What do you do when a teacher is wrong?

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Say your DC writes something that is more or less correct. And the teacher marks it wrong and corrects it with such a glaringly obvious mistake that you are a bit shocked. What do you do?

DD took it back to the teacher and asked her to look at it again and that what she had written was right, but the correction wasn't. Teacher said it was and DD's answer was also wrong (it wasn't).

How do you handle this?
Is it better to explain to DD that the teacher is wrong and people often don't like being told they're wrong which was why she refused to correct the marks? And leave it at that - that the teacher is wrong, some people refuse to apologise etc life lesson. I feel this would be a pity as DD really likes this teacher and was shocked when she was dismissive of her.

Do I call the teacher and speak with her and give her a chance to apologise to DD?

Call the teacher and ask her how she wants to handle it? If she wants to apologise or if she's sticking by her response to DD so I have to explain the above.

I don't even know if it should be raised higher, as the correction she wrote on DD's work shows such a level of incompetence about the basics of the subject she's supposed to be teaching the class, that we're wondering what else she's teaching them. I feel a bit sorry for her, she's newly qualified, DD's isn't the easiest of classes and I know other parents aren't happy with her, but I don't think many have officially complained.

Many, many years ago my primary school teacher told us Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I were sisters. I was a Tudors obsessed kid and corrected her politely... she wasn't happy.

This is an excellent teachable moment that no one is right all the time - even grown ups - and how to navigate that in life.

I'm a teacher and this pisses me right off. Not that she made the mistake in the first place (everyone does that), but that she didn't take the time to check if she was correct, when she's not a specialist in that subject.

I wince at some of the spellings I see, mostly from young teachers (that's not a criticism of young teachers, it's just a fact in the school I work in).

In this case the teacher was correct! Electrons move from the hair to the balloon. The balloon is left negatively charged, whilst the hair positively charged. So the hair is attracted to the balloon.

Linguistically we talk about "hair" in English (unlike, for example, French), but there are still obviously individual strands of hair ("hairs") which would repel each other in this scenario.

I haven't studied physics for 35 years (and only did it for three years), but that much is still obvious simply from reading this thread.

And as for the Year 6 teacher writing "I would of...". FFS.

The issue with this is that the teacher doesn't understand that subtraction is actually really addition. (And probably that division is really multiplication).

So in practice you would work out 9-3+10 as (9-3)+10 = 6+10=16
Otherwise you have to remember that it's actually 9 + (-3) +10. And then you won't be tempted to get it wrong.

The teacher is wrong because 3+10 is not part of the calculation. It's -3+10 (but you probably don't mention negative numbers in primary school).
So you could certainly work it out as 9 + (-3+10)= 9+7=16 if you preferred.

IMO (I'm not a teacher) BODMAS is better taught by saying division and multiplication have equal precedence and addition and subtraction also have equal precedence.

I totally get what your saying. Like I said, the teacher should know how to do a simple sum like this. Quite shocking really that they don't
.

"I was teaching a class about volcanoes and said that Vesuvius is on mainland Italy.
DHT pulled me into her office and told me to make sure I had my facts correct before teaching the pupils something.
Turns out a parent has phoned up to complain that I'd told the class that Vesuvius is in Italy when it's on Sicily 🙄."

But Vesuvius is on the Italian mainland, it's near Naples. Mount Etna is in Sicily 🙂

To be honest, you're coming across as having a real stick up your arse at this point. Everybody makes bloody mistakes and nobody is perfect. Teach your child that. And if you feel a teacher can't make a single error in their underpaid role when sitting marking piece after piece of work then use that perfect brain of yours that, it would seem, never makes a mistake, and homeschool them instead.

That was the teacher’s point.

The parent was saying that the teacher had said something they hadn’t said.

redskylight
It's -3+10 (but you probably don't mention negative numbers in primary school).

Negative numbers are taught in Y4 when children are 8.

BODMAS is better taught by saying division and multiplication have equal precedence and addition and subtraction also have equal precedence.

That is how it is most commonly taught.

That's what I was teaching the class - that Vesuvius is on the mainland. The parent obviously thought I was wrong and they thought it was on Sicily. I'd even climbed the bloody thing the year before!

What really angered me was that the DHT didn't apologise for accusing me of teaching wrong information. Nowadays I'd be on the phone to the parent to inform that they were wrong, not me.

Thanks - that's good to know.

Even less reason for the teacher to get it wrong then :)

I am quite aware that electrons have a negative charge.

But rubbing a balloon means the balloon becomes negatively charged not the hair.

Oh does it. Fair enough.
The the hair strands become positive, repel each other but are attracted to the balloon.

Some teachers don’t know about full stop usage, that the 1st Person Singular takes a capital letter or even that the spelling of the word balloon does not vary.

Tut.

The problem isn't a mistake imho but doubling down, making a child feel stupid & undermining the child's confidence
As well as
Simply not knowing the subject she's teaching.

I would (in the first instance ) email teacher & ask her to apologise to your child & ask her to explain she made a mistake. If that was done I would let it go.
If not I would escalate.

😝

“And as for the Year 6 teacher writing "I would of...". FFS.”

Weirdly, on this very forum, excuses are made for that piece of nonsense. Go figure.

The word “remedial” is not used any longer.

You're in for a real treat at secondary; you'll be lucky if you have more than one physics degree in the whole department.

Honestly although it's disappointing, a lot of primary school teachers don't understand much science. It's not a bad life lesson that adults can be wrong. Personally I would tell DD that she is right and teacher is wrong, and then leave it to DD to choose whether she wants to continue to argue the point. If she does, you could help her learn how to politely convince someone, e.g. find evidence on a textbook or a video to show the teacher.

If it were a secondary school science teacher I'd call it differently, as this should be at the base of their knowledge.

There is an English test for a prospective teacher (or there was…).

It’s interesting to me that even tho the electron info is something “everyone knows” (actually I don’t) pps are not in fact in agreement.

So maybe it isn’t totally clear, or the teacher got mixed up. I agree that advance work should be done to make sure what is being taught is right; and that the teacher should apologise to your dd. Not accepting a correction from a student (when the student is right and it may have taken courage to ask) is the worst thing here. Not knowing a piece of physics that actually, everyone doesn’t know, is not the worst thing ever imho.

I am cringing that he actually brought in the “data sheets” to prove she was wrong! What a leaden way of dealing with the issue.

A little humour might have been less embarrassing. Is the fact that he taught at a RG really worth mentioning? Lol It’s that humourless thing again…

MMMarmite
Honestly although it's disappointing, a lot of primary school teachers don't understand much science.

Bold statement: do you have any research or statistics to support it?