To be shocked & astounded that DD's teacher has told the class that some penguins can fly :o

[ignoranceisntbliss]

On the way home yesterday DD told me that her teacher had told the class at carpet time that some penguins can fly. I thought that perhaps the teacher had made a joke and DD took it literally, so put a little note in the reading record asking her to assure DD that penguins can't fly.

Today I read the response, which explains that Adèlie penguins can fly, and that was the penguin being discussed. This is rare and unusual but is documented by the BBC.

Well yes, the BBC's 2008 April Fool's Day hoax, which shows a 'newly discovered' colony of Adèlie penguins flying 1000 of miles to a warm tropical rain forest to get away from the snow & ice.

Penguins wings are vestigial & they have solid rather than hollow bones because they are adapted to swimming and can not fly.

So just to put my mind at rest, I'm right about ALL penguins being flightless birds and it's not that unreasonable to be utterly gob-smacked is it?

Oh and I have so changed my nickname for this - I will feel mortified if I'm wrong and will feel mortified for her if I'm right!

Hibiscus, me too. We all have our moments though. A long time ago now, when I had just started a new job I was asked if I'd done the milk round.

I said yes and babbled away about my 5 month stint as a milkman, well milk delivery person, you know, delivering actual milk ! You can imagine how I felt when my nonplussed colleague explained about the university 'milk round'. Oh the shame ... I still saw the funny side though!

Lesshaste what on earth did you say? I mean I just couldn't have stood by and let my child be put down by someone who was so blatantly in the wrong, especially if she'd humiliated him in front of the class as well. I'd have marched her to a computer at gunpoint and forced her to google migratory habits of salmon (well not really but I can dream ).

Of course teachers can't be expected to know everything although I thought it was fairly common knowledge that penguins don't fly. However they shouldn't teach something to the class that is factually incorrect. If they're not sure they should say so and tell the class that they will look it up for next time. Then children learn that teachers are human rather than learning that penguins can fly! The teacher does seem a bit arrogant not to even double check the facts before writing that note. It would've taken her two minutes to Google!

Whats the name of that other big hoax, someone on here must know, about the tree climbing octopus I think?

well ok but really is it fair to expect a teacher to know absolutely everything about everything?

No, but I would expect them to know when things are plain wrong and if they don't know something for certain, don't state it as fact.

Just send a note in saying you think you know the programme she was referring to so understand her confusion but it was an april first hoax by BBC and penguins definitely can't fly.

I expect she didn't feel the need to google because she remembers quite clearly seeing the programme. After all the whole point would have been that it's common knowledge that penguins can't fly but actually these ones can. We are forever being bombarded by things that common knowledge tells us is one way but is actually not the case.

Not everyone can be as infallible as some of the posters on here evidently are.

The funniest part of this story is that someone actually got in enough of a tizz to write that in the book. Were you worried she may fail her a levels because of it? Quite it at her Oxbridge interview and be rejected? Sorry but I that it is really, really weird. Chill out

"Little note" sounds passive aggressive as well. Yuck.

I'm a teacher, intelligent but also fairly gullible. However, I never try to bluff my way through things and will always admit to a child if I don't know and look it up on google (I like to think this helps the children see that there is no shame in not knowing something, and it is good to look it up). This happened to me in an observation and I wasn't sure whether to admit I didn't know and say 'let's google' or bluff. I chose to Google and was actually praised for it.

Anyhow, given my gullible nature, a friend once told me about some specially adapted sheep. It seemed so believable and she had me going for years. I really hope I didn't tell a child...

I just Googled 'flying penguins' - maybe the teacher did too and hadn't heard of the hoax. I hadn't, and if I stumbled across a BBC website about flying penguins I would probably believe it seeing as the BBC website is a reputable source (unlike Wikipedia). I found this site and have no idea if it is part of the hoax www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Flying_ace

If a parent pulled me up on something like this I wouldn't mind, as long as they were 'nice' about it and had a giggle with me about how mortified I was rather than making me feel like I shouldn't be around children (assuming that is the teacher's worst crime and there are no other concerns). A good teacher would then report back to the class with a lesson on how you shouldn't believe everything you read!

"what's wrong with that single? I recently had to email DD's english teacher who had told her Y9s that pride and prejudice was set in the Victorian era! I emailed her asking her to correct this info because it was wrong"

Hmm- this isn't quit as clear cut as that. Interesting stuff if you choose to Google. At least a dinner's worth of discussion in the very weird chez Hakluyt when GCSE English was being revised.

Not, obviously about whether JA's novels were set in the Victorian era- but whether she was a Victorian novelist.

Could it be that she is aware that it is a hoax and thought this was obvious from context but your dd got wrong end of stick...?

May a hobby or club could fill the gap in your life? Or another child? Evening class? Flower arranging? But really, do something. You sound nuts although not as nuts as the nutter who wanted to go to the head although that may have been a joke. I hope so anyway.

They can fly can't they - just so happens to be in the water rather than the air.

Is the teacher young? I'm often surprised at what general knowledge young teachers don't know (for example where to find the North Pole on a globe, and the owl pellets don't come out of an owls bottom) but if it's not actually on the curriculum, the teacher won't have learned it at school themselves, or know it because they have to teach it. As an old gimmer I forget I didn't always know everything

Ok Hakluyt I'm biting.

How can Jane Austen be a Victorian writer when she died before Victoria was born and 20 years before Victoria acceded to the throne?

Not, obviously about whether JA's novels were set in the Victorian era- but whether she was a Victorian novelist.
Jane Austen died 20 years before Victoria came to the throne. Hard to see how she could have written a Victorian novel unless you are using Victorian to cover all nineteenth century.

My DD had this issue with 2 of her A level teachers. She dealt with it herself. I only got involved when the list of errors grew worryingly long.

Cross post Ladyflip, I bit too.

What I always find weird about these threads is that parents go absolutely apeshit if a teacher happens to humiliate a child, even if done unknowingly, but it's fair game to post as many ways as possible in which to humiliate a teacher! Definitely put her right but in a nice way like Laurie said.

google is your friend!

Not saying she is a Victorian novelist. Just that if you're looking for categories for her......

A good lesson to children that just because someone is as an adult, a parent or a teacher they don't know everything! They need to have a questioning mind themselves and not take things as gospel.

Jane Austen's novels were set 50 year's in the future - fact.

A teacher at my school told us that snakes sting with their tongues. My friend sneaked a volumes of the encyclopaedia out of the house the next day and showed her that it wasn't true. She got bollocked and punished for cheek and disrespect. Then got bollocked and punished again when she got home for taking the encyclopedia without asking.

She still burns with the injustice of it 40 years later!

oops, bit of a stray apostrophe up there.