Why I Majored in English Lit: Reason #8

My third-grade daughter, whom I haven't yet nicknamed for the blog, explained a math exercise her teacher poses daily. She'll toss out a number--say, 8--and then the students take turns offering equations for which the answer is 8. My daughter said that one boy liked to come up with time-consuming equations that go something like this: 1 + 1 + 1 + 4 + 2 - 4 .... and so on.

"Does he get it right?" I asked.

"Yep."

"He can keep track of all those pluses and minuses?"

"Yes, he can."

"Do you ever do it?"

"Yes, but I do something a little more normal."

"Like 7 + 1?"

"Well, maybe a little harder, like 10 - 2."

Inspiration hits. "I know what you could do!" I begin, "You could start with a big number, like, 477 minus, um, four hundred seventy, uh, no wait, four hundred eighty. Shoot. I can do this, I just..."

"I know," my third-grader interrupted. "I see what you mean. It would be something like 479 minus 471."

"Right. That's what I meant. I was getting there."

The Belgian Wonder was sitting next to me the entire time, shaking his head.