The Worst Math Problem I Still Remember

Somehow, 20 years later, I find myself thinking about a math problem I got in... third grade, perhaps? The problem was, as I remember, something like this.

An builder designs a school with several buildings and fields surrounding it. Once the buildings are built and the grass planted, he then waits six months before building walkways. Why is this?

The point of this is to get kids to think laterally. Why was it in a math textbook? I have no idea. The author must have gotten cheeky or something. Well, my dad being a construction worker, answered in the most logical way I could think of.

The builder probably left to do another job or maybe the people who hired him didn't pay so he stopped working until they paid him.

I got this wrong because the answer was, instead,

The builder waited six months to see where the people would walk and natural walkways started to appear, so he would build sidewalks there.

More than likely the textbook also said "other answers are acceptable" but my teacher may have overlooked that fact so I got the problem wrong and am complaining about it to this day.

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