Math has a way of making many children nervous. Unlike creative subjects, numbers seem to follow strict rules, and students often feel pressured to give exactly the answer a teacher expects. For some children, memorizing formulas comes easily. Others, however, want to understand why those rules work instead of simply repeating them. Little Johnny belonged to the second group. He wasn’t careless or unwilling to learn—he simply believed that every lesson should make logical sense.

One afternoon, Johnny came home looking unusually calm and announced that he had received an F in math. His surprised father immediately asked what had happened. Johnny explained that the teacher first asked, “What’s three times two?” and he confidently answered, “Six.” Then she followed with, “What’s two times three?” Johnny couldn’t understand why the same question was being asked twice, and what happened next left both him and his father completely speechless…