Fourth-grader Cade Rice is as comfortable calculating large division problems as he is sketching cartoon characters in the margins of his notebook. For Cade, learning isn’t just about subjects—it’s about the thrill of discovery and the satisfaction that comes from figuring things out.

“I like the big questions that take 10 or 15 minutes,” Cade said. “It gives me something to do.”

That patient persistence shows up in the classroom of Ms. Diallo, his teacher at Macomb’s Edison Elementary, where Cade and a few classmates occasionally break off into the hallway to tackle what he calls “the crazy division stuff.” While some might groan at multi-step equations, Cade lights up. “When we’re doing division with zeros at the end—like 88,000 divided by 8—you cross out the zeros, take 88 divided by 8, that’s 11, then add the zeros back. It’s 11,000,” he said, rattling off the solution with quiet confidence.

Math came naturally to Cade early on. His mom—who has a degree in data science and works with FedEx—introduced him to algebra before most children were counting by twos. “When I was five, she taught me a really simple way of algebra,” he recalled. “Like, five plus what equals seven? It’s two. You can prove it by doing seven minus five.”

That curiosity spills into everyday life. Cade grins when describing how he uses math beyond the classroom. “When I see my screen time on my iPad, I divide it out to figure out what I’ll probably get next week,” he said. “You can predict things with math.” He even applies it to gas mileage during car rides. I told him that there are 128 ounces in a gallon, and he explained, “So if the car gets 32 miles per gallon, you could figure out how many ounces it takes to drive a mile — 4.”

Cade also reads voraciously—a habit he knows helps him in math. “You can’t be good at math if you’re not a good reader,” he said. “Math has story problems. You’ve got to read the stories.” His interests range widely, from historical fiction about World War II to graphic novels like Catwad, whose oddball humor he finds irresistible. “They’ve got this one character named Blurp who’s just goofy and dumb,” Cade laughed. “And Catwad’s the lazy one who hates everything. They’re hilarious.”

At home, creativity runs in the family. Cade’s father is a graphic designer whose work can be seen on signs and branding around the Macomb area. “He works with companies like Woodrum Toyota and Pumo Insurance,” Cade said. “He’s got his office downtown in the Masonic building, but he’s thinking about doing more work with our church.”

That artistic streak has rubbed off. “I love to just doodle with a Sharpie and make crazy designs,” Cade said. “I like doing little paper flip animations—like a stick figure holding a ball, and then on the next page the ball hits him.” He laughs at the simplicity of it, but his eyes light up as he describes the sequence. “I love it. You keep flipping, and it just keeps going.”

Cade sees no conflict between creativity and logic. “People who are good at math are often creative, too,” he said. “They just use it differently.” His interviewer pointed out that the brain’s two hemispheres—one logical, one creative—are joined by a structure called the corpus callosum, and Cade immediately visualized it: “Sort of like stitches that stitch the two parts together,” he said.

That balanced way of thinking could serve him well as he pursues his dream: a career in aerospace engineering. “I want to go to MIT,” he said without hesitation. “There’s this shirt that says, ‘It’s not rocket science.’ And then on the back it says, ‘It actually is rocket science.’”

He grinned at the thought. “That’s what I want to do—real rocket science.”

Until then, Cade plans to keep learning, reading, drawing, and defending the soccer field. “I play defense,” he said. “I love seeing people run up the field like they’re going to score—and then I just crush their dreams.”

It’s a line delivered with humor, but also with insight into how Cade approaches everything he loves—with focus, determination, and just enough playfulness to make it fun.