DDs teacher giving serious misinformation WWYD?

[phantomnamechanger]

How to deal with this please......

DD has recently got a new English teacher. They are reading Pride & Prejudice (just started). Today in the lesson, the teacher has on several occasions referred to it being set in "the Victorian era"
that's a massive error to make, right? how do we point this out? DD was like when she told me, but there will be other kids who believe the teacher and for whom that will stick.
DD did not want to correct the teacher for fear of being reprimanded/thought rude.
WWYD?

Erm ... P&P isn't that long. If you had managed to become an English teacher without reading it (!), you could read it plus the intro in a long afternoon and then you would notice.

a trainee teacher asked me once if Robinson Crusoe was a biography or an autobiography. I was

Revolting I would have done exactly the same thing. And I can remember challenging teachers (politely) on two occasions in fact. Once I was right and once I was wrong. But then again I am Canadian so maybe it IS an across the pond thing..

but isn't it a shame that we have to teach our children to not ask at the time to save the teacher's ego?
This is making me really cross now, the idea that children have to pretend to be ignorant just to save the teachers' feelings. Isn't that similar to clever children having to cover up their knowledge/enthusiasm to avoid being bullied as 'swots'? And are the teachers really that fragile? They are being paid to do a job after all and in any other workplace people would expect to have errors pointed out.
I don't know where this has come from. Is it a widespread thing nowadays? Because I certainly don't remember anyone being afraid to point out something that was wrong, (even I would have, and I was very shy at school) or is it just one of those mumsnet things where you have to show how very reasonable you are at all times to avoid being shouted down?

I remember getting ticked off for it when I was at school. Some people do believe it's rude for children to correct a teacher. Don't think it is a mumsnet thing particularly.

you have just reminded me about my friend at school (early 70s) the science teacher told us how with heat things expand but when they cool they contract. My friend said, 'what about fish fingers Miss- they get smaller when you cook them'- and got into loads of trouble for being 'cheeky'
seems like times haven't changed much. I agree OP's daughter would be wise to tread carefully, for her own protection, but what an indictment of the culture in schools!

Pixel I just told my son to speak to the teacher alone as it seemed more polite. but you're right, he probably shouldn't have to consider the teachers ego when he spots a mistake.

I'm not saying children shouldn't be polite, of course they should, but the teacher is the adult. It really shouldn't be up to a child to spare their feelings beyond normal politeness and tact. If they aren't prepared to listen to a child who is taking an part in the lesson, how can they be surprised when said child eventually loses interest in the subject and just goes through the motions?

But children don't always know how to be polite in a situation where they're telling an adult they're wrong - they have to learn by doing it.

And adults ought to accept it.

Also, children may not know enough to know when the teacher is wrong in a matter of fact.

I would expect an adult to point out a mistake my child made politely and tactfully. I would expect my child- certainly by the time they reached 14- to do the same to an adult.

LRD I agree totally. It's all part of learning isn't it.

It should be.

curlew - as a monumentally tactless child, I am grateful to teachers who saw past that and realized it wasn't deliberate. 14 is still quite young - you won't that often have encountered an adult who knows less than you, will you? So you won't have had much practice.

I still think the correction should be done privately, when possible. At work, I apppreciate someone coming to me privately to point out a mistake, rather than broadcasting it to 30 people at a staff meeting. Of course, sometimes it is necessary to call people on mistakes in a group setting, but when not, it just seems more respectful to do it privately, whatever the relationship.

But, LRD- by 14 I would expect them to be able to correct each othertactfully- or know when they aren't (being rude deliberately is a different thing!) So why wouldn't they use the same techniques with adults?

Because some people have an odd idea about what's 'respectful' to adults?

You also probably wouldn't correct your boss exactly the same way as a colleague, I guess, but I also think people are weird.

Anyway, OP, any news? I want to know what happened!

FourArms

And the follow up, when you are not sure of the answer to a question that bright student has asked you is, "That is an excellent question, I want you(whole class ) to research that for homework".

I am banging my head off the desk. I teach phonics and get given quite a lot of the work ready printed as, as a teaching assistant, I don't get planning time.

Today we have been learning how 'i' can make a short or long sound, as in gift and wild. One of the sentences I was given to read with the children was 'The wild cheater ran as fast as the wind'.

This was planning done by a teacher who has responsibility for KS1 literacy, who has been teaching for over 15 years. How can she not know the difference between 'cheater' and 'cheetah'?

Maybe she did, maybe the subject is a con artist who has been cornered by the fuzz?!

True.

I made the distinction between the animal and someone who cheats to the group though, just in case.

as a monumentally tactless child

Don't worry, you weren't the only one lrd.

I've grown into an only slightly more tactful adult.

I don't think I was particularly tactless really. My parents brought me up to contribute to conversations as an equal and like you said, some adults aren't happy with that.

Maybe your parents were the same.

As an English teacher, who has worked with and mentored many trainees and indeed qualified teachers (some in quite senior positions) I am continually astonished by how little some of them read/have read.

Hi, OP here, (amazed this is still going strong!)

no update (ie no reply to my email and DD has not had a lesson with teacher in question). However, her other teacher made a point today of mentioning the Napoleonic wars and asking if they knew who was on the throne (which DD did).

I am not sure whether this was a coincidence that would have happened anyway, because of the assignment that teacher was covering, or whether this is significant

Please do keep updating - my dd and I have lurked and loved this thread and I need closure!

This is the sort of discussion that makes me love MN

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