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As someone studying education... you're right, but you're also kind of a prick. Actually, let me rephrase. It's a bad situation all-round. I assume you didn'
by Jap2-0 3y ago
As someone studying education... you're right, but you're also kind of a prick.
Actually, let me rephrase. It's a bad situation all-round. I assume you didn't tell your friend's kid to go in and argue with her teacher. (If you did, then you are a prick. Otherwise, I rescind the above.) At that age, kids want to tell people when they learn fun or exciting things (well, that's not really restricted to that age), but they don't always think through the effects of saying them. Now, I definitely do know a number of elementary teachers who aren't great at math, but even if the teacher is good at math, imagine their perspective. Off the top of my head, I can only think of a small number of options: 1. agree, move on, and have a bunch of kids who are either confused or are going around telling everyone they know "1 + 1 = 10" without understanding why; 2. scrap whatever lesson they were supposed to do and go into a long, unplanned explanation of how different number bases work and interact with place value; 3. tell the girl she's wrong. Quite frankly, none of these are good options.
I can't really fault you for teaching her fun math, but for an elementary teacher that's a really rough spot to be put in.
And yes, letting everyone be argumentative all the time is how classroom management goes out the window.
- falalalala 3y agoA big issue in the west is the school system will put lot of effort trying to teach children it deems "special need" but will shut down ASAP the ones curious enough to learn something outside the curriculum. Fact is, school is where intellectual curiosity goes to die.
- dylan604 3y agoyes, i'm a prick for exposing curious kids to stuff outside of their class' curriculum. heaven forbid someone providing learning more advanced than the other students. it's people like you that are pricks for thinking that anyone with extra learning are punishing everyone else in class. it's never a problem for keeping students ready to advance faster than the rest of class keeping them all held back at the slower pace. you're also a prick for assuming the way the conversation came about. you're a prick for not thinking that the conversation was about how math can be fun where things that are simple and considered basic can be different and more advanced where 1+1=2 can also be 1+1=10. but now, you just go off and assume i'm a dick saying 1+1=2 is wrong and the correct answer is 1+1=10 or whatever nonsense led you to thinking i'm a prick.
- Jap2-0 3y ago> thinking that anyone with extra learning are punishing everyone else in class I never said this and do not think this. I was attempting to provide more nuance to the situation and evidently failed.
- dylan604 3y agoi'm going to go out on a limb and say that starting a conversation by calling someone a prick is just not going to be received well. at. all. how about teachers should be much less aggrieved that an elementary student is probably smarter than they are. when a student shows initiative to learn something on their own, rather than being an ignorant person and send the kid to the principal's office because they think the kid made a bomb or is learning maths at a pace faster than the hayseed teacher is. see, that whole paragraph has a point that would probably be made much more acceptable if I didn't phrase it in an insulting manner