# Has there been a formal debunking of this "note home from teacher"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 5, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-a-formal-debunking-of-this-note-home-from-teacher/505477 "2009-08-05T22:22:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-a-formal-debunking-of-this-note-home-from-teacher/505477/121 "2009-08-11T22:45:41Z")
> [@Tamex](#): > > Is this a whoosh? The note linked to in the OP is dated 1994. Not a woosh just a miscommunication. I thought you meant that 1994 was roughly when for the first time it “Could have been done on a computer in Courier font”. In most clueless fashion, I missed the actual date on the actual (alleged) missive which as you say was 1994. I was correcting you to say that in 1984 it could have been done on a computer in Courier font. ---
**Author:** ![Casserole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b77776/32.png) [@Casserole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casserole)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-a-formal-debunking-of-this-note-home-from-teacher/505477/122 "2009-08-12T13:39:39Z")
Were there even computers with Courier font in 1984? ---
**Author:** ![UncaStuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncastuart/32/404_2.png) [@UncaStuart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncaStuart)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-a-formal-debunking-of-this-note-home-from-teacher/505477/123 "2009-08-12T14:24:32Z")
> [@Casserole](#): > > Were there even computers with Courier font in 1984? My little beige Mac did. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-a-formal-debunking-of-this-note-home-from-teacher/505477/124 "2009-08-12T14:29:47Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > made my mom decide to run for the school board. > …snip… > She got elected and kicked ass .. a number of teachers got put on probation for the way they were treating the students and the overall test scores improved over the next 5 years. Good on her! We desperately need thousands more like her on our school boards across the country. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-a-formal-debunking-of-this-note-home-from-teacher/505477/125 "2009-08-13T17:19:55Z")
> [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](#): > > When I was in college, the Elementary Education majors were generally morons\*. I recall spending twenty minutes trying to explain to an El Ed major how and why the sun always rose in the east. When I was in college, the Elementary Ed majors were _hot as balls_. And incredibly dumb. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-a-formal-debunking-of-this-note-home-from-teacher/505477/126 "2009-08-13T17:36:00Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Yeah I’ve seen that one before. Any school that punishes my kid for correcting the teacher and being correct had better have a lawyer handy. Why? ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-a-formal-debunking-of-this-note-home-from-teacher/505477/127 "2009-08-14T02:07:11Z")
Reported as spam. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Seventh\_Deadly\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6bbea6/32.png) [@The\_Seventh\_Deadly\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Seventh_Deadly_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-a-formal-debunking-of-this-note-home-from-teacher/505477/128 "2009-08-14T02:16:33Z")
> [@KRM](#): > > Reported as spam. Wow, that was quick-- I was just on my way to do that myself. (And also to make my first post under my exciting _new username!_) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-a-formal-debunking-of-this-note-home-from-teacher/505477/129 "2009-08-14T16:59:45Z")
That’ll teach **The Tooth** to ask questions… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Backcountry\_Medic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Backcountry\_Medic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backcountry_Medic)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-a-formal-debunking-of-this-note-home-from-teacher/505477/130 "2009-08-14T17:21:37Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > I used to do science outreach classes at Junior High schools and High Schools, and I was continually appalled at the incredibly poor science and physics knowledge of even high school science and physics teachers. It was clear to me that they were coasting along on their learn-by-rote textbooks for years, or decades, and it took no actual thought or serious intelligence to run the class. > > Oh, and I got in trouble in 2nd grade for correcting the teacher when she said Mercury was the smallest planet. I did not make that mistake again for a long time. I once had an argument with my physics teacher in high school when she made a handout which contained numerous mathematical errors, on the order of ‘impossible triangles’ and the like. I had simply skipped all of the problems at home and was somewhat nervous when I was called on to present a solution on the whiteboard. At first I tried to just work out a possible solution while ignoring whatever contradicting aspect was there, but the teacher kept ‘correcting’ me until I had no option but to diagram the whole problem and point out to her some of the basic principles of trig, triangles, Pythagorean theorem, etc. She didn’t really want to hear any of that and actually polled the class as to how many of them believed any part of what I was saying- about 3/4 of the class agreed with me. She told us that we were all mistaken, to which I replied something like “I think the only mistake that’s been made is hiring someone to teach physics when they can’t understand basic math.” Yes, I was removed from class, sent to the principle (who agreed that I had a point) and was still taken out of class for a week for ‘insubordination’ or somesuch. In the end, I learned something-although it wasn’t physics. I still consider it my first course in social psych and human behavior. Now when a person in power over me is obviously, factually wrong about something, I just bite my lip, ignore their idoicracy, think to myself “dilbert principle in action”, solve the problem anyway and get my paycheck all the same. The saddest part for me was the roughly 1/4 of the kids in class who agreed with the teacher. I always wonder if they were simply afraid of standing against the teacher or actually agreed with her or what? Several years after I graduated I happened to run into my trig teacher (supposedly it was a combo trig/physics class that incorporated aspects of each class into the other) who told me that she had given up working with the teacher after the first two weeks of school, when she was told by the physics teacher that “making up problems is too complicated, usually I just take problems from the book and change all of the numbers” and couldn’t understand why that wouldn’t work, etc. Apparently the physics teacher had wanted a job teaching elementary school, but no jobs were available except as a high school science teacher. She (trig teach) had said she told admin about it, but was told “no one else wants to teach physics, so she’s not leaving.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-been-a-formal-debunking-of-this-note-home-from-teacher/505477.md?page=6)