Make a wager (alt.)

"Alright, listen up imbeciles." My comment invited looks of scorn from my students. "I was hoping to brag to my colleagues by now about how my pupils became so bright under my tutelage. Only problem is...all of you seem determined to treat math like this is some kind of elective course..."

"This is an elective course for some of us." The red haired girl in the front row scoffed. Scarlet was her name. She was a smart girl and was currently dating one of my best friends but she loved to start trouble. I enjoyed ignoring her.

"What is it going to take to get you howler monkeys to get your grades up?" It was a rhetorical question but one that started some murmuring among my students.

Scarlet spoke on their behalf. "How about we make a deal Professor Finn?"

This should be good. "Speak."

"If this whole class scored 80% on the next test or higher, you show up next class in a costume of our choosing and have to wear it for the rest of the day." Scarlet smiled evilly. "That'll motivate us nicely."

"Ha! Fine!" I mocked. "Tell you what, 80% or above I will wear your costume, but if you all score 90% or above I will go through the whole day in nothing but my underwear, and if you get above 95% or higher I'll teach without any clothes!" I meant it as a joke of course but the suggestion lit a fire in their eyes.

"80% or higher equals costume, 90% equals undies, 95% or higher equals completely naked," Ingrid, the dark-skinned fashionista validated the conditions. "You'll give us our word you will go through with it?"

I hesitated for only a moment. I was quite confident this lazy classroom wasn't going to collectively score so high; maybe to 80%. My heart was beating out of my chest especially for the 95% bet I just made. So why hold back if all this will do is motivate them to study? "I give you my word." With the gauntlet thrown down, there was cheering from the students right up until I dismissed the class.

Everybody pretty much hurried out of my classroom except for one student, Bridget. Bridget was the smartest student in my class and a close friend to Scarlet and Ingrid, but like everyone else, she just wasn't motivated in her studies.

"You do realize, you're pretty much screwed, yes?" She had an indecipherable European accent that was almost musical.

"I highly doubt that. Perhaps if they were born half as gifted as you, they might stand a chance, but my whole goal here is just to encourage them to study harder at this venue. I don't expect anything much." I waved her off. "Now off to your next class."

Bridget walked towards me with a seductive sway in her hips. The way she moved was so hypnotic I froze to watch her while I was packing up my desk. She passed me to look at the whiteboard and erased part of an equation I wrote earlier with her sleeve. "There are many different types of intelligence Professor Avery," I was taken aback, no student (apart from Santiago) called me by my first name. "Before I met Scarlet, I thought I was the smartest person I will ever know." Bridget uncapped a marker and started writing something in place of my previous numbers. "But she sees possibilities were I do not. I only collect data, she knows how to make the most of it." She rewrote my equation. "This will work so much better now. Next time teach this and we will be able to do a better job." She swaggered out the door.

Adjusting my glasses, I looked to my revised equation and checked it in my lesson plan and double checked it in the textbook. "Good Lord...have I been teaching that wrong this whole time!?" How could I have made such a ridiculous error? Could this be the real reason why my students were scoring so low? Have they been applying a faulty equation to complicated problems to solve them because of me? I shook it off, surely that couldn't have been the only reason. I was still certain they weren't going to score high enough to win any of the wagers.

Until the next test, that was exactly what they did...