Tommy was sitting in math class when suddenly his teacher asked him
“Tommy, How much is 2 + 2?”
Tommy, caught off guard, begins counting his fingers under the table mumbling to himself: “1…2…3…4,” before happily exclaiming “The answer is four!”
“That’s correct,” answered his teacher, “but I saw you counting your fingers instead of doing the math in your head. So I want you to put your hands behind your back and tell me what do you get if you add 3 + 3?”
Tommy put his hands behind his back, but his teacher saw that he was still moving uncomfortably as if he were trying to count fingers. After a few moments he said uncertainly, “is the answer six?”
“You are correct,” she replied, “but I see you’re still counting fingers despite me asking you not to! Put your hands in your pant pockets and tell me what you get if you add 5 + 5.”
Tommy put his hands in his pants and his teacher saw him looking at his pants and moving his lips without uttering a word.
Finally the teacher became impatient and said: “I see what you’re doing there and I can tell you right now that the answer is not eleven!”
A teacher asked her students to use the word “fascinate” in a sentence.
Martha said, “My family went to the Louisville Zoo, and it was fascinating to see all the animals.”
The teacher said, “That was good, but I wanted you to use the word ‘fascinate.’”
Sarita raised her hand. She said, “My family went to the Cincinnati Zoo and I was fascinated by the animals.”
“That’s good, too,” said the teacher, “but I really wanted you to use the word fascinate.”
Little Billy raised his hand.
The teacher hesitated because Billy was noted for his bad language, but surely he couldn’t damage a world like “fascinate,” so she called on him.
