Most teachers do a great job in teaching critical thinking and supporting students’ curiosity.
Some insist that respect for authority and being right is more important.
You really don’t want those teaching your children.
Redditor asdasds343 encountered this very issue with their son’s school. So they turned to the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit for moral judgment.
They asked:
“AITA for not punishing my child after he corrected the teacher?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“My 10 year old son had to watch some Snoopy cartoon in class during which Woodstock eats a roast turkey.”
“The teacher told the class that this is fictional, and that birds don’t eat other birds.
“My son corrected her and said something along the lines of ‘my uncle trains falcons to hunt other birds at the airport to protect the airplanes.'”
“The teacher got upset said he was ‘disrespectful’ and ‘talking back’ and sent him to the principal’s office. I got called and they explained the situation, that he corrected the teacher.”
“I said ‘well was he right?’ and the principal said ‘it doesn’t matter, this was rude and you need to teach your son show some respect to authority’ and I told the principal ‘I’m not going to punish my son or make him apologize if he was right, maybe your teacher should be better educated.'”
“The principal looked a bit shocked and just told me to leave. Fine by me. Really reconsidering this school.”
Redditors gave their opinions on the situation by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Most Redditors agreed OP was not the a**hole.
“They revealed their true agenda. Not education, obedience. NTA” ~ Reasonable_racoon
“Yep, from now on the school administration is going to watch OP’s kid like hawks. Birds of a feather flock together. OP ought to check their nest egg to see if they can afford to migrate to a better school. NTA.”
“EDIT: added “migrate” at the suggestion of u/Agnimukha. Thanks for the awards as well, fellow Redditors!” ~ Anonymotron42
“Definitely NTA – When my son was in kindergarten, his teacher said that Christopher Columbus discovered America.”
“My son corrected her, saying that Christopher was a murderer and thief, who thought he’d found India. So glad the teacher didn’t pull what OPs son teacher tried. It would not have gone well for her or the principal.” ~ tikanique
“I saw someone online say before: sometimes people use ‘respect’ to mean ‘treating someone like a person’ and sometimes they use ‘respect’ to mean ‘treating someone like an authority.'”
And sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say ‘if you won’t respect me I won’t respect you’ and they mean ‘if you won’t treat me like an authority I won’t treat you like a person’ and they think they’re being fair but they aren’t, and it’s not okay.”
“from: /u/kaizokuou1”
“I’d pull your kid if I were you. The fish rots from the head.” ~ Enlightened_Gardener
Many thought OP was doing a great job parenting.
“Perfect description of respect. And unfortunately it’s not just schools that do this. OP is definitely NTA for teaching her kid to stand up for truth over meaningless authority.” ~ InxKat13
“Yeah, your kid sounds cool, and he was sharing some facts with the teacher and class.”
“The teacher got mad because she lost face (in her mind.) The principal reinforced that the teacher’s ego was more important than factual information and that students are not allowed to have independent thoughts. Find a new school ASAP.” ~ chickenfightyourmom
“Yes. As a teacher, I’ve been corrected by kids for my lack of information or narrow perspective.”
“I thank them for sharing with me & highlight that we all have so much to learn from each other. This should’ve been handled better.”
“As educators, we are not expected to know everything but to teach critical thinking. OPs kid was demonstrating a skill that should have been reinforced. You’re right, the teacher’s ego got in the way.” ~ Amy9609
“This. It could have been handled so easily by the teacher saying ‘that’s interesting, Jimmy–maybe we’ll talk more about birds of prey later…anyway, class, about the cartoon…’ with no one being the wiser.”
“Lack of tact on Johnny’s part? Perhaps.”
“But he’s 10 damned years old, and the teacher is the adult and professional in this instance–like kids being know-it-alls is an occurrence that a teacher would never anticipate and plan for?” ~ Duke_Newcombe
Redditors wanted to make sure OP’s kid was not being rude, but the teacher was still in the wrong.
“True, often times young kids are guilty of ‘well actually’ syndrome. They are so eager to show off their knowledge on a topic, it can come off as smug and condescending.”
“As a kid who was obsessed with wild life, I was definitely guilty of this in life sciences lessons. Luckily, I had teachers with patience for my a**holishness.”
“However, even if OP’s son was a jerk about the correction, the school is still wrong. They are making him apologize for the wrong thing.”
“They are making him apologize for being correct instead of explaining to his how to respectfully address others and having him apologize for being rude.”
“It’s entirely possible that the teacher/principal don’t have the emotional intelligence to verbalize why OP’s son should be apologizing. So they defaulted to the most surface level thing.” ~ sk9592
“I was curious about this as well, but from what it sounds like, he not only corrected the teacher, he explained how he knew. That doesn’t sound particularly rude.” ~ Vagrant123
“The point wasn’t about content. You can make the same point respectfully or disrespectfully based on tone, word choice, etc. It also depends on what else was said when making the point.”
“For example, if I had started this comment with ‘You clearly don’t know how to read because …’ then the tone would have been totally different even if the substance was the same.”
“I’m not saying OP’s son did anything like that, but that’s why more info might be needed.” ~ fdar
“OP says that the principal just said that ‘he corrected the teacher’ but also that ‘The teacher got upset said he was ‘disrespectful’ and ‘talking back” so presumably the principal said more than just ‘He corrected the teacher.'”
“I don’t know, I wouldn’t be shocked if the school administration was making a big deal about OP’s son respectfully pointing out a factual inaccuracy with the teacher’s statement, but I also wouldn’t be shocked to learn that a 10 year’s old didn’t make that correction in the most respectful manner.” ~ fdar
I think the kid should be rewarded for knowing more than the teacher.