To think the teacher just made a mistake, rather than lacking knowledge?

[Lis1992]

Interesting conversation with a friend today! They were telling a story about a teacher they had in high school (they were schooled in America) who they thought didn’t have enough knowledge of the course content. They said one time a student asked in class if the new poet they were about to study, was still alive. The teacher said no they’ve passed. The student pointed out the textbook said they were still alive and well and in their 70’s. And this was the truth. The teacher passed it off and said he got mixed up. AIBU to think it could have been a mistake and the teacher might have been new to teaching that topic etc. Or is it a serious lack of content knowledge/ lack of preparation. Just curious on people’s thoughts

I'm not convinced that knowing whether a poet is alive or dead is that important to studying modernish poetry.

Teaching children to politely correct teachers is part of parenting and graciously accepting correction (after fact checking) is a basic part of teaching.

They said one time a student asked in class if the new poet they were about to study, was still alive. The teacher said no they’ve passed. The student pointed out the textbook said they were still alive and well and in their 70’s
Student was a ridiculous little smartarse then, asking a question to which he already knew the answer and hoping for a chance to display their smuggery.
Was it your friend?!

Politely correcting teachers is unnecessary.

Politely correcting teachers is unnecessary
It's fine. We all make mistakes.

I've never minded when a student notices a mistake and mentions it. It's important students see adults graciously acknowledge mistakes.

I do mind when their behaviour and attitude is disruptive and/or they don't accept it when I'm actually right and what they think is a common misconception.

Would you feel that way if he already knew the answer from the book and did it in a smarmy way?

Would you feel that way if he already knew the answer from the book and did it in a smarmy way?
That would fall into the second camp that I do mind.

I'd take the example from the OP's friend as a deliberate attempt to disrupt the lesson and be a bit of an arse.

The fact her friend is still taking it as a win years later says a lot.

I think the fact it stands out to your friend still shows that the teacher didn't go on to make loads of mistakes.

I distinctly remember the single mistake I know of my French teacher making - it sticks out because it was actually quite shocking to us when she made it. She was an extremely intelligent woman who we were all a bit in awe of so it sticks out.

My alcoholic, child-hating History teacher made loads of mistakes (he was sacked in the end) so I'd struggle to pick one out because him making errors was very commonplace.

It's not just teachers. Where I work we offer graduates a free masters. I know that some of the information provided by lecturers (and it's a top business school) in my specialist area is wrong.

You do know teachers do not know every single thing about the subject they teach?!

Exactly this. Doesn’t mean they are not educated, knowledgable professionals.

So many teachers state things are gospel when they're not entirely sure, when in actual fact it'd be better to encourage the students to have a look at the text book, or look online, for themselves.

Agree with this. My students knew I didn't know everything because I told them so: "not sure about that, but I can find out." It's unreasonable to pretend you know something that you don't.

It should be OK for a teacher to answer 'well I don't know for sure, let me look it up' . I don't like smart arse kids but I distinctly remember in the 80s a country was mentioned in a story the teacher was reading and a precocious child aged about 11 put her hand up and said but Miss isn't that behind the iron curtain now? The teacher responded something like 'what curtain? Why are you talking rubbish about curtains, concentrate on your work'. Believe me in 1988 everyone knew what the expression was. I remember my pal explaining it to us in detail and i told my parents about it, they were shocked too at the attitude. Everyone including me believed she was stupid after that, but if she has just the open mind to say 'I'm not familiar with that expression, can you share with the class etc' we may have learned a lot more about the world we live in and had respect for the teacher.

Unless the taught material was comtemporary literature, you could be studying something from maybe 50 years ago, and presume the author was deceased, but they could be well into their 90s, without writing anything for a number of years.
So, I would not presume the teacher knew little about the subject. The important thing is whether the teacher was teaching the actual text correctly.
(and hopefully with some inspiration).

Someone forgot someone was dead. So what?

Just because the textbook says a particular individual is still alive, does not mean it is currently true. The textbook could have been published last year, or even last month, but maybe the person mentioned in the book died yesterday. It seems like a strange question to argue about with the teacher.

Someone's knowledge on whether an author is alive or dead has absolutely no correlation to their in-depth knowledge of a book.

I teach science. I can explain various scientific phenomena in great detail, but if you start asking me about scientists being dead or alive, or which country they're from, then I'll make mistakes as I forget things like that as they're generally not relevant to the syllabus!

What a weird thing for your friend to still be dining on years after the fact!

Did your friend check with other sources if the poet was actually alive or dead at the time of asking? The book might have said he was alive when at the time of publication but how many years had the school used the book for? Of course,the teacher could simply have made a mistake,that happens too.

Or the school could have used a book published 10 years or more ago.

I would suggest that your friend has a go at doing a PGCE and then comments on this again.

So you'd rather that pupils learn things that are incorrect, than occasionally being politely corrected?

No one knows everything, even about their specialist subject, if a secondary teacher. It's even harder at primary. Sometimes the errors are not relevant and can be left to lie. Other times they are fundamental and probably worth fixing for the whole class.

Politely correcting teachers is fine - a decent teacher will take it on board and gain rather than lose respect. But setting a teacher up with a question you already know the answer to just to be an obnoxiously smug arsehole is not fine.

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