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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be annoyed that ds's teacher told him a spider is an insect?

208 replies

pofacedandproud · 13/10/2009 16:16

Ok ds is in reception, but still. I have always told him a spider is not an insect but an arachnid, insects have 6 legs, etc, but today he came home and said 'Mrs X told me that I could bring a spider to school as the letter this week is I for insect'

I asked him if she really suggested a spider for 'I'. And he was very sure she had. So I told him again a spider was an arachnid. I know it is a small thing but it does annoy me, her telling them that. Yes I know she does an amazing job with 30 children, and she is great, but still.

OP posts:
Original poster
pofacedandproud · 13/10/2009 16:30

DiamondHead. Yes they've done A. I wouldn't do that to poor ds, can you imagine, I might be an annoying parent but there are limits.

I don't know why tomato doesn't bother me as much. I mean yes I'd still point it out but it is not as blinking obvious as a spider not being an insect. It has 8 legs! It doesn't have antennae! Doh!

OP posts:
itsmeolord · 13/10/2009 16:30

Wrong, many many main courses contain fruit.
Pork and apricot.
Prokm and apple.
Duck a l@orange
Moroccan dishes often use fruit.
Indian dishes often use fruit.
And so on.

MadameDefarge · 13/10/2009 16:30

Put her in the stocks and pelt with rotting tomatoes.

FlamingoBingo · 13/10/2009 16:30

ROFL Disenchanted.

GibbonWithAnAppleBobbingBibOn · 13/10/2009 16:31

and let's not start on coconuts...

AMumInScotland · 13/10/2009 16:31

It's good that you explain to DS that a spider is not an insect. But the fact is that many people assume it is. Just as many as assume that a tomato is a vegetable (ditto cucumber, marrow, etc).

Children cope with these things, and with the idea that not everyone has all the facts, so i don't think it's worth getting worked up about.

TheHeadlessWombat · 13/10/2009 16:31

It might be treated as a vegetable in the culinary world but it's still a fruit. Just as colloquially a spider could be considered to be an insect but it isn't.

Why object to one but not to the other?

itsmeolord · 13/10/2009 16:31

What the fuck is prokm? I have invented a new species. I shall classify it as a mammal that eats arachnids and fruit.

Original poster
pofacedandproud · 13/10/2009 16:32

Ah yes Disenchanted that would go down so well

I was thinking about I is for 'invertebrate' Do you think she'll hate him?

OP posts:
FABIsInTraining · 13/10/2009 16:33

Is he really allowed to take a spider in to school????

Tomatoes are fruit so if you are going to argue it is fine to call them vegetables you lose the argument about a spider not being an insect.

stillstanding · 13/10/2009 16:33

Incidentally (apart from your obvious confusion re tomatoes) YANBU. The teacher is wrong and that is annoying.

But goodness, it must be hard to be a teacher.... All those children hanging on your every word and then going home and telling their parents who then think you are completely ignorant and unfit to teach. We expect teachers to know better and I know they should but I would hate to be judged on this daily basis. When I think of all the guff I have told my children ...

GibbonWithAnAppleBobbingBibOn · 13/10/2009 16:33

itsmeolord you're making me laugh with your zealous tomato fruit/veg posts

Disenchanted3 · 13/10/2009 16:34

At 5 I would play it safe with igloo personaly.

CheerfulYank · 13/10/2009 16:36

We call them "creepy crawlies" b/c covers worms, etc, but when I taught preschool and we did a creepy crawly unit I did tell them that a spider was NOT an insect.

edam · 13/10/2009 16:37

Tomatoes may well be fruit but in cookery which is where most of us come across them they are used as a vegetable.

Spiders have never been insects! Don't think teachers should be telling children 'facts' that are just plain wrong.

The one that really irritates me is when people call chimpanzees monkeys. No, no, no, no no!

itsmeolord · 13/10/2009 16:38

Gibbon - it is NOT a laughing matter! Nor vegetable matter...... Tis a fruit.

ChunkyKitKat · 13/10/2009 16:38

Plenty of time to correct this gross misconception

Original poster
pofacedandproud · 13/10/2009 16:38

Let's get one thing straight! I am not confused about a tomato being a fruit!

I was merely saying it would annoy me less that the spider thing.

I think she was thinking of a toy spider. We have one too, hence ds's confusion about bringing it in. We have a toy invertebrate. We don't have a toy igloo though. Hmmm. what shall send in? Any suggestions?

OP posts:
Original poster
pofacedandproud · 13/10/2009 16:39

Thankyou edam!

OP posts:
TheDevilEatsBabies · 13/10/2009 16:40

the point here is that the teacher has blatantly told the child a piece of spurious information when the child has been taught the correct genus.

vegetable can be used as a general term for tomato as it's the next class up.

so vegetable is split further into fruit, vegetable, nut, etc.

if we are going by this then mini-beast can be used as an all-encompassing umbrella under which to put arachnids, insects, bugs, etc.

but an arachnid can't be an insect.
unless it has two of its legs chopped off its body and stuck onto its head with glue.

itsmeolord · 13/10/2009 16:41

Edam - see my post of 16:30:38 It explains things quite coherently. FGS.

I may flounce over this. And it will be everyone elses fault.

TheDevilEatsBabies · 13/10/2009 16:42

po faced; you should send in the invertebrate.
she probably thinks that's an insect too.

Original poster
pofacedandproud · 13/10/2009 16:42
OP posts:
2shoescreepingthroughblood · 13/10/2009 16:42

so a tomato is an insect and a spider is a fruit

TheDemonicButDandyLioness · 13/10/2009 16:43

stillstanding- gawd, I'm with you on the guff one tell's ones children ...

I remember once being about 10 and asking my mother what sexy meant. She thought for a moment, then said: "it means a woman in a bikini"