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

[pofacedandproud]

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.

Ah, well, tbh it's not that impressive - he was the chair of the Food Standards Agency, lots of people met him!

Rhubarb is a vegetable, pretending to be fruit - and utterly vile.

Spiders are just gross creatures that make me hyperventilate.

On an aside my dd, who tells me she is an athiest, corrected her RE teacher the other day . The teacher called someone a muslim when in fact they are a siek (sp?).
The teacher then got stroppy with dd when she asked dd what nationality she is and she replied English, but that is another thread entirely.

Simplesusan, I don't care about the thread hijack, why did the teacher get stroppy about nationality?

After 38 years of not knowing the difference between monkeys and apes someone finally told me a few months ago - Monkeys have tails.

I can't believe noone ever told me it was that simple!

I think this thread has attracted a lot of posts because if there is one area of my life Mumsnet doesn't cover its wildlife and science!

And I am impressed by the Krebs thing - obviously a high-achieving family there!

like this?

might be interesting

ps: Krebs is the German word for cancer.

i'm still reeling from my dd coming home from school saying she asked her science teacher about string theory and the teacher said she'd never heard of it! in a science specialist school

[Goes away to google string theory]

This has been a most educational thread

ITA with pofaced.
But remember, "the spiders ... are not insects ... but in a war they will side with the insects".

overthemill

I once bumped into a physicist at a party and tried to get him to explain superstring theory. Eventually it seemed to make sense... but next morning when I'd sobered up I was none the wiser!

I watched a documentary about string theory. And one about parallel universes. And I concluded that those scientists are smoking too much skunk.

[i was joking btw, before I incur the wrath of the biologists ]

The teacher definitely needs telling. Children get confused when people lie to them, even if it is inadvertant. Teachers can't know everything, which is why you should make sure he/she knows.

way back down the thread, someone pointed out that it's a good lesson to learn that adults sometimes get things wrong and that we can cope with realising we are wrong.

Never mind spiders, DS's RE teacher told him today that Jewish people weren't allowed to eat chicken! Because they don't have cloven hoofs apparently.

Chicken FFS. Fuckwit woman.

DH and I laughed our heads off in the car. And then we sobered ourselves and had an intellectual discussion about why religious food laws existed and What It All Means.

Vulpus - perhaps he attends the same synagogue as the Jewish guy in The Apprentice who, when instructed to buy a kosher chicken in a market in Marrakech, bought one from a halal butcher and got the muslim butcher to say a prayer over it.

Maybe they come from the school for stupid teachers.
I once had dd1`s yr1 teacher ask if her new twin brother and sister were identical!!!!!!!!!!

YABU to be annoyed. The teacher might actually think they are insects or she just mighthave just thought it was easier to tell a 4 year old this. He is only in reception so relax a bit and just make sure he knows the correct term when he comes to taking his GCSEs.

Read the thread, Mummeeee, turns out grouping and classifying are an important part of the curriculum at this age. And more importantly teachers should not be telling children things that are untrue. 'Spiders are insects' is not vaguely right, it's not a simplified idea for children, it's just wrong.

MillyR the teacher apparently asked dd what nationality she is (don't know why) to which dd replied "English" then the teacher said "Don't get awkward with me, you know that you are British."
Both myself and dh were angry because my dd was correct as England is part of bloody Britain and also the teacher should have then explained like I did that yes you are English but we usually just say British, that is what they put on your passport.
I am keeping an ear out because any further quips from the same teacher and I will be straight on the phone to the head of year.

Simplesusan, that is very strange. I don't know why someone calling themselves English should be provocative.

If it were me, I would take an invisible insect and an identifiable invertebrate, and I would take pictures of spiders and say "This is for another week, next time it is A for arachnid" - gotta speak their language, aintcha?!

I agree Milly but have let it go. She is a new teacher as the old one has retired and perhaps felt a bit threatened by my daughter correcting her on what is supposed to be her "specialist" subject.

Take in a spider and say 'it has an insect - a fly in this case inside it's stomach. It ingested it.