The Math Tale

A ten year old public school boy was finding fifth grade math to be the challenge of his life. Science? A piece of cake. Geography? No big deal. Spelling? Ha! Give me a break... But MATH? It was devastating!

Not only to him, but to his mom and dad, too! And not that they weren't doing everything and anything to help their son... private tutors, peer assistance, CD-ROMS, textbooks, even HYPNOSIS! Nothing worked. Finally, at the insistence of a family friend, they decided to enroll their son in a private school. Not just ANY private school, but a Catholic school. The parents were not religious but had heard it was a good school.

After the first day of school, the boy studied math for nearly two hours each night. This pattern continued ceaselessly until it was time for the first report card.

After school, the boy walked into the home with his report card, unopened, in his hand. Without a word, he dropped the envelope on the family dinner table and went straight to his room. His parents were petrified. What lay inside the envelope? Success? Failure?

Patiently, the mother opened the letter. To her amazement, she saw a bright red "A+" under the subject, MATH. Overjoyed, she and her husband rushed into their son's room, thrilled at the remarkable progress of their young son!


"Was it the nuns that did it?" the father asked. The boy only shook his head and said, "No."

"Was it the one-on-one tutoring?" asked the mother. Again, the boy shrugged, "No."

"The textbooks? The teacher?" asked the father. "Nope," said the son. "It was all very clear to me from the very first day of school, that these folks in Catholic school took math seriously!" "How so?" asked his mom.

"When I sat down in class the first day and looked over the teacher's desk I saw a guy they'd nailed to the plus sign, I knew they meant business!"