THREE EASY WAYS TO FAIL ANY SAXON MATH COURSE
(Hereafter referred to as Magic Homework)
It has been more than thirty years since I retired from teaching high school math at a rural high school in North Enid, Oklahoma. I can still remember the talk I gave my students their first day of class. I explained to them that the course was relatively easy if they did all of their daily practice work “known as homework” every day.
It was easy to bring sports into the equation as I then told them that if they did not want to practice their putting on a daily basis – don’t expect to compete in any golf tournaments. If you don’t want to take daily batting practice don’t gripe about your low batting average. And if you do not do all of the problems in the daily assignment don’t gripe when you start failing the weekly tests.
I went on to explain to them that I had probably heard every excuse used by a student to explain why they were starting to fail – or were already failing – a Saxon Math course. In this case my math class. Then I told them to not take any notes as I would provide each of them with a copy of these excuses known as Magic Homework. I went on to explain that I would also give them an extra copy to give their parents so when their grade began falling to a “C” or lower they could simply tell their parents it was because of reason 1, 2 or 3.
1. NOT DO ALL THE DAILY ASSIGNMENTS: Why should I have to do all this boring “Make Work” stuff when I already know it? I listen in class every day and I understand what Mr. Reed is saying. Why should I have to waste my time doing all these stupid problems just to keep me busy? I know this stuff, and besides I have a job after school and I don’t have the time for this “Make Work” stuff.
2. COPY SOMEONE ELSES HOMEWORK: My friend writes neater than I do and besides, I know how to do this “dumb stuff.” I just don’t have the time and besides you won’t accept Xerox copies, so my friend copies it for me. Sometimes I copy it myself and it is just like doing it myself because I learn as I am writing it down.
3. WRITE DOWN JUST THE ANSWERS: Most of the time I use “scratch paper” to show my work. You told me it is too messy to read and I cannot turn it in. So now I neatly write down the answer so you know I did the problem correctly. Besides, I can do this stuff in my head! All you need is just the answer, so you know I can do the work.