Scene: A department curriculum committee meeting. The committee is currently voting on which sections of the new calculus textbook will be required of all faculty, and which will be left as optional.
Chair: I think that finishes up Calc 2. Let’s have everybody take a look over the suggested Calc 3 topic list for a moment.
Me: I have a question.
Chair: Yes?
Me: Right now, the last item under the Required heading reads — quote – “Stoke’s Theorem, if time permits.”
Chair: Yep.
Me: Isn’t a topic that’s required only as time permits, by definition, an optional one?
