DD’s science teacher AIBU

[Adviceneededalways]

Dd14 is quite an opinionated teen and has become very sensitive to even a sniff of inequality. I think it’s quite cool that she has strong beliefs but do sometimes have to tell her her to rein it in a bit..

She came down from Google classroom tonight on a fowl mood and announced that she was drafting a complaint letter to her science teacher due to an argument they had over an exercise in class...

The exercise was dividing statements into fact and opinion, ie FACT on average the sun is 150 million miles from the sun. OPINION pineapple taste good on pizza...

The final one was girls should be able to work in any area they choose which I’m sure you have guess the teacher was adamant was opinion and if had been marked down on the sheet as such...

I personally think this is less about being opinion or fact statement and more to do with it being a poor choice of example in a class of predominantly strong minded young girls but DD is very upset and angry at her teacher.

Is she being a bit immature and dramatic or does she have a point...

I’ll include the work sheet in next post.

Science attempts to posit universally applicable laws that are verifiable by recognised scientific processes.

I disagree, mathanxiety.
' Moral claims ,' you say, ' occur in specific cultural contexts. They are not absolute or universal.

As I said, not everyone agrees. Some (I gave an example) think moral claims are universal -- factual, in fact.

(I wonder if you think your own claim, ' moral claims are not absolute or universal ' is itself absolute or universal? It seems, anyway, not a scientific claim. So are you saying it is a fact, or not?)

It would be unreasonable to expect all school science teachers to be wholly au fait with the vagaries of metaethics, or even, perhaps, with too many of the different views there are about what constitutes scientific method or a scientific fact. Faced with a serious young pupil challenging the non-factual status of a non-scientific but morally important claim, however, possibly we could expect some open-mindedness from a good schoolteacher. The pupil has a good point to make, in short; ideally this should not go unnoticed or unrecognised, even in an introductory lesson.

The curriculum point about demarcating science from opinion can stand independently of this. Likewise the status of the teacher as non-omniscient authority rather than pedlar of dogma.

When your topic at hand is An Introduction to the Scientific Method, the distinction between fact and opinion, according to the definition and the demands of science, is what you focus on. Lesson 1 is apparently reading the statements and understanding what constitutes an opinion (or a moral claim) as opposed to a fact that is verifiable. The examples given in the posted resource of a fact illustrate verifiable facts. We can refer to blood tests to determine a cause of death. We can calculate the average distance of the earth from the sun. The examples of opinions, while not comparable in terms of far fetchedness or categories of opinion, are opinions. Whether one agrees with the opinion or disagrees with it doesn't change the basic nature of the statement.

I wonder if you think your own claim, ' moral claims are not absolute or universal ' is itself absolute or universal? It seems, anyway, not a scientific claim. So are you saying it is a fact, or not?
As I said, for various reasons I am not going to post moral claims that are made sincerely, in complete earnest, based on deeply held beliefs, often part of a belief system that is well-established, and held to be universal, but considered completely repugnant in various parts of the world. But those moral claims can be shown to exist.

Someone snidely commented that I must love Trump, something to do with 'alternative facts'. Can't find the post. The pigeonholing was offensive.

Applause for mathanxiety!

[quote Wheresmykimchi]@neonjumper OP isn't putting anyone down. She is responding to the PP who called her daughter a princess who pouts on Instagram which came from nowhere.[/quote]
Actually you need to reread that part. The OP mentioned that her DD was not an instagram pouter to which I responded that despite not being an instagram pouter she was still behaving as though she was a "princess".

@SeasonFinale given the standard of reading comprehension on this thread that comment did not surprise me!

[quote midnightstar66]**@SeasonFinale given the standard of reading comprehension on this thread that comment did not surprise me! [/quote]
Snide, @midnightstar66 Necessary? ?

@SeasonFinale apologies I thought the original Instagram comment came before your interaction. .

@wheresmykimchi

No worries, when you are skim reading through it can merge into one.

[quote SeasonFinale]**@wheresmykimchi

No worries, when you are skim reading through it can merge into one. [/quote]
I couldn't see through my irritation at people still thinking it's a fact on page 8264

I think it's a perfectly good example. If you're trying to teach them to spot the difference between fact and opinion, then using all obvious and uncontroversial examples isn't going to be very effective. Throwing in something that they might feel strongly about and think ought to be accepted as fact is a good way of making them think properly about it.

I’m genuinely concerned about people’s comprehension skills.

So many people talking about the equality act. Why? Where in the question does it state it’s UK specific?

It’s extremely concerning that people will tack on these random additional parameters in order to validate themselves. Zero critical thinking from the grown adults in here, no wonder the kids struggle with it!

Someone earlier mentioned exam questions, about answering the actual question and not the question they think it is/want it to be.

I suppose it’s much easier to get self righteous on here and say ‘what a terrible example, why would they make my DD upset and think she can’t do any job she wants’ rather than accept the FACT that there are millions of girls all over the world who are denied the opportunity of even going to school and receiving any kind of education at all!

That was general ‘my daughter’ btw, and was directed in general, not specifically at the OP

I'm not surprised your daughter got shirty about it, OP. It's what teenagers do. My dd might well do the same. But teaching teenagers is partly about getting them to use their brains rather than just their emotions, and about teaching them to reason and be philosophical about things, rather than treating every opinion they disagree with, or anything that challenges their world view, as something to be offended by or silenced and cancelled.

@LouiseBelchersBunnyEars

I’m genuinely concerned about people’s comprehension skills.

So many people talking about the equality act. Why? Where in the question does it state it’s UK specific?

It’s extremely concerning that people will tack on these random additional parameters in order to validate themselves. Zero critical thinking from the grown adults in here, no wonder the kids struggle with it!

Someone earlier mentioned exam questions, about answering the actual question and not the question they think it is/want it to be.

I suppose it’s much easier to get self righteous on here and say ‘what a terrible example, why would they make my DD upset and think she can’t do any job she wants’ rather than accept the FACT that there are millions of girls all over the world who are denied the opportunity of even going to school and receiving any kind of education at all!

Totally agree with the majority of your post, well said (except the bit when you said you're "genuinely concerned" about reading comprehension - that's my pet hate!)