History Girl has started correcting teachers in the middle of class again. I am glad she is smart and knows the subjects she loves really well, but I have always felt correcting a teacher should be done in private. This is something Fly Guy and I don't see eye to eye on. He feels that if a teacher isn't teaching correct info then they should be corrected ASAP. This is one of the reasons when we were in college the head of the computer science department wasn't sad to see him leave school, since he was always correcting him in the middle of the lecture. If anyone has some sort of view on this subject feel free to leave comments.
History Girl corrected her teacher on the facts that John Hancock did have a wife....her teacher said he didn't. History Girl also corrected her teacher when her teacher said Samual Adams didn't have a wife....well he didn't have _A_ wife....he had two wives over his lifetime.
History Girl has been studying the US Revoltionary War period off and on since she was about 5 years old. It is a subject she loves and she knows a lot about it and she doesn't mind telling people what she knows.
Thursday History Girl and her class are going to Boston to walk the Freedom Trail. She has been looking forward to this trip for years since it has been the tradition in her school for decades that the 5th grade makes this trip. I hope there is good weather and I hope her teachers won't leave her in Boston because she can't keep quite.
The last few days have been good for her. No panic attacks or if there has been some she has been able to work through them herself. I hope this is a good sign.
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6 comments:
In my kids' school, such corrections and discussions are not only allowed, but expected and encouraged. Learning is viewed as a collaborative, ongoing process and they always emphasize that its a life-long process and that no matter how much you THINK you know, there's always more to learn and to share with others and sometimes what we think we "know" can later turn out to be wrong. Not knowing or being incorrect about something isn't seen as a weakness or disgrace, even for teachers...they are the models. OTOH, social skills and HOW you impart your opinion and correct misrepresented facts is also stressed..ie, you shouldn't be rude, arrogant, constantly disruptive, argumentative, etc.
Glad you have a blog, BTW!!
I'm with MLL on this one. Not only about the correcting -- but HOW it's done.
Well that explains why Fly Guy had a problem with it in college.....in college he was both arrogant and argumentative.......he was always upset that I waited until after class to correct a proffessor....so we both did it, but I did it in private and I guess I still feel doing it in private is the way to go, but if I can get History Girl to do it repectfully I would be ok with it.
Well I see nothing wrong with correcting a teacher providing it's done politely. You can phrase a correction as a question: "I have read that X is true. Is that correct? "Or something substantially more diplomatic perhaps :-) But standing there and saying "you're wrong. it was like this" will normally just irritate the hell out of people. That's what I think anyhow!
Yep, I am with the other August mums on this one too. I love MLL's explanation behind the theory too. So I would work with History Girl on her approach, but I think it should be OK to work it into the classroom discussion - that way all the other kids learn from HG too!
One other thing - Fly Guy arrogant and argumentative?????
NAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
:-)
But I still adore him or course.
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