Torture

Every. Day. In. Math.  Every day!  I have one student who is a fabulous math student, but he loathes showing work.  I've pulled out all of my tricks throughout the year:
Me: "Well, what if you get a math problem wrong?  How will I know how to help you?"
Student: "When was the last time I got one wrong?"
Me: "But what IF you do?"
Student: "My record shows that I don't."
Sigh...touche.

I take off points for not showing work.  I've made deals for showing work with this student.  I've even bribed him with "if you show your work 5 different times, you can do this problem in your head."  Does it change anything?  Nope.  I don't know why students think that we enjoy torturing them with homework and asking them to show their work.  Heck, if I wanted to torture them I'd give them millions of Scantrons where I had no idea what went wrong in their thinking, hoping to ruin their mathematical solving process forever!

I pulled out an extreme, yet cliche trick on Friday.  I began grading the quiz they took on surface area.  We've gone over how showing work means writing the formula, showing each step, and circling the final answer.  The student got 100% on the answer part, but there were no formulas to be found, nor was there a lick of work.  I flipped the paper over and wrote the following note:

"I know you hate showing work.  Let's imagine that someday you are a doctor, and you discover an amazing cure for some disease, but you don't write the steps down meticulously.  Now the cure can never be recreated.  Wouldn't you wish you took the time to show your work for finding this life-changing cure?  (Please show your work.  If for nothing else, do it for my sanity.  -Mrs. G)"

The look on his face tells me I might not be getting work anytime soon.