According to Mr. Smith, it is better to be friendly and dumb than mean and smart. Luckily for his math students, Mr. Smith is the best of both.

Mr. Smith’s optimism and patience is appreciated by everyone from doe-eyed freshmen to Arcadia’s most jaded upperclassmen. He wakes up at the crack of dawn to record lessons for his classes and always provides thorough notes. He is forgiving when his students forget units on tests, which is exceptionally benevolent in the eyes of his careless and absent-minded seniors (who really should know better by now). No matter how many questions his students ask in the Zoom meeting chat, he continues to explain each concept step by step. Each inquiry is met with equal attention, and no question is left unanswered. He is always understanding when students reach out to him about their situations at home.

Arguably more important is the fact that Mr. Smith has accomplished the near impossible feat of making an online class entertaining. His calculus class has bonded over cameos from his adorable kids and his quirky phrases (“go the way of the dodo,” “bingo-bango-bongo,” and “boo-yah grandma” just to name a few). His unique opinions and outlooks on life are also reliably fascinating. He once said that The Da Vinci Code is almost unwatchable because Tom Hanks, the star of the movie, has the worst haircut in history. The unpredictability and eccentricity of his quotes make every class period something to look forward to.

As every AP student knows, a common question is whether or not a topic will come up on the AP test, and Mr. Smith always has the answer. According to him, AP graders are all slightly crazy, because grading is the most mundane part of being a teacher and AP graders have chosen, of their own accord, to grade more papers.

With everything from odd stories (Mr. Smith once bought a house because the address was the first four numbers of the Fibonacci sequence and he wanted the math-shui, as opposed to feng shui) to the occasional Spanish lesson (“as they say in Spanish, numero five-o”), Mr. Smith’s students want for nothing. They even get workout tips interspersed among explanations about integrals and derivatives. As Mr. Smith says, muscles are better than brains.

Although his wifi often fails him, Mr. Smith never fails his students. He is continually accommodating and funny and is an excellent teacher overall. Math is a difficult subject for many students, but it is made bearable by teachers like Mr. Smith.