It was a warm day. It was always a warm day when one is feeling lazy. The children were getting restless and the teacher did not like it. The younger teachers were telling him that children are to be nurtured, not disciplined. It benefited the society better if the potential of the youths are cultivated instead of controlled. They called it good pedagogy. He did not care. He was caned constantly by his elders when he was a child and he turned out fine. So why should now be any different.
“Maybe I should just give something for the children to work on. Keep them busy. That way, I get my peace and wait for the sun to set. The heat was getting unbearable.”
Thinking himself rather clever, he called the children over and promise a prize for the first person who can sum up all the numbers from 1 to 100 without error. Most of the excitable children immediately took up their writing pad and begin calculating furious. The teacher then returned to his seat. Just as he was about to get comfortable and fan himself, a skinny boy from the back of the room shouted the answer, “5050!”
“What? Someone did the sums within a couple of heartbeats,” the teacher was in disbelief. Storming angrily to the child, he growled that the boy must have cheated.
The boy then calmly explained, “but sir, I just have to pair the 100 numbers into 2 groups of 50, matching 100 with 1, 99 with 2, 98 with 3 and so forth, I get 50 groups of numbers that add up to 101 each. Therefore, 50 times of 101 will give me the sum of all the 100 hundred numbers which is 5050.”
There was a pause. And then the teacher conceived. The younger teachers were right, the youths have great potential.
“Maybe I should just give something for the children to work on. Keep them busy. That way, I get my peace and wait for the sun to set. The heat was getting unbearable.”
Thinking himself rather clever, he called the children over and promise a prize for the first person who can sum up all the numbers from 1 to 100 without error. Most of the excitable children immediately took up their writing pad and begin calculating furious. The teacher then returned to his seat. Just as he was about to get comfortable and fan himself, a skinny boy from the back of the room shouted the answer, “5050!”
“What? Someone did the sums within a couple of heartbeats,” the teacher was in disbelief. Storming angrily to the child, he growled that the boy must have cheated.
The boy then calmly explained, “but sir, I just have to pair the 100 numbers into 2 groups of 50, matching 100 with 1, 99 with 2, 98 with 3 and so forth, I get 50 groups of numbers that add up to 101 each. Therefore, 50 times of 101 will give me the sum of all the 100 hundred numbers which is 5050.”
There was a pause. And then the teacher conceived. The younger teachers were right, the youths have great potential.
