This bad maths gets extra facepalm points because the teacher did it

Over on Reddit’s r/mathmemes forum – which is a lot more entertaining than you might suspect – u/notjorx shared this shameful sight with a one-word title – ‘What?’

In case that pencilled-in answer isn’t clear, it says –

Marty’s pizza is bigger than Luis’s pizza.

Some people were sceptical about the photo – partly because of the green ink (which has long been a thing in UK schools) but also because it’s just such a stupid mistake that they couldn’t believe a teacher had made it.

This anecdote from u/butcheroftexas made it seem a lot more feasible.

Once my son was punished when he was the only student in the class who solved the problem correctly, but was marked incorrect.

His question was: If you have 12 butterflies in a jar, 7 fly away, and then 3 more fly away, how many butterfles are left?

The teacher was confused and thought it was ’12 – 7 + 3 = 8′ but it was supposed to be ’12 – (7+3) = 2′.

When I complained to the teacher, she blamed the “new maths” on it, that this is how they were forcing her to teach it, then told the class that both solutions were correct.

It also begs the question of why a student was punished for getting an answer ‘wrong’.

Reddit users who accepted the photo as real were pretty scathing – and occasionally NSFW .

Fuck this teacher. This answer is the perfect answer to this question, and proves that the child has understood what fractions mean.
Simbertold

It’s really discouraging to see how bad some teachers are.
Algebraron

I have a lot of respect for teachers in general, but let’s not pretend that there aren’t some lazy and stupid people who managed to become teachers.
BootyliciousURD

I am so mad. He is literally right.
itzak1999

teacher.exe has stopped working.
SnooRabbits05

This is how to discourage critical thinking.
Charming_Amphibian91

Hidden assumptions are the bane of all mathematicians. This “maths teacher” isn’t a mathematician.
Shadi1089

We think u/pintasaur made an excellent point.

No wonder kids hate maths.

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The replies to this maths problem will have you facepalming into next week

Source r/mathmemes Image r/mathmemes