The large screen on Principal Carter's wall came to life, showing a distinguished-looking man in his 60s.
"Amelia, I got your message. This is about Marcus?"
"Hello, Professor Chen," Marcus said politely, and the man's face lit up.
"Marcus! How's my favorite young mathematician? Still working through those topology problems I sent you?"
"I finished them last week," Marcus replied. "The third one was tricky, but I think I found an elegant solution using continuous deformation."
Professor Chen laughed delightedly. "Of course you did! Now, what's this about a differential equation?"
Dr. Johnson quickly explained the situation while her phone transmitted an image of the board to Professor Chen. They watched as his expression shifted from amusement to interest to outright admiration.
"This is graduate-level work," he confirmed, looking directly at the camera. "The problem itself is sophisticated. But the solutionβthe solution shows not just knowledge, but deep understanding. The choice to use fixed-point iteration here is inspired. Most of my doctoral students wouldn't have seen that approach."
He leaned forward, his expression growing serious. "Who designed this problem?"
"I did," Mr. Wittmann admitted reluctantly.
"Then you're either a better mathematician than your behavior suggests, or you copied it from somewhere thinking no one could solve it," Professor Chen said bluntly. "Either way, offering it to a 12-year-old as an impossible challenge was pedagogically irresponsible and ethically questionable."
"The boy's a genius!" Mr. Wittmann protested. "He doesn't need to be in my class!"