Little Johnny came home from school one afternoon looking unusually serious. His father noticed right away and asked what was wrong. Johnny sighed dramatically and said he had gotten an F in arithmetic. His father was shocked. Johnny wasn’t a straight-A student, but failing math was unusual.
Naturally, his father asked why. Johnny explained that the teacher had asked a simple question in class: “How much is 2×3?” Johnny proudly answered, “6.” The teacher nodded and moved on. His father immediately said, “Well, that’s correct. So what’s the problem?”
Johnny continued. He said the teacher then asked another question: “How much is 3×2?” Johnny told his father he answered “6” again, because it’s the same thing. His father laughed and said, “Of course it is. Multiplication works both ways.”
Johnny shook his head and said that wasn’t how the teacher saw it. She told him that he needed to pay attention and understand the order of the numbers. Johnny said he tried to explain that two times three and three times two both equal six, but she wasn’t impressed.
His father, now confused, asked what happened next. Johnny said the teacher gave him a zero for the question and wrote a note saying he was being “smart” instead of following instructions. Johnny looked up at his dad and said, “I told her there’s no difference.”
The father couldn’t help but laugh. “And what did she say to that?” he asked.
Johnny replied, “She said that’s exactly why I failed.”
The father leaned back, shaking his head, realizing that sometimes being right isn’t enough when the teacher wants a specific answer. Johnny shrugged and said, “Math makes sense to me. People don’t.”
And that was how Little Johnny learned his first real lesson in school — sometimes it’s not about the answer, but how you’re supposed to give it.
