Little Tommy was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything - tutors, flash cards, special learning centers - in short everything that they could think of. Finally in a last ditch effort, they took Tommy down and enrolled him in the local Catholic school.
After the first day, little Tommy came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn't kiss his mother hello. Instead he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread out all over the room and Tommy was hard at work. His mother was amazed. She called him down to dinner and to her shock, the minute he was done he marched back to his room without a word and in no time was back to hitting the books as hard as before. This went on day after day while his mother tried to understand what made the difference. Finally Tommy brought home his report card. He quietly laid it on the table and went to his room to study.
With great trepidation his mother looked at the report card and to her surprise she saw that he had an A in math. She could no longer contain her curiosity. She went to Tommy's room and asked, "What was it? Was it the nuns?" Tommy looked at her and shook his head. "Well then," she asked "was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniforms, what was it?'
Little Tommy looked at her and said, "Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they weren't fooling around."