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!

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

Northwest tree octopus

I used to use this with primary pupils to explain the dangers of using Wikipedia as your only research source!

Pixel No, I didn't stand by. Explained that salmon did indeed do this. But not tuna. It kind of went over her head. I was generally and by lots of things she came out with. she was very young.

Has this been mentioned yet? [[
news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm spaghetti grows on trees]]

Darn it.

spaghetti grows on trees

Surely most kids don't take everything a teacher says as gospel though do they? I was a little sponge for information and facts and picked up on teachers telling us the wrong stuff lots of times. In those days you kept quiet though or you could get caned for being cheeky.

DD has had a few spats with her A level English teacher who insisted that all the slaves taken from Africa were stolen by sailors in raids. There was no organised market and complicity by other African people. This teacher also insisted on using "pacific" instead of "specific". What can you do?

teachers are only human.
one told my ds that 'AD' meant 'after death' - another told dd that 'will' was the future tense - yet another would correct them when they said 'aitch' as according to her it should be 'haitch'....

Nigella am i right in thinking you are in NI? If so then the haitch/aitch thing is very common and related to religion. The teacher was possibly catholic and so raised saying haitch.

well well really every day is a school day on mumsnet - are you really sure about that?

no it was in England.

Yes i am from NI (still live here) and the Haitch/aitch thing was a dead give away growing up. Maybe not so much now with so much integrated education here but definitely 20 years ago. (Source of much of my bullying- only catholic child in presbyterian primary school)

well you learn something new every day....

I must ask my dcs how they say it when they get home. Ive never noticed!

"Surely most kids don't take everything a teacher says as gospel though do they? "

Sometimes I think the problem is that parents take everything their child says the teacher says as gospel...................!

Oh dear. Everyone knows penguins can't fly. But they can dance!

My biology teacher told me that lemmings throw themselves off cliffs. Seriously.

www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Lemming

lemmings are so cute though

DD has had a few spats with her A level English teacher who insisted that all the slaves taken from Africa were stolen by sailors in raids. There was no organised market and complicity by other African people. This teacher also insisted on using "pacific" instead of "specific". What can you do?

Why would they do this? (S)he is either dim or incredibly arrogant, I am in the closing stages of a PhD in history and have taught University students, I sure as shit wouldn't start pontificating on the history of slavery as I don't know enough about it and would be setting myself up for a fall. Odds are there would be students who had studied Atlantic history and would either pull me up or silently think 'he is talking out of his arse and can't know his own topic that well if he makes a howler like that.'

Why an English teacher felt they were qualified to start making pronouncements on a topic she demonstrably knows sod all about beggars belief.

my science teacher in 1978 told us that 'test-tube' babies were grown in giant test tubes.(ie the full 'pregnancy')...

oh and then there was the O level English teacher who got really irate and mockingly dismissive when she asked us all to name a 'good' writer and I said James Joyce.

Penguins are a native species actually. But sadly our native penguin (the great auk) is now extinct. The name penguin come from the Welsh Pen Gwyn, which means white head. This is because the great auk had a white patch on its head. .

Both my dcs say 'haitch'

batperson I suspect she had never heard of him....and I threw her right off ...

or a copy of Finnegan's Wake shoved up her wrinkled azz