smarty pants kid

[JudgeRinderSays]

*for example when asked to estimate volume of bucket (knowing full well that the teacher wants them to estimate how much water it would hold) but estimating the volume of plastic in the bucket

• Angle drawn of about 45 degrees (but angle not marked) and measuring reflex angle instead of acute one.

*Disagreeing with a teacher that 900 ml + 100ml is necessarily 1l depending on what they are (eg pebbles and sand )

As a teacher would you be pissed off with a 9 yr olds smartarsery or pleased they were thinking about things.

They estimated the volume of the plastic bucket? That's impressive actually.

The angle thing, I think they all do it. Mine did, just to wind me up.

Not so sure about the pebbles thing.

I like children like that generally, but it depends on their attitude.

Funny and clever = good.

Mocking and defiant = hard bloody work, and a pretty poor reflection on their parents, whom I'd assume had imbued them with a misplaced superiority complex.

One of the most important things you learn at school is how to get in with other people. That includes adults such as the teacher. Teachers like smart kids, but nobody likes a smart arise. It's wise for kids to know the difference.

If the child is a literal thinker then they are actually trying to answer the teacher's questions.

Also if they've used pebbles/sand to fill up as litre jar then actually it's a valid question to raise about whether it actually is a litre. Good discussion opportunity about solid/liquids if you ask me.

Teacher's should encourage critical thinking not passive acceptance IMO.

I think it's really sad that this kind of thinking is not embraced more. We need children to think outside the box rather than simply being exam passing robots. He could be a scientist of the future - and boy do we need them!