The Grade 3 maths problem that has everyone stumped
The mother of a Grade 3 student lost her marbles over a vague mathematics equations her daughter was assigned as homework.
Dusty Sappington was just as dumbfounded as her eight-year-old Izzy when she was asked for help with her quiz.
The list of basic subtraction problems began simply enough with questions like: "Eric has $15. He buys a hat for $6. How much money does he have left?"
The child appears to have the other equations worked out, but the stumped eight-year-old pencilled a question mark in the answer space next to the unclear problem: "Janell had 15 marbles. She lost some of them. How many does Janell have now?"
She did what any puzzled child would do, and turned to her parents for help. The only problem was, her mum had no idea either.
Ms Sappington vented her amusement by sharing the quiz on Reddit, asking the internet for suggestions in how to tackle the Grade 3 problem.
“If someone can answer this correctly, my child will be done with her homework!!”
Ms Sappington added that no additional instructions or multiple choice options were provided with the sheet.
While nobody was able to offer a definite answer to the equation, many offered some suggestions on how to translate the question.
Others responded with suggestions as absurd as the question.
The amused mother told HuffPost her daughter has dyslexia and attends a private school that offers a combination of traditional classes and those that cater to learning disabilities.
“I haven’t found out the answer, but hope to see her graded paper soon,” she joked.
“To be honest, I’m unsure if it was printed in error or was a question to test her knowledge of less than and greater than, which she has touched on in the past.”
“Being the mother of a third-grader and a fifth-grader, I have seen a lot of homework over the years that has our family laughing at the absurdities, scratching our heads and relying too much on Google,” she explained.
Ms Sappington said the assignment highlighted the need to pay teachers better.
