The piece explains my motivation.  Can it be improved?  Do you disagree?  I like arguing my point.  Sometimes I change my mind.  I’m stubborn though, so don’t give me arguments with a lot of fluff.  I’ll admit a susceptibility to the advertising model, where hearing something enough times stops me from questioning it, but I like to think my susceptibility is very low.  It’s a deplorable strategy anyway.

“My theory is that a teacher’s success can be measured by the amount of time required to put the student into a state where leaving the student alone is finally the best method of increasing his or her comprehension and knowledge.”

Hmmm.  I guess so… I’m trying to attach values to the variables.  So teaching success (S?) is the amount of time (T?) required… um, TIMES the state (X?) where leaving the student alone (A?) is the BEST (B?) method...? WOW.  And by best, do we mean… FASTEST (T??)? 

S=TxX
X=A
A=B
B=F
F=T
S=TxT

Which would mean that teaching success is a function of doing the good stuff the fastest??

???
I’m sure I’m wrong about this.  Helllup!
I’ve never been any good at this logic stuff. 

I was going to say, before the ptomaine poisoning from the leftovers this afternoon got to me, that another absolutely cool thing one can do as a teacher, to instill trust in a student, is to admit that one just DOESN’T KNOW (if one doesn’t).  Turns the enterprise into an… an enterprise!—rather than just an exercise. 

Don’t mind me, I’m serious about being no good at logic.