We’re off to Butterfield Trail Elementary School in Fayetteville for a 5NEWS birthday investigation. How is it possible that a teenager is actually teaching 4th grade students?
Mrs. Becky McCain has a good excuse: She was born on Feb. 29.
McCain says it all adds up to some funny math and a leap of faith for her students and administrators.
“Fourteen years old. Are they any rules in the Fayetteville schools about only being 14 and teaching school? I’ve fooled them. I can drive a car too. Police haven’t caught me on that one,” said McCain.
Mrs. McCain is fourteen leap years old and 50-something otherwise. She’s making Leap Year lessons fun for her students to explain why she’s a still a teen.
“My students say how can you be that old. It just doesn’t make sense. They get very confused so we do math problems. So we turn it into match problems,” McCain added.
One of the questions in class that day what is the probability that a person is born on Leap Day? Three kids got it right.
It's a one in 1,461 chance that a person is born on leap day.
It’s fun to talk about and a good teaching point for the entire class.
"I'm just going to be 14. What do I have to do to figure out how old I'm going to be? I need to multiply 14 times four and that equals 56," said McCain.
Age is just a number, unless you're born on Leap Day, then it’s a fun thing to celebrate every four years.
Happy Birthday Mrs. Becky McCain from all of us here at Channel 5.
