Molly's Weblog

For English, I was assigned to write an essay for a Cricket Magazine contest (the same magazine that I wrote the bug poem for). Without further ado…here it is!

Calculator Girl

It was a typical Tuesday night for Marcy, with lots of math homework.  She was perfectly fine with the amount of math that she had to do, because she had an unusual talent with her math homework.  All she had to do was to send a message to her brain, and she knew the answer.  She had to show her work, but she couldn’t help using her “calculator”, because she had to think about a problem to work it.  Marcy didn’t think she was cheating.  She tried not to, but it was impossible not to use her “head calculator” while doing a problem.

Once Marcy’s teacher noticed that she got every problem correct, he became suspicious.  He believed she had used a calculator to get her answers, thinking that no student could do what she’d done.  He called many parent-teacher conferences with Mrs. Johnson, Marcy’s mom.  Mrs. Johnson stood up for her daughter, but the teacher never let up.

Finally, Marcy admitted her secret to her teacher.  It was the hardest decision she had ever made.  When she walked into school on Wednesday morning, she took a deep breath, went up to the teacher’s desk, and told her secret.  He didn’t believe her – or so she thought.

Marcy came downstairs on Thursday to find her mother gaping at the morning paper. “What’s up, Mom?” she asked. Mrs. Johnson handed her the newspaper.

The article read:

“Mr. Ericson, a 5^th grade teacher at the local school, reports that Marcy Johnson, one of his students, confessed that the reason she got every math problem correct was because she had ‘a calculator’ in her head!  School officials are determining whether or not this will be considered cheating.”

Marcy was amazed.  “How could he?!” she cried.

“What’s done is done.  You’re going to have to go to school,” replied Mrs. Johnson, as Marcy headed out the door.

The issue blew over eventually. The school officials arrived at the conclusion that Marcy was not cheating.  Mr. Erickson apologized for his behavior, and Marcy had a very good school year in 5^th grade.

Word Count: 349