Do I just let this go......

[Kez100]

I was quite taken aback tonight when my son told me his teacher called him ignorant for having an opinion on a piece of media they were studying. He told another teacher who overheard that he wasn't ignorant, it was his honest opinion. That teacher (very experienced) told him to not say anything and to keep his distance from the teacher who called him ignorant for a while.

Now I'm quite annoyed at this. If he was in the wrong - which he quite possibly was, when he worded his dislike of the media item they were studying, then surely he deserved proper punishment - detention or whatever it is for that level.

I have told him to let it go and if he thinks he was in the right, not to worry, the teacher was probably stressed. If he was in the wrong, he is damn lucky to have escaped school punishment and from me too.

A very odd turn of events though, don't you think?

"Ignorant" means "lacking knowledge" - the teacher may have meant that your son, while having an opinion, didn't have enough understanding to make it a well-thought-out opinion. That he didn't know enough about it for his "honest opinion" to carry a lot of weight.

It wasn't very kind, but its not the same as calling him stupid, if that's what you and he are thinking.

Ahhhh, I didn't think that. Someone I know uses pathetic (in the right way) and it sounds very uncaring to the rest of us.

You may well be right there.

I wonder whether there might be more to it... I have often found that when pupils say they were 'only expressing their honest opinion', they have actually made a fuss in class and disrupted their lesson by saying that what they are studying is 'shit'. I don't know whether this is anything like the case here but it does set off my warning radar.

He wouldn't have sworn, pretty sure of that, but he quite poss

Possibly worded it in a not very tactful way. That's why I am of the opinion it could have been his fault - not saying it wasn't - but surely he should have been punished if that was the case, not called ignorant (unless she meant lacking knowledge)