My jaw literally dropped when I received this email the other day:

Let me explain two things to give you a little background:

First, I have a “contact me” section on this blog, for anyone who may need to get in touch. I received this email through that form.

Second, I recently put out a free resource called Doggy Dilemma for teachers.  It is an open ended problem that requires a lot of reading, writing and thinking.  There is no immediate answer, and all students would have a different answer in the end.

So…by the powers of observation and inferencing I can only conclude:

1. This person who contacted me is a child that has received the assignment in class. (I am thinking this due to the lack of punctuation, capitals and misspellings. The “voice” of the writer seems very young, also.)
2. This person is likely a 3-5th grader (since that is the target age group of the problem).
3. This person is incredibly resourceful and bold. Not only does she google the problem, but she thinks to contact the author of the problem for an answer!

After I got over the shock of receiving this message I thought to myself, THIS is why I create what I create. No child should be able to google the answers to a great math problem.

What do you think about this?! I would love to know your thoughts.