Operations

As the last student straggled in to take a seat, Teacher logged the daily attendance. She asked the students to pass the previous night’s homework forward, then collected the papers, tamping the stack of sheets on her desk, to tidy them. She had done this at all the class meetings, for every class over the course of forty years.

Something about the way in which she did it today caught the attention of the class. Everyone became uncharacteristically quiet and attentive.

Tucking the stack of papers into the folder reserved for them, she turned to the class, smiling.

“Today is a very important day. Oh, I know there is no holiday or festival noted on any calendar, but, indeed, this is an important day.”

Turning to the black board, she took the chalk and wrote the following equation:

[A B+C D+E+F G+H+I+J K+L+M+N+O P+Q+R+S+T+U+V+W+X]2

x

Y2

=

_______________

The students waited. This wasn’t a proper equation; there must be more to it.

Turning back to the seated students, she said, “Shortly, I will be leaving you. A new teacher will come to see out the rest of the term with you. This is my last day; I am retiring. I know there has been no prior announcement; this news may be a shock to some, a delight to others—“ she had heard some intake of breath, some rustling of papers, some fidgeting, “but I chose this hour, before lunch, to be my last.”

The atmosphere was suddenly charged with an odd collective mood, as well as mild curiosity.

“I did not want to leave without offering one last problem, which you see on the board before you.” She paused, obviously having anticipated questions.

Cameron took the bait. “Uh, Miss, that, what you have written up there, is not a real problem, is it?”

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for just a moment, letting the world settle around her.

“Well, you won’t find it in the textbook.”

That was enough to break the tension; there was some snickering, particularly from those in the back row. She thought, ‘I must leave a note for the new teacher about the back row…’

‘I will confess to you, this is not pure math. It is rather, a philosophical problem with sociological implications.” Glancing at the clock on the wall, she continued, “ah, well, tempus fugit, and so I must soon be on my way. However, I need to give you a bit more information, so that you can really work on this problem.”

Turning back to the board, she took up the chalk, pausing just long enough to savor the dry, powdery feeling of it in her hand. She made a single alteration to the equation:

[A B+C D+E+F G+H+I+J K+L+M+N+O P+Q+R+S+T+U+V+W+X]2

x

Y(ou)2

=

_______________

Shelley didn’t bother to raise her hand, “What does that mean?”

Without turning or answering, she raised her fingers, making small erasures, so that the equation looked like this:

[A B+C D+E+F G+H+I+J K+L+M+N+O P+Q+R+S+T+U+V+W+X]2

x

YOU2

=

_______________

She knew they would not understand. That is actually why she was offering them this lesson.

“This is, believe it or not, my gift to you. I hope you will work on this and find the solution. Indeed, school will not be out for anyone who does not attempt to solve this vital problem.”

Brett shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I don’t think all the information is there. I don’t see how this can be solved.”

“Brett, thank you. I have left out one vital piece of information, which I will give you before I leave. For now, I will make this small change.” She turned back and altered the equation again.

[A B+C D+E+F G+H+I+J K+L+M+N+O P+Q+R+S+T+U+V+W+X]2

x

YOU2

=

_______Z_______

 “We are solving for Z?” Chloe, a student who was always struggling anyway, was clearly distressed. This exercise was as clear to her as mud. All she could picture in her mind was the potential for “F²” to appear on her exercise paper.

“Ah, Chloe, thank you for that opening. No, Z is known; I will give this to you at the end. But, there are some things I must say about the multiplicand.” She leaned on the edge of her desk, crossing her arms and looking up toward the ceiling.

“As I said, this is a philosophical problem, one in which, as long as you live, YOU are the sole multiplier who figures into the expression, each and every day. YOU are required to engage with everything and everyone that the multiplicand represents, in order to solve for the product.”

She lowered her eyes, scanning the faces of her students. A few had a bemused look on their faces, as if it was all a joke.

“As to the multiplicand, this will be different for each individual YOU in this room—indeed, for every YOU everywhere in the world. The multiplicand is the factor you are tasked to discover in this problem. YOU and the product must be understood to be constants. And, the way you multiply yourself with the multiplicand will depend on the precise circumstances in any given moment—specificity about which I cannot provide. I highly commend this exercise to you, and I hope you will share it with others.”

The phone rang, with a jarring suddenness.  Going around the desk, Teacher took her seat and picked up the handset. The students tuned their ears toward the desk, straining to hear anything.

“Yes. I am on my way,” she said, and as she was replacing the handset, she was pulling open her file drawer. She pulled out her purse and gathered up her briefcase.

“The time has come for me to leave you, but I want you to know that this—“ she gazed around this room, this last one, representative of all the rooms she had ever occupied in the course of doing this work—“this has been a privilege and an honor I hope to have lived up to. I want to thank you for all that I have learned.”

She started for the door.

“Wait.” It was Chloe, “Don’t we need to know what the product is?”

“Ah, yes. Thank you, Chloe.” She patted the girl’s shoulder, to reassure her, as she returned to the blackboard.

Shifting her briefcase to her left hand, she took up the chalk one final time, used her fingers to erase the “Z” in the product area of the equation. She put down the chalk, rebalanced her bags while turning, and headed out the door.

“Best of luck to you all!” She said, cheerfully and went on, without a backward glance.

Her students stared at the board. There were yet fifteen remaining minutes of class. They did not know what to do.

Was someone else coming?

Was this equation a real assignment?

Would they be graded?

[A B+C D+E+F G+H+I+J K+L+M+N+O P+Q+R+S+T+U+V+W+X]2

x

YOU2

=

_____LOVE_____

© 2015 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen