An eminent mathematics professor writes:
The following is true. Only the arithmetic has been changed.
I don’t deal with soccer moms. I teach math in college. I get to deal with algebra moms.
“Look at all the work she did. Why didn’t you give her any points!” This was not meant as a question.
“It’s wrong,” I said. “She did a lot of work but it’s wrong and it has nothing to do with the question.”
“Look at all the work she did!” I obediently stared at the page the woman’s hand slapped. “What about this?” she gloated.
I looked at the line scrawled sideways on the page near the right edge. “6 – 4 = 2,” I read. “Yes, that’s right.”
I paused. “However,” I continued. “If you read the problem, you’ll see there is no six and no four in it — and the problem doesn’t require any subtraction.”
I stared in the woman’s eyes and felt defeated. We were only on the first page of that final exam.
Before I continue this story, I want to ask you, the reader, a question. “Who is missing from the above?”
Let me summarize the phone call that started it all.
The woman’s daughter had failed the course. But, said the mother, the daughter should have gotten a B. It was obvious, she said, that I hadn’t given all the partial credit on the final exam that I was obligated to give.
“I’m here all week,” I replied. “I can meet with your daughter any time she wants to go over the final exam.”
“My daughter works. She can’t take off from work. Are you going to pay her salary if she takes off?”
“I can stay late and meet her after work,” I replied.
“My daughter has a very busy social life. You don’t really expect her to come in after work.”
Believe it or not, I hadn’t see this coming. I gave the woman my office hours and told her to have her daughter drop by whenever it was convenient.
Ps: I assume you want to know if I changed the grade. The answer is no. The woman is going over my head to see the chair of the department. With any luck, I’ll be fired. Then I can get a job coaching soccer.