Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The Apple Kid

A teacher teaching Maths to a seven-year-old child asked him, “If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?”Within a few seconds Laiq replied confidently, “Four!”
The dismayed teacher was expecting an effortless correct answer, three but she was disappointed. “Maybe the child did not listen properly.” – she thought to herself.

She repeated, “Laiq, listen carefully. If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?”
Laiq had seen the disappointment on his teacher’s face. He calculated again on his fingers. His search for the answer was not for the correct one, but the one that will make his teacher happy.

This time hesitatingly he again replied, “Four.”

The disappointment stayed on the teacher’s face but she remembered that Laiq liked strawberries.

She thought maybe he does not like apples and that is making him loose focus. This time with an exaggerated excitement she asked, “If I give you one strawberry and one strawberry and one strawberry, then how many you will have?”
Seeing the teacher happy, young Laiq calculated on his fingers again. There was no pressure on him now and with a hesitating smile young Laiq replied, “Three?”

The teacher now had a victorious smile. Her approach had succeeded.

But one last thing remained. Once again she asked him, “Now if I give you one apple and one apple and one more apple how many will you have?”

Quickly the child answered, “Four!”

The teacher was shocked. “How Laiq, how?” she demanded in a little stern and irritated voice.
In a voice that was low and hesitating young Laiq replied, “Because I already have one apple in my bag.”
Summing up, the whole idea behind the story is not to amuse you but to make you understand that if someone gives you an answer that is different from you expectations then there must be a reason behind it. You only have to search for that angle which you may not have thought about yet!

Post By : Qaswa Kamran

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