Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
pointyhat · 13/10/2009 20:24

cancan, I don't think the teacher got anything wrong there, did s/he? She just misunderstood.

charliesweb · 13/10/2009 20:38

Grouping and classifying is a big part of the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. I taught children that you can identify an insect by seeing if it has 6 legs and 3 body parts (head, thorax and abdomen). Clearly a spider does not meet this classification.

Having said that I am sympathetic to a degree as teachers are not omniscient. The important thing is for teachers to see themselves as learners as well. I was always happy to be corrected or to admit I didn't know something. I think that in itself can be a powerful message for children.

Having said all that I have spent many an hour trying to convince my husband that a square is a special sort of rectangle!

edam · 13/10/2009 20:40

cancant, would love to have seen the teacher's face. "Uh oh, will have to revise my expectations of this one..."

DrNortherner · 13/10/2009 20:42
edam · 13/10/2009 20:43

charliesweb, I'd hope someone with your name would know the difference between spiders and insects!

Interesting that grouping and classifying are a big part of the curriculum at this age - even more important to point out when someone gets it wrong, then. (In a friendly manner, of course.)

Original poster
pofacedandproud · 13/10/2009 20:58

no it wasn't my ds's idea. He came home from school saying the letter was I. I said 'what shall we take in then? He said, 'Well Mrs X said we could bring in an insect like a spider. But I thought a spider wasn't an insect because it has 8 legs'

We had been talking about it in the bath just the other night. He couldn't remember it was an arachnid, but he knew it wasn't an insect.

OP posts:
pointyhat · 13/10/2009 22:06

oh the smugness here

TheFallenMadonna · 13/10/2009 22:19

I'm not smug. I'm a biology teacher. I notice these things. I wouldn't make a song and dance. I'd just notice.

Georgimama · 13/10/2009 22:32

Great thread. All of the above is why DS is going private. At least then if teacher dares to make such an error I can withhold fees.

SomeGuy · 13/10/2009 22:32

Fruits are not vegetables. They can be vegetables, but it is wrong to say that fruit is a sub-class of vegetable.

Helpful diagram

'Insect' has a specific technical meaning
'Vegetable' does not have a specific technical meaning
'Fruit' can have a specific technical meaning, but it depends on context.

VulpusinaWilfsuit · 13/10/2009 22:38

I don't care enough. I probably should. Perhaps this is why I am not a scientist.

On the plus side, there is something to be said for an acceptance that kids can have 'wider' categories than adults. There are, clearly, lots of things they learn about that are not strictly 'true' or that become more 'true' as they get older. In fact, much of our knowledge is like this, as its accuracy is often contextual. Sure, a spider isn't an insect, but in vernacular and social understanding, it 'pretty much' is. I rather like that actually.

madlentileater · 13/10/2009 22:42

no time to read whole thread, but I find 'invertebrates' a v good substitute for 'mini beasts' which makes me want to scream. OP is NBU- spiders are NOT INSECTS

arghh

Georgimama · 13/10/2009 22:52

I just knew before I opened it that Someguy's link would contain a Ven diagram.

edam · 13/10/2009 23:01

Vulpusina, it's not contextual at all - spiders simply are NOT insects in any way, shape or form. There's no vernacular about it. (Unless you are a spider estate agent and are trying to flog a used web by claiming it has character or something...)

MillyR · 13/10/2009 23:02

Vulpusina, you terrify me. You are the academic equivalent of the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I hope you are not a teacher, or at least not the teacher of one of my children.

edam · 13/10/2009 23:06

I mean, this is not one of those things where we teach children a little bit of the truth at at time, like the brown eyes/blue eyes hereditary thing at GCSE level. The 'spiders are insects' line is simply untrue

VulpusinaWilfsuit · 14/10/2009 07:53

I terrify you and am the childcatcher

Why? I know it isn't an insect. I was merely wombling on. No idea why that is terrifying...

GibbonWithAnAppleBobbingBibOn · 14/10/2009 09:48

Vulpusina - I hear you...I know a spider is not an insect but like you I could not whip myself up into the frenzy some posters on this thread have.

Original poster
pofacedandproud · 14/10/2009 11:50

Aw Vulpusina is not the child catcher Milly, she's lovely. I know what you mean Vulpus, but for the teacher to instigate something scientifically untrue, well, for me, it is a bit like saying a whale is a fish, and then I do wonder what they are going to school for apart from the socialization aspect which has been good for ds].
Sorry if that is smug. I don't think it is. As FM kindly pointed out, I'm not outraged, just slightly annoyed, and I will not be bringing it up with said sweet teacher.

OP posts:
sockmonkey · 14/10/2009 12:19

I'm sure I heard somewhere that a strawberry isn't technically a berry, because it has seeds on the outside (same for blackberries and raspberries I suppose)

Wise Mumsnetters... is this true?

cory · 14/10/2009 12:23

As a teacher myself, and the offspring of two teachers, I think that learning that teachers are not infallible is an important part of the learning process.

At least that's what I told dd the other day when she came home fuming from school after the teacher had told her that in the 1960s:

divorce was not available
adultery did not exist
and there were no single mums

Dd is in Yr 8.

Original poster
pofacedandproud · 14/10/2009 12:23

apparently they are 'aggregate fruits' [I didn't google it, oh no, absolutely not]

OP posts:
Littledawley · 14/10/2009 12:27

When I was teaching yr 6 a supply teacher told my class that the moon landing never happened, it was just a film made in a studio!!!

WoTmania · 14/10/2009 13:00

YANBU

sockmonkey · 14/10/2009 13:23

Littledawley - you gotta love a conspiracy theorist teacher. Did s/he also say that Diana was murdered by the Royal family, and Elvis is alive and well?