Page 34 - Senior Link Magazine Summer 2017- Online Magazine

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From P.M.&R.

Math in Pictures

by Jane Bromley with Dr. Joseph Bishara
and Dr. Miranda Bishara

farming family near Cairo. Early on, he dedicated
himself to study. He overcame tremendous obstacles,
mastered languages, studied in Scotland, learning
agriculture and biological sciences before returning to
Egypt where he became a professor in one of the very
few universities in all of Africa. His wife Violette was
A few weeks ago, I had equally intellectual and challenged the expectations
the privilege of meeting of the time to become one of the first college-educated
a unique and gifted women in Egypt, also mastering multiple languages
individual. We met to and sciences. When I was a child, my grandmother
discuss the possibility of my taught me French, multiplication tables, history,
editing a Math curriculum piano and literature.
he had developed for young
children. His passion was “Their zeal for education was not lost on their son
contagious, and we agreed Nabil who worked hard and excelled in school as
to work together. well. He did his residency in Scotland, and like his
father married someone of equal intelligence. Angèle
Dr. Nabil Bishara is a retired orthopedic surgeon. He also completed her medical degree in Scotland.
prefers the title Physiatrist (also known outside the US
as P.M.&R. for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.) He “Years later, in West Texas, I would find myself
was born in 1937 in Cairo, Egypt to a middle-class family staring up at a man who got a twinkle in his eyes
who happened to be passionate about education. After every time my schoolteachers taught me a bit of
excelling as a student in arduous schooling in Egypt, he science and especially Math. Other dads threw
studied medicine in England and Scotland. He married balls with their kids, but my dad loved showing me
his wife Angèle in 1970 and came to the US in 1972. Math facts. He would draw on paper like a football
coach explaining a winning play. For him, it was
Texas Tech hired the young doctor like watching a beautiful cosmic ballet - one number
as an assistant professor in P.M.&R., jumping through another number to turn into a third
and he was in private practice number. He loved Math, but he loved the teaching of
from 1977- 2005. Nabil inherited Math even more. He taught Pythagoras’ theorem to
his father’s passion for education, his younger sisters when they were all children. And
and his retirement has centered then he taught me, my siblings, then my cousins, and
around teaching young children eventually anyone who wanted to know more.
the fundamentals of Mathematics.
In fact, he developed a curriculum “Much of the magic of his instructional techniques
that is unique and highly effective. can’t be taught, because it’s simply the enthusiasm
More about that later. of spending time with a student. You can’t teach
a twinkle in the eye or the raising of a brow or a
Two of the Bishara children are accomplished doctors dramatic pause or that joyful holler when the child
themselves. They were asked to describe their father. finally ‘gets it’. Does his teaching style work? Well,
it did with me. Despite my teenage shenanigans,
Dr. Joseph Bishara is a psychiatrist resident at Indiana Dad’s effort (along with the efforts of Mom and some
University. He writes: “You have to understand a man’s wonderful teachers) paid off. Most kids played ball
parents to truly understand their son. Nabil Bishara’s in high school. I was on the Math/Science team and
father Gabriel was born to a modest Coptic Christian would regularly win ribbons at competition. When

34 Lubbock Senior Link