It&#x27;s not about solving that particular problem. They are teaching a method of problem solving. You&#x27;re teaching a person to have different tools to solve problems instead of just relying on the methods they already know.<p>In an ideal world maybe the teacher could tweak the problem each time they see a person using a different method, to make the problem one that forces a person to use the method they are trying to teach. In the real world you usually can&#x27;t give each student that kind of attention. You just have to say, &quot;Look, I know you could solve it that way, but I need you to try to solve it this way so we can learn this method.&quot;