Calvin's mom attends a parent-teacher conference, finding out some of the finer details of Calvin's issues with school. His parents decide to focus in particular on his issues with math.
Tropes
- Everybody Hates Mathematics: Calvin is a poor student in pretty much all areas, but this arc focuses in particular on his issues with math, implying that his struggles there are particularly bad.
- Halfway Plot Switch: This arc goes in a few different directions. It starts with a single strip with Hobbes (poorly) helping Calvin with his math homework, then swings into Calvin's mom learning about Calvin's difficulties with school at a parent teacher conference. His struggles with math get highlighted, so Calvin's dad tries to help his son with his math homework. Then, Calvin is given a math quiz at school to test out his newfound knowledge. The arc finally wraps up with him going into a Spaceman Spiff fantasy to try to solve the problems on the quiz.
- Hope Spot: Calvin's dad manages to get something of a break-through with his son's math struggles by using pennies to visualize adding and subtracting. Calvin even says he feels great about his newfound understanding and is genuinely excited when he's given a math quiz at school. However, the moment he starts trying to fill it out, it becomes clear that he still doesn't get it, and he ends up getting every question wrong (rather, he spends the whole time trying to solve the first question, then had to make random guesses for the rest).
- Imagine Spot: When trying to take the math quiz at school, and seeing the first problem is 6 + 5, Calvin goes into a Spaceman Spiff fantasy to try to solve it.
- Insane Troll Logic:
- Calvin is trying to solve 6 + 3. Hobbes says that, since the answer might be a square number, you draw a square, make one side six and the other side three, and then measure the diagonal.
- To solve 6 + 5, Calvin imagines himself as Spaceman Spiff towing Planet 6 into Planet 5. Since 6 is bigger, 5 is disintegrated, and therefore the solution is 6.
- Noodle Incident: Directly referenced by Calvin when his mom gets home. He starts yelling about something that happened involving noodles, swearing that he had nothing to do with it.
- The Runaway: Calvin plans to run away from home before his mom gets home from the parent teacher conference, anticipating that she'll be told a bunch of horror stories by Ms. Wormwood. She gets home before he finishes packing.
- Verbal Backspace: When Calvin's mom gets home from the conference, the moment she walks into Calvin's room, he starts frantically defending himself against the accusations he assumes Ms. Wormwood made about him. He mentions something involving noodles, insisting that he didn't do it and he was framed. His mom asks him what happened involving noodles, indicating that Ms. Wormwood didn't mention that particular incident, and Calvin quickly tries to pretend he didn't say noodles.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: While Calvin's math struggles are mostly played for laughs, this arc does feature him genuinely believing he's figured it out and he's ready to ace a quiz he gets given. He's even excited when Ms. Wormwood starts handing out the quiz. But it quickly becomes clear that he still doesn't understand it, he does just as poorly as he always does, and nothing gets better.
