150 students from 33 countries).
Both have accumulated more math trophies than they can count. ”It`s in the 30s,” said Derrick, who is interested in going to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or the California Institute of Technology. Ian, who expects to go to the University of Miami (”I`m not ready to leave my state”) said he thinks he may have won more but adds, ”It`s hard to keep count.”
Ask the teenage math whizzes what they do for fun, and there`s a puzzled pause. ”Fun?” Derrick finally asked.
”I like to toss coins,” said Ian, whose interest leans to logic and probability. Say he flips a quarter 99 times, and every time it comes up heads. What`s the probability that the 100th toss will be tails? ”It`s still half,” Ian said. ”A coin has no memory.”
Later, his mother called to correct the image of a brainy kid who never has what is usually considered ”fun.” Ian, she said, ”likes Nintendo and video games. Last year he went to tennis camp.” He`s also a gifted musician- at 18 months, she said, he could hum 200 melodies, including Beethoven`s Fifth Symphony-”and he was heavily into composing by age 8.” He takes jazz lessons on a keyboard.
But let`s be honest: The image of ”math geek,” as Ian puts it, doesn`t have the sort of cachet you need for a hot date to the junior prom. Neither Derrick nor Ian has ever had a real date. ”I think I project the image of a nerd-you know, the glasses, the backpack,” Derrick said, plainly unconcerned. There`s time for heavy-duty socializing later, ”maybe in 20 years.”
Over the years, he and Ian have learned that while teachers like smart kids, kids don`t like smart kids. Both have been the target of name-calling.
”It`s jealousy,” Ian said dismissively.
”The new term (for nerd) has been `Poindexter,` ” Derrick said. ”It started at the beginning of the year. I was really puzzled, but I finally figured out it was some kind of insult.”
The ”Rain Man” remarks directed at Ian don`t always come with an absence of malice. Still, it`s true he doesn`t compute in quite the same way as most of us.
Take that small multiplication problem, 78 times 142. How`d he come up with 11,076? Easy. ”All I did,” Ian explained helpfully, ”is multiply 142 by 22 and subtract that from 142 times 100.”
