Ironically, the kid who would become the most famous Brazilian mathematician of all time was a rather poor student himself. In a 1905 letter to their parents, João Batista tells that little Júlio "is bad at writing, and a failure in mathematics". His report card at the Colégio Pedro II in Rio de Janeiro records that he once failed an Algebra exam, and barely passed one on Arithmetics. He later attributed these results to the teaching practices of the time, based on "the detestable method of salivation".