A parent of a grade school student was brought in because the student was being “disruptive” in class.\u00a0 What was the disruption?\u00a0 The student claimed the teacher was wrong.\u00a0 The teacher claimed the answer to the question “what was the largest number that can be represented with 3 digits” was “999”.\u00a0 The teacher was<\/em> wrong.<\/p>\n Pictured: A number larger than 999<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n Of course, the authoritarian strain in modern edukashun would not allow that to stand, and so called in the parent.<\/p>\n Nine to the power of Nine to the Nine is a much, much larger number than 999.\u00a0 The teacher claimed that that was not the correct answer because the students hadn’t been taught exponents yet.\u00a0 That most the students hadn’t been taught that yet does not mean that the answer is incorrect.<\/p>\n The problem was with the poor wording of the question, with the teacher and principal acknowledging<\/a> the provided answer was indeed incorrect, but that they would follow the incorrect answer anyway.<\/p>\n Therein lies the biggest concern: Teachers are just going through the motions and regurgitating what they are told to do.\u00a0 This isn’t even peddling pedagogy; this is automata in action.<\/p>\n A little mood music:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/999.jpg\" "\\"999\\"")