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Primary education

when the teacher is wrong, and a bit arrogant...

34 replies

withgreatpower · 09/01/2013 21:49

Today my DD's teacher (Year 6) lost her patience with DD.

The pupils were given a question like: "Work out 2+3x5 ". The teacher said that you have to put brackets like this: " 2+(3x5) " otherwise the question doesn't make sense. My DD said (correctly!!) that you don't need brackets, as you have to do multiplication before addition anyway. The teacher insisted, DD insisted, teacher snapped and said something like "I did A level Maths, so I know what I'm talking about".

DD stopped trying to explain...

DD was a bit sad at this (she very rarely/never gets teachers cross). We (DD and I) talked about this, and I used it as a lesson to learn:

  1. just because somebody is a teacher, doesn't mean they don't make mistakes

  2. it's just a mistake, everybody makes mistakes

  3. when you don't think something is right, go check in other ways, don't just trust one source of information

    I also added that maybe the teacher was tired, and was having a bad day, so she lost her patience. DD asked "So this teacher is always tired?" (teacher doesn't have much patience in general).

    I just wanted to share this story - I'm not too bothered by the mistake, but I keep telling my children that, if something the teacher says doesn't seem right, they should double check by asking other teachers or by looking in Maths books etc (I'm talking about myths like you cannot do "4 minus 6" of course you can! you get a negative number, but you can do it!; or that the answer to 6 divided by zero is zero AAAAAAAAHHH No it's not zero, it's infinity)

    Sorry, not a very interesting post, but I just wanted to share ...
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learnandsay · 09/01/2013 21:55

It's a brilliant lesson in life. I can't remember the film but there was a line in one which went "being always right isn't a bullet proof vest."

Authority trumps technique and knowledge until the wheels fall off the wagon, at which point it all becomes fair game.

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stealthsquiggle · 09/01/2013 22:06

My DS rates his teachers on how they react to being questions that they don't know the answers to. That would drive him nuts, though. It is, as you say, a good life lesson, but the teacher could earn a shed load of respect if she came back and admitted she was wrong....

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stealthsquiggle · 09/01/2013 22:07

Or indeed he. Just realised that you didn't specify gender of teacher.

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Schooldidi · 09/01/2013 22:17

We had a few times that dd1 corrected her teacher about Maths, starting in Recpetion with 'my mummy teaches Maths and she says ....'

I talked quite a lot to dd1 about making sure that she is incredibly polite to teachers when she is trying to explain to them about a mistake they may have made. She also learnt to check with someone else as she knew that her teacher only had GCSE Maths and by year 6 I'm convinced dd1 understood the Maths better than the teacher.

It is rather bad that any teacher in year 6 doesn't know the rules of BIDMAS, and I hope this teacher will come back with an apology for getting it wrong. It's things like this that annoy the next teacher those children will have as they will all say "Miss x said we had to do this...." and I have to try and find a diplomatic way of saying "well Miss X was wrong, that's not the rule at all".

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learnandsay · 09/01/2013 22:28

I don't think that being in authority and admitting that one is ignorant or incorrect are all that compatible. I'm not sure why that is the case. I suspect it's because what one subordinates might take for reasonableness another might take for weakness and in advance the authoritarian has no idea who will perceive what. So, in preparation, he or she simply deems all statements not made by the teacher to be incorrect.

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stealthsquiggle · 09/01/2013 22:29

I had to do that with DS at one stage - "Mrs X taught us this way, which makes sense, but Mr A said to do it a different way..."

"Well, DS, given that Mrs X is the head of maths, and Mr A is an arse English specialist, which one do you think we should choose to ignore? "
Grin

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stealthsquiggle · 09/01/2013 22:30

learnandsay I don't agree. "I don't know, but let's find out together" is a valid answer and one which generates respect, IMO/E

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HolofernesesHead · 09/01/2013 22:31

I tell my dcs when their teachers' grammar is wrong. Grin

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Maria33 · 09/01/2013 22:37

Learnandsay. I am a teacher and I sometime make mistakes cos I'm a human being and there is a limit to my god-like omniscience Grin. When I get things wrong, I correct myself and move on. My primary job is to educate, not to wield authority. The kids still seem to respect me but more importantly, they learn the right thing Grin

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Maria33 · 09/01/2013 22:37

See - I made one there...

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learnandsay · 09/01/2013 22:38

I think we're also talking about a situation where the teacher actually thought that she was right. It can be very difficult to persuade anyone that their cherished view is in fact wrong. And I'm guessing that it's even more difficult if the critic is eight years old. Why do we always have adult experts on news channels rather than clever nine year olds?

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Maria33 · 09/01/2013 22:42

Grin enjoying the idea of a clever nine year old on the news. But teachers are used to exposing themselves to ridicule and challenges from kids. It's par for the course and sometimes clever kids are right. Damn those clever kids Wink

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Amerryscot · 09/01/2013 22:45

2+3x5 does really need brackets.

You can't just look at the expression and decide that the multiplication needs to be done first. The BIDMAS rule doesn't really apply in this situation.

I would have to say that in this example of pupil tattle tailing is that parents shouldn't believe everything that happens in school, and therefore teachers wouldn't believe everything that happens at home.

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HenriettaChicken · 09/01/2013 22:52

See I thought 2+3x5 was 25 whereas 2+(3x5) was 17.

Clearly not as good at maths as I thought.

And no, I'm not the teacher... Wink

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withgreatpower · 09/01/2013 22:53

learnandsay, I see your point. The teacher needs to have authority to be in charge.

However, and maybe it's not totally related, I remember reading that the majority of plane crashes happen when the more experienced, senior pilot is flying the plane, because the younger pilot (who might have understood there is a problem, and wants to tell the pilot how to avoid crashing) doesn't trust his knowledge enough to question the pilot's decisions. The authority of the senior pilot is actually dangerous in this case, as the younger pilot can't conceive that he himself is right, and not the experienced pilot. That's why I think this was a good lesson for my DD to learn, not so much for the teacher.

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withgreatpower · 09/01/2013 23:00

Amerryscot, I might be wrong... but I think my DD was right. Have a look at www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/maths/number/order_operation/revision/2/.
However, I am ready to listen to your explanation.

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HoratiaWinwood · 09/01/2013 23:05

Teachers are often wrong - they are human beings. We live in a culture which accepts human error and encourages polite, constructive correction.

Someone I know teaches maths in a British boarding school that has a lot of Malay/Chinese pupils. They never correct teachers. They will copy down 2+3=62 without a murmur. We wouldn't want our children to be that accepting of a teacher's authority.

On the other hand, some children challenge obnoxiously. I did this to our utterly shit A-Level German teacher, who was eventually so exasperated she sentenced me to teach the next lesson, on the subjunctive. It backfired on her though, as I did it, and taught her things she didn't know...

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HoratiaWinwood · 09/01/2013 23:06

BIDMAS means you are never in doubt. You only have to use brackets where the normal rules don't apply.

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Schooldidi · 09/01/2013 23:41

Amerryscot I have to say that it really does NOT need brackets at all. BIDMAS applies in every calculation you ever see, so multiplication ALWAYS needs to be done before any addition or subtraction.

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Schooldidi · 09/01/2013 23:43

Out of interest, why would you think the BIDMAS rule wouldn't apply in this case?

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Clary · 09/01/2013 23:52

Of course BIDMAS applies! If you want 25, that's when you need the brackets

See this is when I am glad I teach secondary - if you teach yr 6 the chances are that the brightest pupils will exceed your knowledge in some area (for me it would probably be science or maybe ICT!) and yet you still have to teach them!

This is not a problem in secondary thank goodness Grin

OP I agree, your DD needs to learn that teachers are not always right (I sometimes can't answer a question but try to be honest) and also how to deal with that situation.

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StarsAboveYou · 09/01/2013 23:54

It doesnt need brackets. BIDMAS means you work through each in order if they are present. So if there is only addition and multiplication then you just need to remember to multiply first then add and not simply complete the sum as it is written.

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boxoftricks · 09/01/2013 23:59

Isn't the teacher just putting brackets in as a reminder that you do the multiplication first? To break the sum down?

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sashh · 10/01/2013 08:16

I teach teenagers and I am not afraid to say, 'I don't know' or ,'are you sure? Let's check that'.

All teachers should IMHO.

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realcoalfire · 10/01/2013 10:03

You don't need brackets obviously, but perhaps the teacher was just telling them to put brackets in as a technique, to make it look clearer and less likely they will make a mistake

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