There's a famous old silent movie with Lon Chaney, "The Unholy Three", which, in part, motivated my title, along with the following.

My favorite short-story writer, H. H. Munroe (a.k.a. "Saki), in "The Story-Teller", tells of a "batchelor" gentleman who encountered, in a railway carriage, a prim aunt with three bored young children, two girls and a boy.

When the children show boredom at the aunt's story, the gentleman offers one about a little girl, Bertha, who "won several medals for goodness, which she always wore, pinned on to her dress ... a medal for obedience, another medal for punctuality, and a third for good behavior."

Then, one day in the woods, a wolf drags Bertha into the bush and devours her -- goodness and all! -- leaving only shoes, rags of clothing and the medals.

The small children are delighted with the story. But the aunt is shocked: "A most improper story to tell young children! You have underminded the effect of years of careful teaching!"

Later, the batchelor gentlen reflects: "Unpappy woman! ... for the next six months or so those children will assail her in public with demands for an improper story!"

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At respective ages 7 and 4, our sons, Timmy and Chris, had given a demonstration before Faculty, College Students and townspeople. Later, as noted herein ("A Child's Garden of Sets"), Chris went through a workbook on SETS. Still later, my neighbor, Barbara Custer, then invited me to teach about Sets and Hoppy in a special class for three of her Third Graders.

One was her daughter, Martha; one was Alvin, son of another Faculty member; the third was Diane, whose mother lived downtown, in San Germán (Puerto Rico). All three had been skipped from the Second Grade, which presented a problem for Mrs. Custer.

Many on the Campus thought their skipping was improper; that this special class was improper; that what I was teaching was improper; and especially thw uproarious learning response of the three was considered improper. (An improper time was had be all participants!)

When Martha learned Hoppy's Basket Trick for Adding, she exclaimed, "Now, I'll never have to worry about adding!"

When Diane learned Hoppy's stairstep Trick for Subtraction, she cried out, "I'll never have to as Mommy to help me with subtraction again!"

And when Alvin learned Hoppy's Table Trick for Multiplication, he leaped in the air and shouted, "Now I can do any multiplication problem in the world!" (Alvin Muckley: fastest multiplier in The West!)

And there was a fourth child, spying on our class, who "got into the act" -- more impropriety.

But the impropriety didn't stop there. Many of the parents of the children in our Campus School were puzzled about the Mathtivities (described herein) which I'd introduced in different grades.

To try to calm their comment, I held a Saturday Morning Worshop for Parents at the Campus School. After an hour, I thought things were going along well. But, suddenly, a woman threw up her hands in complaint, "Wait a minute! Math isn't supposed to be fun!"

That was it. All the parents seemed to be having fun and to be learning, until this complaint. The work stopped and they all departed -- like medicine, math should "taste bad to be good for you!"

And my reputation as AN IMPROPER TEACHER was sealed.