Would I be unreasonable to correct the teacher?

[Horthnangerabbey]

It is a minor thing really but if the teacher had told the class something that you knew was wrong, would you tell her? Or would you just explain to your own child the correct info and keep quiet?

Austin is Regency - an important example of a period of enlightenment which sadly reversed. 'Tis sacrilege to get her era wrong as she was AHEAD OF HER TIME figuratively not literally!

They told the class that Jane Austen was a Victorian writer writing in Victorian times.

That's a huge error. There are things in her books that would make no sense if she was Victorian, such as the length of candles at the parties, or the Napoleonic wars.

And if she shows one of the screen adaptations, well the clothes would be wrong.

Same teacher set a project about the Arctic, including advice to include information about penguins.

I wonder if someone had told her the joke about why polar bears don't eat penguins, and she'd taken it a truth?

Just never try to say shhhh and sit on the carpet, in one sentence, at the end of a very long term.

I have one of those names where the male and female versions are spelt differently.

When I started school, we had to trace our names from a sheet written out by the teacher, who had spelt my name wrong. Being a snotty, smartarsed 5 year old, who could already write her name, I corrected her and refused to trace something I could write perfectly well.

When my mother came to collect me, I informed her that there was no point in me going to school because the teacher was stupid, and that I would not be going the next day or any day from then on. My mother came into school with me the next morning and quietly explained the error to the teacher.

I am convinced my lack of respect for authority figures stems from that incident, and it has got me into no end of trouble ever since.

How can teachers expect kids to take them seriously if they get quite basic stuff wrong?

My DD6 and her friend (bully) were having a "disagreement" about whether a googolplex was a number. Friend didn't believe it was. Asked her teacher and teacher laughed and said it wasn't a number. Friend went on to taunt DD for the rest of the week.

Haven't corrected her as it's not exactly something that would crop up in a year 1 lesson but I feel awful for DD that it was used by her friend to tease her. She was very upset.

Sunshineandeggshells

I wonder how the teacher searches the internet?

Exactly @sashh Austin is regency, you can tell by the dress! But seriously, there was an advance of female emancipation and creativity in regency times which sadly reversed later on. It's really important Austin s studied in this historical context to appreciate her sheer and utter brilliance. I was all set to tell OP she was being pedantic, but no one should be allowed to diss Austin!!

I’m glad this continued from yesterday. Austen was remarkable as a visible female in a time where they were largely invisible - unlikely to hold water if there was a queen. And she talks about sex albeit in a very indirect way but we all know what’s she’s refering to. And woman were the main bloody characters. None of which is a Victorian thing. And Victorian literature is all smoky big cities to Austen’s rolling landscapes what with the industrial revolution being in its infancy and all. Ok I’m over invested but Fanny Price was my teenage hero.

^ to what she is referring.

This is a pretty major error and I think I would be tempted to say something.

The talk of ejacuations in literature reminds me that in Far from the Madding Crowd there is a bit where the farmer (Oak?) can hear Bathesheba's "rhythmical pants" in the darkness. I found this so funny in my GCSE class that I had to be sent to stand in the corridor until I had composed myself.

LRD Nice to see you.

I'm really glad to hear that the "Austen was part of the loong Victorian period" or whatever was not an academic.

That thread was epic in its oddness.

Ahem. Sorry to interject/ ejaculate/ whatever - but if we are going to adopt the moral high ground (before rose points this out) we do need to spell author's names correctly , viz :

Austen
Carol Ann

Piggywaspushed

agreed re the above!

I think it would be very odd to go in and correct the teacher if this is a GCSE class and your DC is already a teenager. Why can't he just say something to the teacher alongh the lines of he googled Jane Austen and realised she died before Queen Victoria was born!

For curryforbreakfast - Judging by his many portraits, Napoleon was fairly short when placed next to other men. He was certainly shorter than the Duke of Wellington.

No, he was fairly short when pictured next to his guards. As are even rather tall people today.
Napoleon was slightly above average for the times at 5 feet and 7 inches tall.

My DH was very displeased some years ago when DD brought home a physics worksheet that was wrong. He went in to see the teacher who at first tried to argue, but he persisted quite firmly before mentioning his PhD in Engineering - not something he would normally do being a quiet, modest sort of bloke but he was very wound up because our DD was being taught a crucial bit of science incorrectly.

Depressingly (and shamefully considering it's a top-ranking school) a couple of years later DD2 came home with the same worksheet UNALTERED!!!! DH corrected it with DD2 but did not bother contacting the school again.

I wouldn't correct a teacher unless to their face and privately.

Most current teachers now will be two generations at least from training in grammar - which is a crying shame since it's one of the reasons kids can't easily learn other languages. Spelling not so much unless it changes the meaning of the word, but it does make a difference if you want to be professional/academic - or even google correctly. What worries me most is the lack of enthusiastic maths and science teachers.

And of course realize google answers are often wrong.

What was the mistake?

The physics one I mean.

Napoleon was slightly above average for the times at 5 feet and 7 inches tall.

Where are you getting this from? I was taught 5’2” (admittedly that was when I did a levels about 100 years ago). It stuck in my mind because that’s my height.

I'm sorry Nuffaluff I can't say, partly because it was a long time ago but mostly because physics ain't my bag! If DH were here I'd ask him but he's not....

I was an A level English teacher. I'm pretty sure my Head of Department would have sacked me if I'd taught the students that Jane Austen was Victorian!

Please don't.

I have been the child in the middle of situations precisely like yours.

My mother an extreme pedant to put it mildly did correct one of my particular teachers on numerous occasions. The teacher was indeed quite wrong on each occasion, but the payback of the "corrections" was my life was sheer hell for almost three years. I still remember it now and am sure the teacher never forgave me or my mother.

Let it go and let your child grow-she will soon be more than capable of highlighting wrong things herself OP