RIDDLE: don't look ahead to answer!! Used for student's research purposes

[Funmum1234]

Once a father and his son were travelling in a car. The car gets in an accident. The father dies on the spot and the son is grievously injured. He is taken to the hospital and he needs an operation. The doctor sees him and refuses to work saying, "He is my son". How is this possible?

@macaronip1e yes I agree!! I might even do it as part of international women's day activity day too!

I knew the answer already.

Just asked my 10yr old. He correctly answered straight away.

Really old! I heard this as a small child (and was unimpressed 🤣).

its Not a riddle but as part of some training we were asked to visualise getting onto a bus and sitting down next to a nurse. What do they look like? Bit of chat and then at the end the trainer quickly asked- and what about the driver?

Even if you’ve worked to unlearn ‘bigger’ biases about doctors/nurses auxiliary words like driver/motorist/worker/cleaner/mechanic/engineer/soldier/prisoner can trip you up due to the inherent bias in language

@Funmum1234, getting someone to draw different named professions, with a range of coloured pencils, will be more affective in showing unconscious bias.

Majority will draw a white men.

Then will claim they drew that as they were drawing a generic image (or words to that effect). But that's the unconscious bias, making the standard a white ma

Also can't be done in a group (especially a thread on a discussion board) as once it's known to people, then they'll not tap into their unconscious bias and start drawing (or saying they would) women, black men etc etc.

How is asking a bunch of grown women going to give you any idea of how 11 year olds will answer a riddle?

Yes

Surgeon us boy's mother.

The doctor is his mother.

This is a very old riddle though, I'd be surprised if there were many people who haven't heard it let alone still hold those kind of old fashioned (only men could be doctors/surgeons) ideas in their mind.

It's really old I remember this from the 90s

But, ironically, your method isn’t valid. The population of MN users is not the same as the population of Y7s in her school.

And it’s still you doing odd background work for the methodology. Maybe she’d have learned something from designing her own research with just the in-school support.

I agree.

I'm not sure mumsnet users are a representative sample. And she should be doing it herself.

I have only read the OP opening post (as requested) and the obvious answer is that the Dr is his mum

@hoppityscotch @onyttig
I know what is valid and what is not. I have a first class honours degree in Chemistry from a top university, and have been teaching for over 10 years- I know what I am talking about. She found the riddle, I hadn't heard it before but was interested to see if others would know the answer. I don't understand why you have to spend your time replying pointless messages about how the research isn't valid- I know it would not be. I was curious to see if others knew the answer. geeeeeeez

@NewYearNewName2023 thank you!

It’s a second wave feminist riddle from the 70s. It’s even used as a joke at the start of the Kevin Costner Rene Russo film Tin Cup.

It’s a very old riddle with a very well known answer

Yes I know it too

This one foxed me when I was a student in the late 00s (despite being a strident feminist). It gets used a lot in equality training and it's a classic.

i know this too
absolutely confuses many people

surgeon
i think is the key because surgery is so very male dominated

Ooh a chemistry degree. A first class one. From a top university. And 10 years experience teaching science. That is ME told.

I couldn’t possibly compete with that as a basis for advising on social research (or just leaving a Y7 to get on with her own homework task rather than testing her methods on MN for her).

It is interesting that you’ve assumed you are better qualified and more experienced here. Maybe you could examine your assumptions and stereotypes about your fellow MN users.

Can a man marry his widow's sister?

OP as others have said it's been around a while, but if your daughter is only year 7, and she's asking other years 7s, then I doubt they'll have heard it. I don't see why she can't use it.

Sadly no!