to allow DS to take to school

[maclover]

an atlas, so that he can show his teacher that the capital of Brazil is Brasilia? DS (7) was doing Geography today at school. His teacher told him that he was wrong (even though he knows he is right because of a World Cup obsession) and another pupil was right. Should he suck it up, or take in his atlas to show her the answer?

Hopping - because the teacher (who is the senior authority in the class) is insisting he is wrong. Surely that's a valid reason?

I would definitely do it. No teacher wants to teach a class wrong information.

I'd let him do it as well. As a kid I was obsessed with encyclopaedias and I recall being made to feel incredibly small by a teacher who told me that Lions and Tigers did not mate, there was no such animal as 'Tigons and Ligers' and I was stupid. He was so incredibly rude to me that I felt little guilt in dropping my much loved, well worn book on his desk the next day. I didn't get an apology but he did concede I was right.

It's always stuck with me and I'm 40 now

I think MNers have been furiously googling - I just typed 'captial of' into google and the first suggestion was brazil!

If your DS is bothered by this and feels that's he has been treated unfairly ( I know he has but he might have forgotten by now!) then I might let it pass. It's hard to judge as sometimes in life we just have to accept that people (in his case teachers) don't like to be told they are wrong and it might cause other issues for him later in the school year if she feels he has tried to "prove him wrong" so to speak. I would be proud of the fact he knows the capital city and commend him on his knowledge, boost his interest in geography etc etc However , depending on your feelings re the teacher in general and her overall impact on your son, I might be tempted to mention it at parents evening, in the context of ...he was a bit upset because he is World Cup mad and had really enjoyed learning about the country etc....I was really proud he took such an interest ...etc etc I once let a year 3 teachers appalling spelling go on numerous occasions ( correcting my child's homework with INCORRECT spellings e.g torturer became TORCHERER) because there were bigger issues around at the time and I knew he knew the right spelling anyway,

redexpat I'm guilty!