Start with 150 children, multiply with lots of laughter, subtract all boredom, add a whole lot of magic and what do you get? Mathman! 
Combining maths with magic, Mathman, alias Ken Ring, has created a unique learning experience for thousands of new Zealand schoolchildren over the past 11 years. 
'Magic tricks are just like secrets,' he tells his enthralled audience 'Maths is like that too - you have to discover the secrets.' 
Mangawhai Beach School pupils and staff were challenged, amused and bemused when Mathman visited last week at the start of his Northland tour, bringing his special brand of magic to prove that maths is fun! 
'Why is it' Mathman asks, 'that so many believe they are hopeless at maths? 
Yet maths is part of everything we do. Maths in the outside world and maths in the classroom are perceived to be different, and we have to bring the two together.' 
And that is exactly what he does, using magic tricks and audience participation to amaze the junior classes with mysteries of shapes, sizes, lengths and curves, encouraging senior students to question and find out the 
secrets. 
'Teachers are programmed to help you discover the secrets, so all you have to do is ask for help,' he told the children. 'Instructions and questions can be confusing, there can be two or more answers to a question, so practise saying ‘Excuse me, I don’t understand the question.'' 
There were three thoughts that everyone should bring to a problem solving situation: 
  1. What a mystery! 
  2. I wonder what the secret is? 
  3. If I could do that, I would have power I didn’t have before. 
Being able to hold the attention of a large number of children for ninety minutes is a mathematical calculation that Mathman works through each time he steps forward to greet students, skilfully exposing ways to make maths fun. 'Look at things from a different angle, slow down, laugh at your mistakes, share ideas, talk about the problem, and keep on asking until you understand.' 
Just who is Mathman, this man who exposed the wonderings, the paradoxes, the mysteries, all those things what were culled out by monastic disciplines leaving only arithmetic? 
Teacher, parent, lecturer, speech therapist, author, actor, clown, magician, 
Ken Ring himself has many sides, angles, and curves. 
Realising the power of magic as a teaching tool, he took a gamble and left twenty years of teaching behind to take his Mathman act on tour with the blessing of the Maths Advisory Service. 
Weekends and holidays he can be found conducting courses for parents and teachers, giving lessons to young magicians, performing magic shows, writing 
books and making music. In 1992 he received a QEII award for performing arts, and between 1993-96 served three elected terms as president of the New Zealand Society of Magicians. 
This ‘motivator supremo’ passionately believes that learning is peripheral, children getting their frames of reference from their parents and home environment. 
Touring around schools, Ken began to ask himself why it was that he always seemed to select bright children to assist in the performances. His conclusion? Most kids ARE bright! Ken believes there is something about the school system that gives children negative attitudes about themselves. 
'Pressure is most discouraging,' he stresses. 'And you know, it’s not a crim to be bottom of the class, it’s mathematical logic. Someone has to be at the bottom!' 
One of the problems is that we divide things up too much, he says, creating unnatural divisions between such things as ‘arts’ and ‘science’ with mind-sets created before a subject is even approached. 
'Yet they are all part of the whole. Take language - it’s mathematical. It has logic, sequentions and so forth, but we don’t see it as such because we are not attending to the whole.' And Ken is passionate too, about learning, as opposed to being taught. 
'You must have a relationship with the child and you must be interested in your subject.' 
And that is what Mathman achieves and demonstrates in every school he visits, leaving behind wonder, excitement and a desire to find out the secrets of maths. A copy of his latest book, ‘How To Get Your Kid To Like Maths’ is donated to each school library, along with work sheets, games and puzzles to be followed up in the classroom. 
There’s seemingly no end to the power and energy of Mathman Ken Ring. 
'I’m going to keep on going in my mathness until my number is up.'