2014-12-06
Original: 2014-12-06 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
A woman with dark curly hair, glasses, and a pink top stands in front of a class, pointing one finger upward as she speaks. The backs of three students' heads are visible in the foreground.
Woman: THE WAY THE BOOK TEACHES THIS IS DUMB. IT'LL BE WAYYYY SIMPLER IF WE JUST THINK IN TERMS OF ORDERED PAIRS, EACH BELONGING TO A NONZERO COMMUTATIVE RING HAVING THE FOLLOWING ALLOWED OPERATIONS.
Panel 2 (graph):
A line graph. The vertical axis is labeled "ABILITY TO EXPLAIN FRACTIONS" and the horizontal axis is labeled "MATH KNOWLEDGE." A red curve starts high on the left and drops steeply, then levels off, decreasing toward zero as math knowledge increases.
Votey:
Close-up on the woman teacher's face, now scowling.
A student (off-panel, in a speech bubble): COULD YOU USE NUMBERS?
Woman: GET OUT OF MY CLASS!
A woman with dark curly hair, glasses, and a pink top stands in front of a class, pointing one finger upward as she speaks. The backs of three students' heads are visible in the foreground.
Woman: THE WAY THE BOOK TEACHES THIS IS DUMB. IT'LL BE WAYYYY SIMPLER IF WE JUST THINK IN TERMS OF ORDERED PAIRS, EACH BELONGING TO A NONZERO COMMUTATIVE RING HAVING THE FOLLOWING ALLOWED OPERATIONS.
Panel 2 (graph):
A line graph. The vertical axis is labeled "ABILITY TO EXPLAIN FRACTIONS" and the horizontal axis is labeled "MATH KNOWLEDGE." A red curve starts high on the left and drops steeply, then levels off, decreasing toward zero as math knowledge increases.
Votey:
Close-up on the woman teacher's face, now scowling.
A student (off-panel, in a speech bubble): COULD YOU USE NUMBERS?
Woman: GET OUT OF MY CLASS!
Alt text
Main comic, two parts. Top panel: a woman with dark curly hair, glasses, and a pink top teaches a class, pointing one finger up. The backs of three students' heads are in the foreground. She says, "The way the book teaches this is dumb. It'll be wayyyy simpler if we just think in terms of ordered pairs, each belonging to a nonzero commutative ring having the following allowed operations." Bottom panel: a line graph with a red curve sloping steeply downward. The vertical axis reads "Ability to explain fractions" and the horizontal axis reads "Math knowledge" — the joke being that the more math you know, the worse you are at explaining fractions simply. Votey (aftercomic): a close-up of the now-scowling teacher. An off-panel student asks, "Could you use numbers?" and she snaps, "Get out of my class!"
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.