Memetic Analysis go brr
Right, so I saw some people talking about how this is 'cringe', which, I grant - it is. It's "to make maths interesting," but "it should have gone through a proofreader," bla blah etc. Here's my personal opinion as the designate Weird Cringey Maths/Linguistics person: Language changes, interests change, and If you want people to learn, you gotta meet them halfway. I'd say this was a decent attempt.
Yes, this may feel stupid and cringe to some of you, but you know what else got called cringe? Almost everything we liked as kids. And yet, some of us leaned into it anyways, learned and grew and now we're making cool stuff with our weird knowledge. "Cringe" can become beauty if you give it time, but stubbornly clinging to "Back in my dayy.." nostalgia or bitching about "brainrot" is only gonna make you feel more isolated. As we Tumblrites like to say, we're cringe but we're free - so let the kids be free, and let this teacher go into this new adventure in language evolution with them.
Because,,
Yes. It's cringe, but this maths problem might just be what gets a chronically online gen alpha kid genuinely interested in the subject. It's rough, shaky, uncertain; but most importantly it is earnest. It is an attempt by the teacher to reach out and connect. I think that there's a certain beauty in the trying. I respect this teacher's attempt to meet their class halfway, and I wish them the best of luck in their bid for connection.
