The story takes place in the fictional Wayside School, a school that was meant to be built one story tall with thirty classrooms all in a row, but was instead built thirty stories tall with a single classroom on each floor, save for the nonexistent...
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Joe had curly hair. But he didn't know how much hair he had. He couldn't count that high. In fact, he couldn't count at all. When all of the other children went to recess, Mrs Jewls told Joe
to wait inside. 'Joe,' she said. 'How much hair do
you
Joe shrugged his shoulders. 'A lot,' he answered. 'But how much, Joe?' asked Mrs Jewls.
'Enough to cover my head,' Joe answered.
'Joe, you are going to have to learn how to count,' said Mrs Jewls.
'But, Mrs Jewls, I already know how to count,' said Joe. 'Let me
go to recess.'
'First count to ten,' said Mrs Jewls.
have?' 'That will be enough of that,' said Mrs Jewls. She wrote Maurecia's name on the blackboard under the word DISCIPLINE. Joe put his head on his desk between the eight potatoes and the
six erasers.
'Don't feel bad, Joe,' said Mrs Jewls.
'I just don't get it,' said Joe. 'I'll never learn how to count.' 'Sure you will, Joe,' said Mrs Jewls. 'One day it will just come to you. You'll wake up one morning and suddenly be able to count.'
Joe asked, 'If all I have to do is wake up, what am I going to school for?'
'School just speeds things up,' said Mrs Jewls. 'Without school it
might take another seventy years before
count.'
you wake
up
and are able to
'By that time I may have no hair left on top of my head to count,' said Joe.
'Exactly,' said Mrs Jewls. 'That is why you go to school.'
When Joe woke up the next day, he knew how to count. He had
fifty-five thousand and six hairs on his head. They were all curly.
