nice

A two-part SMBC comic contrasting an idealized view of teaching with reality. A pink caption banner reads "NICE PEOPLE WITH IDEAS ABOUT PEDAGOGY:" followed by a block of text: "Math should always be about discovery! About love of understanding. Imagine telling a violinist that in order to get good they had to learn rote technique over and over all day instead of exploring the beauty of music." A second pink banner reads "ELSEWHERE, IN A MUSIC ACADEMY:" and shows a furious, wild-haired music teacher screaming at a student, "Do your scales again until you don't sound like you're murdering kittens with that bow you absolute midden!" The joke: the imagined gentle contrast (violin teaching as pure love of music) is exactly the opposite of how rigorous music instruction actually works. Votey aftercomic: a person, shown mostly in silhouette, dryly responds, "Wow, just straight going after nice people now," as if the comic itself has insulted the well-meaning pedagogy advocates.