Afterword for Teacher's Day

Come to us, Viktor Alekseevich!

Report from the past

The beginning of the nineties of the last century. March, five o'clock in the evening, there is a sketch in crimson tones in the sky.

Fourth floor of the new Computer Centre building. A hall of terminals connected to the main-frame computer ES-1061. A handful of users, staring at greenish screens, tapping on the keys...

Loud voices and stomping are heard from the corridor and a crowd of schoolchildren that have come to practice programming rushes into the hall. In a matter of seconds, the hall becomes crowded. The out of breath teacher runs in; the battle for jobs is in full swing.

- Two by two! Let's sit down two by two!

Finally, the terminals are divided. Having come to their senses, the schoolchildren look at the teacher.

- Viktor Alekseevich!

- Everyone has been given tasks, you can start!

Colleague Stelmakh enters the hall, dragging a chair behind him.

- They cheated me here... They stole my chair...

Half an hour later the first programmes appear. Two young men silently watch how endless errors pour out of a running programme, like from a cornucopia, onto the monitor. The boys are stunned. Something irreparable is about to happen...

- Call this...

The teacher, like a good sorcerer from an oriental fairy tale, wanders from one terminal to another, finds errors, asks, answers and makes comments.

- Viktor Alekseevich, come to us! - is heard first on one side, then on the other side of the plywood partition dividing the terminal hall in two.

- So, what do you have? And you claim that this algorithm will work?

The students look at the teacher in alarm.

- No, we do not claim this.

- Soooo...What do you have?

The students timidly:

- Chickens.

- I ask, what are these values?

- Four and five.

- What are "four and five"?

- Four piglets and five chickens.

- What are these values, I ask? Inteje or rial?

- Viktor Alekseevich! - they shout from the opposite end of the hall.

-Think - Viktor Alekseevich says and heads towards two tall boys at the window. One is looking detachedly out the window, the other is looking at the monitor on which there is nothing.

- So, what do you have? - the teacher asks sternly.

- It doesn't work.

-It doesn't work - the teacher repeats with satisfaction. -What did you do?

He could immediately draw their attention to the fact that the terminal is not turned on, but he must teach them to think for themselves.

-Did you do anything?

- No.

- How will it work for you? Do you think that it will turn on itself when it sees that you have sat down? Or what are you thinking about?

The boys are silent, preferring not to say what they are thinking about. Viktor Alekseevich presses the magic POWER key and the monitor comes to life. The teacher looks expressively at his careless students. They lower their heads. One examines his legs languishing under the table. The other stares at the floor, hiding a mocking smile.

- Why didn't you turn it on?

- We did not know.

- What didn't you know?

It's clear that they didn't know anything, but they don't want to admit it.

- Well, - says the teacher. - Everything becomes clear. Who worked at lesson and who...

Without finishing his sentence, he goes to the girls. A fatherly smile appears on his face.

- So, what do you have? - he asks in a kind voice.

- Programme,- a wonderful chirp is heard in response.

- I see that the programme,- the teacher says, trying to give his voice sternness. - I want to know what this programme is. To understand the logic of this programme...

The girls look at each other in amazement.

- This is the programme you asked us.

- This is where you have an error... Your programme will not work in this way. Look care-fully. Kozlov!

- What, Viktor Alekseevich?

- Instead of laughing, it would be better if we went and looked at the Olympiad problems.

- What tasks?

- Good tasks. Increased difficulty. The ones Tuvakin brought from Moscow.

- Which Tuvakin?

- Such a Tuvakin - the teacher answers absentmindedly. - Winner of the programming Olympiad... Did you find it?

- What did we find?

- A mistake.

- Not yet.

- Look. However... - having corrected the mistake himself, Viktor Alekseevich hurries on.

- Viktor Alekseevich!

- Wait... Not all at once," the teacher responds, already pretty exhausted. - So-so... So, you take the legs away from the heads and get... what? Piglets? So?

- No!

- Why then...

- Viktor Alekseevich!

- What?

- What is error 230?

- This is such a mistake.

- What?

- You need to read a book.

- What book?

- A good book.

- Where can we get this good book?

- In the room of the system engineers. In general, it doesn't matter where. They won't give it to you there anyway...

Finally, Viktor Alekseevich straightens up, looks at his watch and announces:

- Let's finish! Our time is up. Let's leave!

- It's about time, - grumbles a colleague.

The terminal hall quickly empties and a blessed silence sets in.

Alexandr RASTORGUEV,
drawing by Sergey RASTORGUEV