Quick question.
Were the same history periods covered by both classes?
That was confusing.
And um, wasn’t the Five Year Plan in Russia?
Yes, there was. But that wasn’t the only one. Mao liked Stalin’s progress, he decided to implement his own five year plan. Called the First Five Year plan. Not only that, but China has continued with the Five Year Plan motif and I believe they are in their tenth or eleventh Five Year Plan now.
Nitpicky me again: the first Five Year Plan was in the whole Soviet Union, not just Russia.
Just to make things a bit more clear (oh no, you think):
When I first wrote this thread, I was NOT expecting to be coddled and petted. It was merely a way to help me get over my anger instead of really going out and punching my history teacher in the face (oops…heheheh). I was wrong, but so was my history teacher. The world is full of wrongs, and I’m bound to commit a bunch of them. I do realize that life is not fair and will try to get on with my life, despite the jerks (me sometimes being one).
But that sure doesn’t take the fun out of whining about it :).
Boy, that really sucks. Your teacher is an asshole. Just because you didn’t spell everything right doesn’t mean he wasn’t wrong. Just because you happen to have been born later than some other people does NOT mean that he wasn’t wrong. I hope that you can find a way to work out, and I’m glad that writing up the whole story made you a bit less angry.
And now, a little warning from my corner: I have deduced, through college and work, that the “real world” is not always much different from high school. If you dug high school (like I did), good for you. If you were one those people who hated high school, it might not get much better.
OK, first, lay off the English teachers, will ya? I’m one of 'em, and believe me, I TRY to teach them the little things, oh, like spelling and proper grammar and comma usage and paragraphing, but in one ear and out the other. Not to hijack here, but as an example: my 9th graders have weekly quizzes (yes, it has 2 Zs, Great One) and I’ve been adding the word “definitely” to all of them as a spelling word. It’s one of my pet peeves. After 6 quizzes, some of them STILL cannot spell it, even after having it up on the board in foot high letters daily. So you know, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
Now on to Great One’s apoplexy: If I read you correctly, and I can’t be sure that I did, your bone of contention was that the teacher had several questions on the test with ambiguous answers, and when you questioned him, he would brook no disagreement. That is not cool, I agree. I encourage kids to question me and present textual evidence if they think any part of a test is unfair. Other teachers, however, have an ego investment in always seeming right. Sad but true. They’re only human, ya know.
If you know your teacher is one of these people, then the mature thing to do would be to wait after class one day and try to discuss it with him in private. Challenging his authority in front of other kids forces him (being how he is) to smack you down. I think his way of handling your objections was also pretty immature, but you must admit, yelling at him wasn’t very adult either. It also undermines any credibility you might have to make a meaningful point to him. You catch more flies with honey, as my mother would say.
As for teachers favoring one class over another: yes, this happens. Usually it’s because of a few bad apples in a class spoiling it for everyone. Even if I like 15 out of 20 kids, those 5 kids make me feel uncomfortable, less myself. Point being, yeah, he probably likes the other class better. Maybe their test questions were better than your class’ questions. Is that possible? Did the test questions from the other class cover the same material that your class covered? If so, your objections are on shaky ground here; on a regular test, you wouldn’t have foreknowledge of the questions anyway.
Bottom line: your teacher may have an ego problem. Screaming at him was not the best way to go. Don’t expect life to be fair; don’t expect people who have power over you to be fair. Wait until you have a boss to contend with…
Ha! I think this kid will just fine here. Welcome, The Great One.
I think the Great One was right to stand up to his teacher in front of the class, simply because I’ve wanted to do that so many times… did it once, I won, thats another story, but basically, theres another post on the boards here that i cant link to because i have no idea where i read it and its 4.20am and i cant be bothered looking for it. But thats not the point…
In the other post, one of the members of SDMB son was being threatened with special ed treatment because of how he was at school, and the majority of replies to it were to get him out of that school and find something that would stimullate his mind more, and yes that is a brilliant idea, and yes its fantastic that the child is gifted rather then a trouble maker, but the problem people had was that the school, and the teacher werent willing to help this kid in this best way they could, it is the same principle in this case. Anyway that was my point and I hope it is somewhat understandable.
TGO is being screwed over by a teacher, as was that kid… treat them both the same way, not with pity for one and contempt for another…
In the grand scheme of things, the complaint is petty and jejune.
In the high school scheme of things, that fuckin’ sucks, dude.
Kudos to you for standing up to the teacher. Can’t count the number of times I wish I’d done that myself.
This argument (or whatever it is) is used repeatedly by the uninformed – they think it makes them sound tough and realistic. Allow me to crush it:
So, if I were to take all your money and beat you to a bloody pulp and suffer absolutely no ill consequences from that, in fact, I thoroughly enjoy spending your money and the memory of your head slamming repeatedly against a brick wall, well, you’d be cool with that. Because life isn’t fair. You’d just get over it.
Advice for you, TGO, from someone only a few years removed from one of the biggest assholes masquerading as human flesh I’ve ever had the misfortune of breathing near:
- Get through the class and pass well.
- Get your classmates together and protest what you believe is injustice together. Do it in written form and arrange for a meeting with the relevant people.
- Get your parents involved if you think one or more of them will be particularly useful.
- Talk to people who’ve taken this class before. If you can establish some sort of history of this guy doing things you believe to be unjust, I think your case will be a lot stronger.
- Don’t be a whiny little brat, whatever you do. Use clarative, concrete language and don’t use passive voice. Give multiple examples and give documentation to back yourselves up.
Sorry, I don’t think you’ve crushed anything.
In that case, I would have all sorts of recourse against you. You’d wind up in jail and and responsible for my medical bills.
I think the people who say “Life isn’t fair” in most cases are referring to situations where you get shit on, where you hold little to no power of any actions of recourse.
Now, assuming you left the country after you did this to me, or no proof could be found that you did any of these things, and you can keep yourself out of my sight (and range of my fists, tire iron, knife whatever else) then yes, it is a perfect example of “life isn’t fair, get over it” What else are you going to do? Sulk for the rest of your life?
Whether or not it was right, it was not effective. TGO did not get what he wanted; he got reprimanded for losing his temper and attained no satisfaction. Would it have been so hard to have waited until after class, opened the discssion respectfully, perhaps with documentation to support his allegations of an unfair question? No, but it would have been the mature thing to do and would have likely worked.
I’m a teacher and I can tell you right now, if a kid screams at me, he’s just lost the argument. You cannot scream and expect to be taken seriously or respected. Not only that, but a teacher who caves to screaming is in for a hell of a lot more screaming.
I do see GTO’s point; the thing is, I also see the teacher’s. Yes, he’s a human being and he has a side too, which he’s not here to present. I’m just saying…
Yeah, teachers can suck.
This one time, I got into a raised tone-of-voice argument with a certain teacher across the classroom over ** weather or not to wear and I.D. card around my neck.**
I had the card, and showed him. But that wasn’t good enough.
Needed a freaking lanyard.
It was weird, by the end of the class he had given me a candy bar. 
Why do so many people think I screamed at him? Sure, it would have been fun, but it was more on a few levels below yelling. Perhaps not an important point, but I wanted to make it clear.
The whole incident had also been building up over the year (he was a new teacher–maybe that had something to do with it). It wasn’t just a “I feel like being a brat today” thing. I guess I had tried to curb my anger one too many times (the last time obviously not having worked).
Another thing–my teacher talks to you like a car salesman would. I truly hate talking to him, just because you know he’s trying to manipulate you somehow and doesn’t really like listening to you. He is also very faky (if that’s a word). I have no real proof to back this up, except that many people (including parents) feel this while talking to him. I try to talk to him after class sometimes, but it’s almost as bad as dreading surgery.
After the whole…um…“almost yelling” session :), I had truly thought that nobody had won (you could see his cheek twitching–I think he was nearly as mad as me). However, when we got the tests back, I found that he had changed the answer to the industrialized China question and that I had received points for it. Was he trying to pacify me? Was he being nice (I’d rather deserve the grade because I was right than get it for whining)? Did he change his mind after all and decide that the question was unfair?
Perhaps I had won after all.
P.S.–(do I put too many parentheses in my writing?):smack:
To all those poor English teachers out there:
It’s not spelling that I really suck at. It’s typing.
Another teacher chiming in to say “exactly right.”
I never discipline or rebuke a student in class, for the simple reason that with an audience it becomes a battle of wills, and that drowns out everything else. Similarly, if a student tries to correct my teaching methodology in class, there is a chance I will see it (rightly or wrongly) as a challenge to my authority in general. Talk to me after class, in private, and it’s a whole 'nother thing.
Don’t forget Ed, Edd and Eddie (ala Nickelodeon). 
As an English teacher, I will tell you we can only do our best with the materials we’re given.