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
