Mr. Gozinta
Allan J. Ashinoff
August 30, 2005
Some time around the turn of the century somewhere in Brooklyn NY there was an Italian immigrant named Giuseppe Gozinta. He was the owner and proprietor of a small mom and pop Pickle store. Mr. Gozinta was a very nice man and very well known in his neighborhood. He was always friendly and courteous to people who stopped in. He even gave free pickle samples to the kids, but that’s not why people remembered Mr. Gozinta.
Legend has it that Mr. Gozinta despite being so warm and welcoming to all who visited his store is remembered for an unusual facial hair anomaly. Though there are no pictures of Mr. Gozinta a description of his anomaly was passed down by word of mouth from one generation to another and finally from me to my daughter. It is said that Mr. Gozinta had just one side of his moustache. It wasn’t so much that he shaved the left side of his lip daily as it was a heredity defect that stopped hair from growing. Despite his wife’s pleadings Mr. Gozinta was very proud of his thick black partial moustache and would never shave it off.
To compound matters Mr. Gozinta had a funny habit when he filled his pickle orders. Someone would ask for a large jar of of Kosher Dills, and Mr. Gozinta would reach deep into the Dill pickle barrel and grab a handful of pickles and stuff them into the large glass jar. Just before he would fill the jar with seasoned brine and close the lid he would always remark that it could take 8, 12, or 15 pickles to fill a jar. He was very proud in saying that he could grab 3 ripe and juicy pickles from the bottom of the barrel every time without a single one being damaged. Sometimes he would even say “can you guess how many handfuls I need to fill this big jar?” Kids would always guess wildly until one day someone wrote it down on paper using of all things Mr. Gozinta’s moustache as a strange symbol for this math problem.
So goes my story of Mr. Gozinta and the origin of the long division symbol. You know the old long division symbol you see in grade school. Mr. Goes-in-to helped my elementary school daughter remember how to read her division problems last night for a test today.
Mr. Gozinta was the difference between laboring through the math and making it fun for her. Three gozinta twelve four times and conversely 12 divided by 3 is the same as 3 gozinta 12. As crazy as it sounds she picked it up immediately and even drew pictures of Mr. Gozinta with the funny moustache. My daughter who didn’t know division just 15 minutes prior now thought it was the funniest thing she ever heard of and eagerly figured out a dozen division problems. I was a hero (which is never a bad thing).
Last year my kids were in the local public elementary school. After my son had some troubles with his grades I began looking into a traditional public school within reasonable proximity to my home in the same school district. Using the No Child Left Behind website and its resources I was able to look at both schools side by side and see that the quality of education over the last 5 years at a different school was far superior to the level of education at their existing school. A difference of 30 percentage points in every category in every grade level for the last five consecutive years was too much to ignore.
Much to their displeasure my kids were removed from their school at the end of last year. But the old schools apathetic teaching attitude couldn’t be shaken off so easily. My son never learned the Declaration of Independence and was having extreme trouble in math. My daughter was to have been introduced to division in her old school but never was. Adjustment to the new school is rough but the payoff later in their academic lives should be substantial. Their old school was a pitiful excuse for education after the 3rd grade and explains why our societies kids are lacking the tools they need to make it in today’s world.
Schools today are placing more and more responsibility on parents to teach their children. As parents it’s our jobs to teach our children as much as we can about life, morals, values and anything else they could need to be the next American success story. Reading their text books, monitoring their homework every night, and correcting their in class work with them so they understand their mistakes is essential.
Creativity seems to be lacking in many teachers along with the ability to make things relevant to kids. If parents do not step up and fill in the gaping holes in our children’s education our kids will pay the price. Something as simple as the great, quirky, and totally made up Mr. Gozinta was all it took to remove the intimidation of the long division symbol from my daughter and pull a last minute A on her timed division test.
I hope Mr. Gozinta can help other parents bridge the division gap in educating our kids. If we, as parents, don’t do it no one will.
I can be reached via yahoo messenger at thinker822@yahoo.com or via e-mail at thinker822@fedupwithpc.com or through my website www.fedupwithpc.com. Feedback is always welcome as is discussion on anything I’ve written. All articles with their imbedded links can be found on www.fedupwithpc.com.
Legend has it that Mr. Gozinta despite being so warm and welcoming to all who visited his store is remembered for an unusual facial hair anomaly. Though there are no pictures of Mr. Gozinta a description of his anomaly was passed down by word of mouth from one generation to another and finally from me to my daughter. It is said that Mr. Gozinta had just one side of his moustache. It wasn’t so much that he shaved the left side of his lip daily as it was a heredity defect that stopped hair from growing. Despite his wife’s pleadings Mr. Gozinta was very proud of his thick black partial moustache and would never shave it off.
To compound matters Mr. Gozinta had a funny habit when he filled his pickle orders. Someone would ask for a large jar of of Kosher Dills, and Mr. Gozinta would reach deep into the Dill pickle barrel and grab a handful of pickles and stuff them into the large glass jar. Just before he would fill the jar with seasoned brine and close the lid he would always remark that it could take 8, 12, or 15 pickles to fill a jar. He was very proud in saying that he could grab 3 ripe and juicy pickles from the bottom of the barrel every time without a single one being damaged. Sometimes he would even say “can you guess how many handfuls I need to fill this big jar?” Kids would always guess wildly until one day someone wrote it down on paper using of all things Mr. Gozinta’s moustache as a strange symbol for this math problem.
So goes my story of Mr. Gozinta and the origin of the long division symbol. You know the old long division symbol you see in grade school. Mr. Goes-in-to helped my elementary school daughter remember how to read her division problems last night for a test today.
Mr. Gozinta was the difference between laboring through the math and making it fun for her. Three gozinta twelve four times and conversely 12 divided by 3 is the same as 3 gozinta 12. As crazy as it sounds she picked it up immediately and even drew pictures of Mr. Gozinta with the funny moustache. My daughter who didn’t know division just 15 minutes prior now thought it was the funniest thing she ever heard of and eagerly figured out a dozen division problems. I was a hero (which is never a bad thing).
Last year my kids were in the local public elementary school. After my son had some troubles with his grades I began looking into a traditional public school within reasonable proximity to my home in the same school district. Using the No Child Left Behind website and its resources I was able to look at both schools side by side and see that the quality of education over the last 5 years at a different school was far superior to the level of education at their existing school. A difference of 30 percentage points in every category in every grade level for the last five consecutive years was too much to ignore.
Much to their displeasure my kids were removed from their school at the end of last year. But the old schools apathetic teaching attitude couldn’t be shaken off so easily. My son never learned the Declaration of Independence and was having extreme trouble in math. My daughter was to have been introduced to division in her old school but never was. Adjustment to the new school is rough but the payoff later in their academic lives should be substantial. Their old school was a pitiful excuse for education after the 3rd grade and explains why our societies kids are lacking the tools they need to make it in today’s world.
Schools today are placing more and more responsibility on parents to teach their children. As parents it’s our jobs to teach our children as much as we can about life, morals, values and anything else they could need to be the next American success story. Reading their text books, monitoring their homework every night, and correcting their in class work with them so they understand their mistakes is essential.
Creativity seems to be lacking in many teachers along with the ability to make things relevant to kids. If parents do not step up and fill in the gaping holes in our children’s education our kids will pay the price. Something as simple as the great, quirky, and totally made up Mr. Gozinta was all it took to remove the intimidation of the long division symbol from my daughter and pull a last minute A on her timed division test.
I hope Mr. Gozinta can help other parents bridge the division gap in educating our kids. If we, as parents, don’t do it no one will.
I can be reached via yahoo messenger at thinker822@yahoo.com or via e-mail at thinker822@fedupwithpc.com or through my website www.fedupwithpc.com. Feedback is always welcome as is discussion on anything I’ve written. All articles with their imbedded links can be found on www.fedupwithpc.com.
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