This is a story about Mr. Know-it-all, who lives in a town called Normal Land. Just like our small town. In Normal Land, everything
takes its usual time to grow. Just like our town. And everyone tries their best to learn. Just like our town. That is except for Mr. Know-it-all. He knows everything, but the problem is that no one else is as smart as he is.

# #

Mr. Know-it-all had one wish. Everyone in town should be like him.
Everyone should be smart and not make any mistakes. Everyone should be perfect. Because whenever someone made a mistake,
he would have to correct them. But luckily, when Mr. Know-it-all fell asleep he dreamt about a town where everyone was smart as he was, where everyone was perfect, and especially where no one ever made mistake. Just like in our town.

# #

This was the perfect town and that made Mr. Know-it-all very happy. This story starts when Mr. Know-it-all was walking to school one day. Along the way he met Lisa. She was studying for a
math test. Talking out loud, she was saying 1+1=3, 2+2=5 and 3+3=7. When Mr. Know-it-all heard this, guess what he did?

# #

“No! No! No!” shouted Mr. Know-it-all, “You have it all wrong. 1+1=2, 2+2=4 and 3+3=6”

“Excuse me,” said Lisa, “I know that I am right. And I don’t need
you to correct me! Now if you excuse me, I am leaving for my math test.”

Mr. Know-it-all felt sad. He knew that Lisa was going to fail the math test. He knew that he could not do anything about it,
so he walked to school sadly.

# #

In class the students wrote the math test. Mr. Know-it-all flew right through the test and as usual got a perfect mark. No one else got perfect. The teacher asked Mr. Know-it-all to explain to the class why getting a perfect mark was so important.

# #

Mr. Know-it-all’s favorite sport was basketball. When it was time for recess, he went straight to the basketball court. Mr. Know-it-all a shot at the hoop. When Rob caught the ball, Mr. Know-it-all asked for his ball back. He asked Rob if he wanted to play basketball with him. Rob said, “No.”
“But why?” asked Mr. Know-it-all.

“Because you always correct people when they are wrong. And no one wants you to be part of their team.”

When Mr. Know-it-all heard this, he left and played ball by himself.

# #

Mr. Know-it-all was alone the whole recess. When the bell rang, he quickly ran to the line. On his way in, he met Julie. She was saying to everyone how she cheated on her spelling test. Everyone was laughing and saying how “cool” she was, until Mr. Know-it-all showed up. And guess what he did?

# #

“Cheating is very, very wrong,” said Mr. Know-it-all. “You never learn if you cheat. The only way to learn is by studying hard.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.” Shouted Julie. “No one needs your advice!”
“Fine,” exclaimed Mr. Know-it-all. “Be like that. Go ahead and fail.” And he walked away.

# #

After recess ended, Mr. Know-it-all went back to class. The teacher started to collect the spelling notebooks.

“Very good, Mr. Know-it-all,” said the teacher, “but you Julie, not only used the wrong format. But you also cheated, and because of that, your mark is a zero.”

Once again, Mr. Know-it-all was right. Lisa did fail. After that, the teacher assigned another math test on multiplication for the next day.

# #

The next day, Mr. Know-it-all ran into Rob. Rob was studying for the math test. Aloud, he was saying, 1x1=2, 2x4=6, and 1x9=10.
When Mr. Know-it-all heard this, guess what he did?

# #

“No! No! No!” shouted Mr. Know-it –all, “You have it all wrong. 1x1=1, 2x4=8 and 1x9=9”

“Not you again!” exclaimed Rob. “I don’t need you to correct me. Now please leave me alone.”

“But you are going to fail.”

“No I’m not. Now please leave me ALONE!” he shouted. Then Rob walked away, leaving Mr. Know-it-all by himself.

# #

In class they had the second math test, and once again, Mr. Know-it-all finished the test in five minutes. As usual he was the only student who got a perfect mark. But this time he did not go up to the front of the class. He walked directly to Rob and asked him why he did not listen to him. Then Mr. Know-it-all ran outside into the play yard.

# #

When Rob got outside, he met Lisa and Julie. “I feel sorry for Mr. Know-it-all,” Rob said.

“Why?” asked Lisa.

“Because he is always correcting people, giving them the right answers and they ignore him. Just like we did to him.”

“Well, how about we show him that making mistakes is good. I have a plan.” Lisa said.

# #

Her plan was to show Mr. Know-it-all that making mistakes was good. It does not have to be a bad thing. The three, Lisa, Rog and Julie went up to Mr. Know-it-all.

“We’re sorry for ignoring you,” Rob said, “but you also need to know that when people make mistakes they will learn from their mistakes. When you do something wrong, you learn from it. So what we want to tell you is that, not everyone is as smart as you are. So when people make mistakes, they are actually learning.”

“That’s right!” said Julie.

# #

“Oh!” said Mr. Know-it-all, “I never knew that. But what I do know is that, from now on when people make mistakes, I will leave them alone. They deserve to learn on their own.”

“Their own?” questioned Julie

“That’s right!” exclaimed Rob.

“Well, I am sorry. I promise to stop correcting everyone. Now that that is clarified, can I play basketball with you guys?”

“Sure you can,” said Rob, Lisa and Julie.

# #

And the four went off to play basketball together. They had a lot of fun playing together.