I would tend to say that it’s still authority, but the proper way to show respect in this instance is “With respect, I think that’s not right, and here’s the reason why.” 
The note itself is probably fake. But I can believe something like that happening. My brother (who goes to a “special” school) got in trouble for insisting that a) the sun is not in fact the largest star in the solar system, and b) for using the word “teetotaler” instead of “sober”.
Try being in 5th grade at a private Christian school and, while learning about Adam and Eve and whatnot (in History class), asking about cave-men. They do not like that at all…
I hope he meant “the galaxy” or something like that.
Regards,
Shodan
I don’t want to jump on teachers who, in my experience, have been gracious, hard-working, and interested in knowledge. However, the only teacher who I know well has almost zero intellectual curiousity. She only reads magazines and I was unsuccessful in convincing her that, in addition to wasps, bees also have stingers.
Very depressing to think of her teaching children.
a) The sun is, in fact, the largest star in the solar system. It’s the *only *star in the solar system. b) “Teetotaler” is a noun. “Sober” is an adjective or a verb. They are not equivalent. I’m not sure if your bother should have gotten in *trouble *for insisting the sun isn’t the largest star in the solar system and “teetotaler” = “sober,” but he should at least have been gently corrected.
Bolding mine.
:dubious: How was he right to insist that the sun isn’t the biggest star in the solar system?
ETA: What **zut **said.
The sun actually iS the biggest star in the solar system, and oddly enough, it’s also the smallest.
The note itself is almost certainly a fake, probably an attempt at satire.
I’m sorry, but the people we think are jerks or hypocrites or tyrants are NEVER considerate enough to state explicitly in writing that they’re jerks, hypocrites or tyrants. They may say or write things from which we can justly INFER that they are, but that’s about it.
Have there been countless REAL incidents that resemble the scenario described in the letter? Sure! Are there countless REAL teachers who believe children should just shut up, do as they’re told, and uncritically parrot whatever they’re taught? Sure- but none who SAY that explicitly in a letter.
I got sent to the office in high school for correcting the computer teacher one too many times. The lady only half knew the material, I couldn’t help it. Why teach incorrect facts? I don’t remember if she or the office sent a note home, but I don’t remember getting in trouble with my parents.
And speaking of incorrect textbooks, the Virginia SOL (standards of learning) test materials have many grammatical errors.
I live in Western CT. Challenging a teacher through the years seemed more of an “invitation” than a “sin”. I challenged my teachers all the time. They seemed to like it. For them it meant that we were actually paying attention!
Of course our teachers were young… I think the oldest teacher we had was an art teacher who was in love with Jackson Pollock… IN LOVE with him. What was sick about it, was he was in 70’s, not Pollock, the art teacher!
Some Beavers are classified as amphibians.
I got punished in second grade for reading ahead in the Dick and Jane book.
Between that and setting up the meth lab in the janitor’s closet, I spent quite a bit of time with my desk facing the wall.
For teetotaler/sober, the implication wasn’t that they were the same, but that teetotaler was being used preferentially. We can’t know if brotherMIS was correct without the context there.
Which? (I’m guessing you’re not talking about a vehicle of some kind.)
Well, I AM an elementary school teacher. While I have encountered some “old school” teachers who are set in their ways, I have noticed a trend toward being able to admit when you are wrong to a student. I went back to school to become a teacher about 6 years ago and I am now a mentor to a new teacher. One quality I have noticed in her is her ability to recognize her own weaknesses, which I think is a good thing, and which I try to do so in myself. One thing teachers are trained to do (at least in my district) is to admit their mistakes in front of their students. This is done to show that everyone makes mistakes and that it’s ok to make mistakes once in a while and to help students take more risks when answering questions/volunteering for teacher requests.
:dubious: …who by?
It also is the most cube like. And most purple.
The sad part was that the page in question had been written in, I think, 1996, and had been translated two or three times since then, and not once during that period had any teacher, parent, or translator complained about it.
It makes you weep.
I find wrong information constantly in my daughter’s handouts, and often have to correct the teacher’s grading. The astronomy unit they took last year had a number of factual and conceptual errors in it. Some of it was trivial enough that I just let it go, because I had been sending so many correcting letters to the teacher I was starting to feel a bit too hectoring. One I did comment on was on my daughter’s unit test where the question was asked, “What is the safest way to observe the sun?” She had selected ‘pinhole projector’, which was correct, and the teacher marked it wrong and said it was ‘looking through welding glass’. To her credit, she gave my daughter the mark and then explained to the class that pinhole projectors were the safest method.
I had to grit my teeth and ignore all the errors in the aerodynamics unit, because they’re so commonly taught.
I worked for an educational book company for a while, and learned a bit about the process the public education system uses for creating their handout material. It’s no wonder it’s full of errors - the material is often created using education majors hired during the summer. They get hired, are told to produce X exams and related handouts, and left to do it with no supervision. These are people maybe a year out of high school themselves, being paid close to minimum wage, and who may not even manage to graduate from the education faculty by the time they’re done. And education is possibly the easiest faculty in the university, so it collects more than its share of the weakest university students.
This is a significant problem, because the school system seems to be relying more and more on such handouts rather than textbook material. Probably as a cost saving measure.
My own story of bad teaching:
When I was in Grade 12, I had a social studies teacher who was rabidly anti-American, and would constantly interject anti-American statements or historical ‘facts’ in the material. One day, she said, “America is the only country to ever have dropped an atomic bomb on an innocent country.”
I replied, “Well, they were at war…”
To my surprise, the teacher came back with, “The United States was at war with GERMANY. They dropped the bomb on JAPAN!”.
An argument ensued in which she stood by her comment that the conflict with Japan was but a tiny skirmish and not a ‘real’ war like the war in Europe, while I patient brought up Iwo Jima, Okinawa, the Solomon Islands, and other major battlefronts. Her eventual response was to kick me out of the class.