2009-11-16
Explanation
This comic contrasts two approaches to getting kids interested in math. The top panel, labeled "WRONG APPROACH," shows a cheerful teacher at a chalkboard with the equation 2 = 3x² + 1, enthusiastically telling his students: "Kids! Math is fun! It's like a safari to find the value of x." The students look bored and unimpressed -- the forced enthusiasm and strained metaphor clearly are not working.
The bottom panel, labeled "RIGHT APPROACH," takes the opposite tack. Instead of trying to make math seem fun, it lays out the cold, practical advantages of being a mathematician: "If you're a mathematician, there are about 10 people on earth who understand what you do, and none of them have the power to fire you. You have no set hours, everyone respects you, and you work about 5/8ths of the year. If you go to a bar and tell a woman you are employed for your intellect alone, she will probably sleep with you. But hey, feel free not to do your homework. It's not my problem."
The joke argues that the best way to motivate students is not through patronizing attempts to make learning seem like a game, but through appealing to their self-interest with frank, even cynical honesty about the real-world perks of the profession. The reverse psychology of "it's not my problem" is the cherry on top. The votey panel has a woman telling the cartoonist: "Wow, you'll go through a lot to avoid drawing a background," to which he replies "Hooh yeah" -- a self-aware joke about how the text-heavy "Right Approach" panel conveniently avoids the need to draw a detailed classroom scene.