Incorrect!

"Ave...er...Professor Finn," it was nice of her to behave formally in front of the other students in this instance. "Sorry for interrupting, but you seem to be a bit confused. The equation you gave us to solve this problem is inefficient. A couple variables are off and it upsets the results once input."

"That's absurd! If you honestly believe that I actually made that mistake again, then I challenge you to come up here and give us all the right equation Bri...er...Ms. Bernard!"

Stone-faced, Bridget walked right up to the board and readjusted my example equation by a few integers. Demonstrating her work as she input it into the problem she arrived at the correct answer.

I was stunned. I reviewed her equation and compared it to my own and ultimately came to the conclusion that Tia was not the one who got this wrong...I did. I slapped myself on the brow mentally cursing myself. How could you make the same mistake twice you buffoon?! Are you a math professor or what? You complain all the time that your students are incompetent, but in truth, the problem is you! Y.O.U. moron! If they mess up their futures it is all on your head! Stop holding them back! You should just quit and let someone else...

"Professor?...Professor Finn?...Avery!" Bridget placed a hand on my shoulder snapping me out of my self-loathing. "It's okay Ave." She was being informal now. Probably to ground me back to my senses. Once again I failed as a teacher, it had to be _her _helping me.

I shook my head, "No. No! It is not 'okay', I have a sacred duty to educate all of you and I am letting you all down. You would all be better off with a more proficient educator." Bridget tossed her arms around me and I was surprised. I looked to the rest of my students to see if they would react to the situation but thankfully they only perceived her actions as consolation for their bumbling professor.

"Seriously, you need to chill out Prof." Estelle called.

"We are not going to bag on you just for being human. In fact, we would very much like it if you were a little more human please." Doris chimed in.

"I...I still think your pretty cool." Merta spoke in such a low tone I almost didn't hear her.

Bridget stepped back and placed my face in her hands, "You are an excellent teacher. You just need to give yourself the chance to grow as a person. You don't have to be some out of this world genius to help bring us up in our field. We all have the skills to do this, you just need to show us how to apply them. Even if it means you fail, just listen to us and consider all possibilities before you render judgment. Remember, life is not math, there can be more than one solution. Now breathe."

I exhaled, only now realizing I was holding in my breath until now. I faced my class and lowered my head, "My sincerest apologies everyone. It is clear that in my arrogance I simply assumed that I was right all the time. This is a character flaw I plan on working on in the future. Since this was all due to my failure, you don't have to come here next week for an hour of study."

There was some murmuring among my students as I rewrote another equation on the board. From what I gathered, they were quite forgiving but still skeptical about my teaching methods. I had to fix that.