Have you ever blatantly disagreed with a teacher during class?

[Tunesimah]

I'm in teaching education classes, and I often find myself fundamentally disagreeing with what is being taught me. It usually bubbles below the surface as a tiny bit of anger.

Today I decided to speak up a bit. We were learning about lesson plans, and that lessons plans should have measurable objectives... I disagreed since I believe what you should be learning in school isn't measurable. I also thought it was a cop out, to make it easy on teachers to make em think they are doing a good job teaching... when really they are stifling original thought and only teaching surface ideas and nothing deeper.

It was quite the scene. I'm not playing nice-nice and doing what the teacher says as a puppet, but actively questioning their ideas. If they don't provide adequate justification for their ideas, I don't see a reason to just follow them... when they don't completely jive with my mind. I don't think I'm long for this program if I keep this up....

Anyone else have similar experiences, where you have completely disagreed with a teacher and what was being taught. Not that you thought it was boring, but you thought they were wrong?

I'm sure INTPs are full of such experiences, I wonder how many end up being vocal about it in class.

 

[flow]

Lol, oh man, this brings up one of my favorite grad school memories. In 6th grade our counselor (who was also the head varsity football coach) was presenting some information and I disagreed with what he said. I publically called out his flawed logic and after some back and forth bickering between the two of us he became so upset he threw a chair at me.. In front of the entire class, and then stormed out of the room. I really don't remember what we were arguing about, and I don't remember what happened afterwards. I do, however, remember having my counselor throw a chair at me. I was not harmed, he just kind of slammed it on the floor and it skidded towards me. I think this was the moment when I realized I should pick and choose my battles more carefully. Goooood times.

For the record: I was a smart ass little kid.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

I believe Seducer has mentioned a story or two about open disagreements with teachers.

As I remember, most of the time I would let it go if I felt the error was minor but if it were important, I'd speak up and say "you're wrong". It was never well received, especially by teachers that barely understood the material themselves. They thought I was mocking them and perhaps I was although not blatently. That was high school, my college profs were more willing to tolerate some decent as long as I didn't push the exchange. It's sad really.

I hope you muddle through somehow, I bet as a teacher, you would be different than other teachers. Those kinds invariably end up being the most influential.

 

[Ombat]

The only time I've ever had a confrontation with a teacher of any sort was with my lifeskills (horribly named class, by the way) teacher in 6th grade. He was teaching us things like football terms, watching Bladerunner, and learning about car engines that aren't even used in cars anymore. I don't remember exactly what it was a about, but I just went up to him during class once, told him that his class was the biggest waste of my time, that I thought he was an idiot, and I couldn't believe that my school kept him around and why wasn't he teaching us anything relevant to any of our lives?

He gave me an "oh, haha, you're so funnnny" chuckle and walked away.

I've been in classrooms where people have completely called a teacher out on something that was obviously wrong and it's funny/sad to watch the teacher react.

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

I'm in teaching education classes, and I often find myself fundamentally disagreeing with what is being taught me. It usually bubbles below the surface as a tiny bit of anger.

Is it just me or is this even more ironic? You're arguing with a teacher, about teaching. Or is it recursive?

I often disagreed with them when it came to subjective subjects (teehee) like history, english, etc. My fanatical libertarian/rational side was a problem, but I didn't bring up points very often. Mostly just glower without talking.

I wish I had spoken up more though.

 

[transformers]

Nah I normally restrain myself in correspondence with teachers unless they are particularly liberal, as they tend to take criticism of their ideas negatively. On the few occasions I do speak up, I make it vividly clear that it's their proposition I disagree with, not THEM as competent teachers.

 

[Tunesimah]

Is it just me or is this even more ironic? You're arguing with a teacher, about teaching. Or is it recursive?

I often disagreed with them when it came to subjective subjects (teehee) like history, english, etc. My fanatical libertarian/rational side was a problem, but I didn't bring up points very often. Mostly just glower without talking.

I wish I had spoken up more though.

It's pretty wild, some of the most ignorant worthless teachers I've had are doing teacher education.

What really got me angry is this, "Words to Avoid When Writing a Lesson Objective: Know, Understand." Quoted from a website, and this is exactly what she was saying in class.

To me understanding is everything... if you aren't getting to the understanding you aren't a good teacher. You're programming machines to parrot back answers to you. At best, you're teaching students to handle pointless small simple problems... at worst your giving them a list of information which means their job could be done by an entertaining marquee. No where in this system is there room for teaching how to think. Teaching is anathema to thinking... at least that's what I'm being told.

If American schools are garbage, this has got to be one of the reasons why... horrible...

 

[Cogwulf]

I had a science teacher mess up the method of an experiment once. The experiment involved putting some magnesium into acid and measuring the amount of gas produced with different concentrations of acid, the title was "rate of reactions". The flaw of this being that if you measure the volume of gas once all the magnesium has reacted the volume will be the same whatever the concentration of the acid. I argued this with her and she told me I was wrong, then later she changed the title to "strength of reactions" and told me that I shouldn't have took the measurement once the reaction had stopped. so I asked her exactly when I should have took the measurement and she couldnt answer me

 

[JUN]

... I seem to be the most extreme case here.

My 45minutes long classes of Moral and Religious Education were spent with me and my teacher fighting until he got tired and started threatening me with expulsion from the class, etc. I just couldn't ever accept such a shitty/pointless class and he was a total retard, he was all silly catholic up our asses and talked to us like we were 1st graders or something.

And this:

I often disagreed with them when it came to subjective subjects (teehee) like history, english, etc. My fanatical libertarian/rational side was a problem, but I didn't bring up points very often. Mostly just glower without talking.

I wish I had spoken up more though.

I always speak out when i disagree... I tend to be one of the only persons in class who talks really... Urgh, sometimes leading to that typical "ANYONE ELSE 'SIDES EVA WHO HAS AN ANSWER ?" (using my name is not obligatory though).

But I can't really help it, seriously, when I hear a teacher say something interesting or say something incoherent or using vocabulary that isn't the most accurate I can't help myself from correcting/questioning them.

 

[ozzieflipflop]

You may well dissagree, but do you need to disrupt the entire class when the teacher is not going to understand anyway? The point of most undergraduate education is to learn not think........Take your time, regurgitate their crap, and strike back when you're writing your thesis.

 

[bananaphallus]

I had a bit of closet religious zealot (if thats possible) for a Western Civilization class three semesters ago - after assigning us our first paper, she spent 15 minutes warning us that if we used 'BCE' instead of 'BC', not only would we not get full credit, but we'd somehow be contributing to the demise of this 'Christian' nation.

Around two months later, we were discussing modern terrorism, and the motives behind their [Muslim extremists] 'holy war', I asked her how this was any different from the Catholic Crusades of yore, or the inquisitions, how one could be justified and the other could be senseless violence when the motives - if boiled down - were more or less the same. She was not impressed, being a Christian and all..

I rarely spoke in class, so I was pretty sure she thought of me as an arseface, seeing as how when I did muster up the gusto to speak I tended to be a generally disagreeable, grumpy bastard, but she did seem very cordial and interested in talking to me at the end-of-the-year cupcake bash in the student dining hall.

 

[cuterebra]

I've turned such disagreements into a hobby I privately refer to as "professor baiting."

Okay, maybe not quite that extreme. But the quality of professors in general is quite variable in academia, especially public universities. It drives me absolutely nuts when some washed up loser who made tenure somehow tries to feed me a load of crap because he can't be bothered to stay abreast of new information in the field. Most of them teach the intro level courses that nobody else wants to teach (fortunately, I run into them a lot less these days).

I've answered exam questions in a way that I knew would be marked incorrect because I knew the answer the professor wanted was wrong--just so I could bring it to the dean when the professor refused to give me points. Said dead weight professor actually lied to the dean about it and got caught--it gave me the warm fuzzies.

Everyone makes mistakes, sure, but gross incompetence is inexcusable--you can't be a decade behind, especially in science. I refuse to cram my head full of nonsense or outdated information.

I have, over the years, learned to keep such confrontations somewhat private. That still doesn't completely shield me from the ire of my classmates, but it helps.

 

[Carnap]

What really got me angry is this, "Words to Avoid When Writing a Lesson Objective: Know, Understand." Quoted from a website, and this is exactly what she was saying in class.

I don't know what you're teaching, but when teaching a foreign language you're not supposed to ask the students if they understand because it could put them on the spot and if they don't understand, they might feel stupid, be tempted to lie, and then no progress will be made.

You're very vague about these lesson plans. What are you teaching, exactly?

Have you ever thought that, while maybe your instructors are not perfect, they have loads of experience teaching all types of people? Maybe I had good teaching instructors, but I learned loads while becoming an English teacher. And while I resisted at first, I always went back to realizing that their methodology was superior to my arrogant ways.

 

[SEPKA]

This I got a lot, more than my computer can remember!
But some of the memorable one:
1. Primary school: test question is not cleared enough, and I refuse to do it because the teacher keep insisting that only number from 1-99 are natural number, anything outside the range is not. I call my mother to help me on that one, the case go all the way beyond the headmaster to the city-level, and I win (ie. no marks counted for that question).
2. Primary school: my English teacher don't even know how to spell some English word, I pointed that out. She literally use a knife to threaten me. I get my mother afterward, and she was fired (or so I was told).
3. Primary school: I use an efficient method to solve a maths problem, the teacher did not accept because it was not taught (the method is not taught, but all the concepts are taught). I lost that one despite all my attempt, the school official even literally said knowledge not taught in school are banned.
4. Secondary school: my teacher said if A=B and C=B it does not follow that A=C, I can't believe this but the whole maths department think my teacher is right. I lost this time (actually because i never follow it, I transfer out).
5. Secondary school: my teacher solve a question wrong because he never realized that Newton's Law are based on the absolute space and time model, I disagree and get slapped. Lucky that is just a relief teacher so I mock his violence behavior. The case make a hit within the school but the official suppress so not to hurt the school's reputation.
When I was in college, I moved to another country with a totally different education system. Now I can disagree freely, but usually the teacher will tell me to ask again after class so that the lesson plan don't get disrupted. They usually cannot explain properly to me though, but lucky my school have some PhD which I can rely on.

 

[Aiss]

Over the years I've learned it wasn't really a good idea to say "you're wrong". One of the reason was that once I've finished primary school, suddenly teachers turned out to be right more often. I really hate to come off as an idiot, so I started asking them to explain rather than criticize. It's a good habit to have in the uni, I think. Very often they go over what they said, then realize they've made a mistake earlier. And when it turns out I missed something obvious, I'm really glad I tried not to sound as if I criticized. I had classes in some other faculties and I've noticed it's much worse with humanities though (except for philosophy perhaps).

What really got me angry is this, "Words to Avoid When Writing a Lesson Objective: Know, Understand." Quoted from a website, and this is exactly what she was saying in class.

To me understanding is everything... if you aren't getting to the understanding you aren't a good teacher. You're programming machines to parrot back answers to you. At best, you're teaching students to handle pointless small simple problems... at worst your giving them a list of information which means their job could be done by an entertaining marquee. No where in this system is there room for teaching how to think. Teaching is anathema to thinking... at least that's what I'm being told.

If American schools are garbage, this has got to be one of the reasons why... horrible...

What you said made me recall one of my teachers (an exceptional one by the way, even if he didn't really taught much in academic sense), who used to say "no one has ever taught anyone anything". I think it's very true: what's important is what students learn, and the whole process of "teaching" is just presenting the concept in a way which may allow them to learn it.

On the basic level you can tell kids things they need to memorize (for example months of the year or days of the week) or show them how things are done (like tying shoelaces), and they'll learn it. Teaching in school requires more than that - you'd need to present a concept, very often abstract, which needs to be understood. The concept might be presented using only examples and patterns, such as doing basic mathematical calculations to solve a problem, but in this way most people will only learn how to apply the mechanism in a specific case, and not how it works. This is exactly what is required in school - solving a specific type of problems, which differ only in data. This isn't "understanding", so technically it's correct not to use the term.

I can see where it comes from - you simply can't teach people to think. You can encourage them, present the ideas in many ways, but only they can learn it. And there's no uniform way to reach everyone. Some people just won't get it in class, and they'll only copy a pattern, because they need it presented differently to grasp a concept behind it. I think it's the reason why education is so bad in lower grades - because everyone should be able to get through it without individual approach.

... I seem to be the most extreme case here.

My 45minutes long classes of Moral and Religious Education were spent with me and my teacher fighting until he got tired and started threatening me with expulsion from the class, etc. I just couldn't ever accept such a shitty/pointless class and he was a total retard, he was all silly catholic up our asses and talked to us like we were 1st graders or something.

Yeah, I've argued in religious education endlessly as well. But in the end I've just dropped the class (wasn't compulsory, but my parents wanted me to take it).

 

[Tunesimah]

I don't know what you're teaching, but when teaching a foreign language you're not supposed to ask the students if they understand because it could put them on the spot and if they don't understand, they might feel stupid, be tempted to lie, and then no progress will be made.

You're very vague about these lesson plans. What are you teaching, exactly?

Have you ever thought that, while maybe your instructors are not perfect, they have loads of experience teaching all types of people? Maybe I had good teaching instructors, but I learned loads while becoming an English teacher. And while I resisted at first, I always went back to realizing that their methodology was superior to my arrogant ways.

I plan on teaching high school math. To me, math is more than learning all the requisite information... outside of basic arithmetic and simple skills like making change stuff learned at the grade school level... it's about much more than what is being presented. It's really about solving problems and learning how to think. I'm compelled to teach mathematics in the way George Polya talks about in "how to solve it." By presenting a series of challenging problems, and coaxing ideas out of minds through questions.

I'll admit I haven't taught much in front of a class, but I have done small groups. I evaluate for understanding by having the students explain to me, in their own words, exactly what the math is all about. What is the reason for what you are doing, how does it connect to other concepts you already know.... teaching to understanding.

I can't just accept what the teacher tells me, even with their years of experience, when it creates this much cognitive dissonance.

Also, what is the problem with being vague? Why are do we need specific 'objectives' to know that we have taught anything? They have told me what I should do, but haven't given me a compelling reason why I should do it. If they are going to be so adamant about it, they have to come up with the goods... solid justification for it.

 

[Carnap]

Well, since it's not my domain, I can't say about the objectives. But when it's teaching a language it's annoying for the students to go away with nothing written on their paper, they think "I didn't learn anything", even if it did give them speaking practice or listening practice. They want something more concrete usually.

So we always had a lesson whose goal would be to teach a certain phonetic sound or a certain grammatical rule, 15 minutes would go into the teacher teaching, and then the rest of the class would be interaction between students and the teacher would be like a guide, letting the information/objective settle in the minds of the students, guiding when there were errors.

I think the students were always happiest when there was an objective. They don't pay to come to class to "contemplate" a subject, but to learn it.

 

[Kassie]

I've corrected teachers quite a few times, but most of them around here don't mind that. My old history teacher, who is also my swim team coach, openly said on the first day of class "I'm a history teacher, not an english teacher, because I'm really bad at spelling. So I'll probably make a lot of dumb mistakes, just tell me if you find some." There are a few times where I know the teacher will argue with me, so I stay quiet, but I'll usually mention it.

@Ranondrugs: What is Religious Education like? I live in a small town, so we don't really have anything like that.

 

[Toad]

What's the point? You're not going to change your teachers mind. You will more likely look like a snotty ass who thinks he knows everything. I do disagree with people a lot, but have never publicly challenged authority. I usually will take a more private approach and speak one on one with the teacher after class.

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

once or twice...*innocent smile*

 

[Toad]

I also think that it would be rude to disrupt a lesson plan. Others are trying to learn and the teacher has a limited amount of time to teach.

 

[bananaphallus]

I also think that it would be rude to disrupt a lesson plan. Others are trying to learn and the teacher has a limited amount of time to teach.

I hope you're not a teacher/have no intentions of becoming one [kidding].

The rudeness of interrupting a teacher, when it's warranted, pales in comparison to the egregiousness of promulgating misleading or fallacious information. If a correction/legitimate question is called for, the disruption is justified.

addendum: just realized I don't care what quality of education others in the class receive, don't disrupt the class, just shake your head ominously whenever the teacher makes eye contact/refuse to participate in class functions and/or tests.

 

[SEPKA]

I think the lesson plan should be spontanous and easy to adapt to such justified disruption, as education is not force feed information into passive listener.

 

[jachian]

I usually sit at the back of the class and joke with those around me about how stupid the teacher is.

Trying to speak up is like casting pearls before swine.

 

[Toad]

I hope you're not a teacher/have no intentions of becoming one [kidding].

The rudeness of interrupting a teacher, when it's warranted, pales in comparison to the egregiousness of promulgating misleading or fallacious information. If a correction/legitimate question is called for, the disruption is justified.

It would depend on what the incorrect information is. Most likely a teacher is not going to make a highly incorrect statement that would warrant a heated debate with a student as to whether the information is true or not. Correcting a teacher on grammar would constitute as being rude in my opinion. Can you imagine a class where everyone is constantly raising their hand to correct the teacher on minute details? I would go nuts.

Now if a teacher did give out incorrect information that was of crucial importance in learning the subject, respectfully raise your hand and correct him. Don't get into a debate with a teacher during class. It leads to no where and wastes precious class time.

After class, the gloves can come off.

 

[SEPKA]

It would depend on what the incorrect information is. Most likely a teacher is not going to make a highly incorrect statement that would warrant a heated debate with a student as to whether the information is true or not. Correcting a teacher on grammar would constitute as being rude in my opinion. Can you imagine a class where everyone is constantly raising their hand to correct the teacher on minute details? I would go nuts.

Now if a teacher did give out incorrect information that was of crucial importance in learning the subject, respectfully raise your hand and correct him. Don't get into a debate with a teacher during class. It leads to no where and wastes precious class time.

After class, the gloves can come off.

I don't think people are talking about grammar error when they disagree with teacher during class.
As for nitpicking, I think it is still justfied if the subject is highly logical, such as Maths.

 

[warryer]

I plan on teaching high school math. To me, math is more than learning all the requisite information... outside of basic arithmetic and simple skills like making change stuff learned at the grade school level... it's about much more than what is being presented. It's really about solving problems and learning how to think. I'm compelled to teach mathematics in the way George Polya talks about in "how to solve it." By presenting a series of challenging problems, and coaxing ideas out of minds through questions.

I'll admit I haven't taught much in front of a class, but I have done small groups. I evaluate for understanding by having the students explain to me, in their own words, exactly what the math is all about. What is the reason for what you are doing, how does it connect to other concepts you already know.... teaching to understanding.

I can't just accept what the teacher tells me, even with their years of experience, when it creates this much cognitive dissonance.

Also, what is the problem with being vague? Why are do we need specific 'objectives' to know that we have taught anything? They have told me what I should do, but haven't given me a compelling reason why I should do it. If they are going to be so adamant about it, they have to come up with the goods... solid justification for it.

Tune I can see you are going to be one of those teachers that is either hated or loved.

I agree 100% that understanding is everything. I share the same view on today's education which is really just a preparation for standardized testing. I consider myself lucky because at my highschool I had a few teachers whose mantra was understanding, mostly in the maths and sciences.

Even now in college I see this. The lecture period will be ending in a couple minutes or it goes over a few minutes. The students will get fidgety and shut out the teacher. I hate this because its a slap in the face more so now because we are in college. I wish you the best of luck.

Back on topic...

Usually in class the subject matter (engineering) that I am being taught is not something that I have grasp on whatsoever. I can't very well argue with the professor about things I know nothing about.

If I do disagree with something I usually keep it to myself because more times than not, it will be taken as a personal attack.

 

[Tunesimah]

It would depend on what the incorrect information is. Most likely a teacher is not going to make a highly incorrect statement that would warrant a heated debate with a student as to whether the information is true or not. Correcting a teacher on grammar would constitute as being rude in my opinion. Can you imagine a class where everyone is constantly raising their hand to correct the teacher on minute details? I would go nuts.

Now if a teacher did give out incorrect information that was of crucial importance in learning the subject, respectfully raise your hand and correct him. Don't get into a debate with a teacher during class. It leads to no where and wastes precious class time.

After class, the gloves can come off.

I don't disagree with you Toad. I do get annoyed at students who constantly correct a teachers little mistakes, I'm fully aware of being human and making mistakes... I make mistakes all the time.

This was different though, and in a way my asking questions is my way of understanding the topic. I want to learn; I want to know why. If you were in a class that the teacher told you that 2+2=5, would you sit there and take it... or disagree and try to understand what they are saying to you? Because from my perspective what they presented is fundamentally wrong...

I think I'm approaching education too philosophically for them... they are trying to teach me what is expected of me as a teacher... not really what makes me a good teacher.

 

[Chimera]

I think I'm approaching education too philosophically for them... they are trying to teach me what is expected of me as a teacher... not really what makes me a good teacher.

I wish all my teachers would take the understanding approach. I have my first taste of the "understanding" teaching style this semester, from my statistics teacher...in his words (while reviewing for our state test): "These tests are so stupid. The only reason I'm shoving some of this crap down your throats to regurgitate later is because I don't want to screw your grades over."

The tests he writes for us are certainly tougher than the standard "memorize and spit up" tests, but then again, I had an easier time reviewing for our midterm test because once I understand something it sticks in my brain. Piling facts into short-term memory banks for tests....not so much.


OP: I have a good relationship with most of my teachers. If I disagree with them, then I'll bring it up after class unless it hinders my understanding of something.
​

 

[Felan]

I think the real exercise in disagreeing with teachers is looking for ways to nudge them into thinking differently, even if only a little, about the point you would like to make. You can win those fights a great deal easier with a bit of sneakiness and patience than outright disagreement.

 

[Vrecknidj]

As a student, it didn't take me long to learn that disagreeing with teachers didn't pay off. If I had had different teachers, perhaps, I would have kept at it. But I eventually learned that what I wanted was the information in the classes (even when I disagreed with the teacher, I usually wanted to learn the subject) and to get my degree (or diploma). In general, not rocking the boat worked for me. I watched other people effectively just get on the teachers' nerves and that didn't pay off for them.

As a teacher, I want my students to disagree (well, in the philosophy classes I teach).

But, also as a teacher, I understand why there are standards and outcome measures, and all that crap.

Dave

 

[SEPKA]

I have never have the experience myself but I wanted to know if university's professor are more likely to let you discuss your question and disagreement during class than college/secondary school/primary school/kindergarten/childcare centre?

 

[Enne]

Well, depends on the discipline. My friend over in politics / humanities has had professors quite staunch about their beliefs and political stances, and I'd venture ti imagine that a women's studies professor could be quite the nightmare for her opponents (i.e. dissenting students).

Over in engineering it's encouraged, and I'd suspect it would be in other maths and science disciplines, unless it was a matter of graduate students ousting the professor for discoveries associated w/ research. In a classroom setting, they encourage us to spot their errors or challenge properties laws, as it's a sign of understanding / paying attention to the material.

 

[EditorOne]

"Have you ever blatantly disagreed with a teacher during class? "

Yes, and ended up with an F for the class. Syracuse University, Maxwell School, international relations, 1970, the professor wanted us to explain why the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were morally worthless and bad people and why we were morally right and had God on our side. It was the theme of the entire course and one of the questions on the final exam. It was not an exercise in debate, the man was vehement, emotional and pretty much out of his mind on an ideological tangent. The teaching assistants saw my discomfort and noted my comments pointing out the many errors of fact and conclusion in his lectures, and strongly advised me to shut up and get through the course and put it behind me and of course I could no more do that than I could flap my arms and fly. When he smugly asserted that no nation would ever use nuclear weapons in a war, I pointed out we already had, for instance.

Result: An F, family financial complications caused by having to make up the course, and I still need to get back up there after I retire and finish up the credits I need to get the damned degree, if only so I can go find his grave and piss on it.

That's the only time I disagreed with a teacher when it had measurable () and lasting consequences. But I got in hot water a lot, having little patience with muddled thinking and no restraint on a sometimes vicious mouth. Just like a lot of the younger folks in this forum.....

On education, I think the most valuable end result of the process is equipping young people with critical thinking skills enabling them to learn and figure out anything that subsequently turns up in their life. The best way to know if that mental equipment is functioning is, as you said, to have students demonstrate that they KNOW and UNDERSTAND whatever the subject matter of a course is, or at least that's the way it seems to me.

 

[RubberDucky451]

When an INTP disagrees with a concept or interrupts a class he typically has a valid reason to do so. Their logic may be flawed or something else may be obviously incorrect. Most students disagree to anger the teacher and usually haven't thought over the problem itself so they can't properly defend their view.

With all that said, i love a teaching environment where the teacher will bounce back ideas on the class and you get to participate.

 

[Nicholas A. A. E.]

I did this often in science class when I was younger, and became known as a huge smartass, but these days (senior year high school) I always make my objection known in the form of a question, and I pretend I'm a moron who only knows this because the correct answer happens to be in the textbook, when in fact it's something I recognized instantly, having learned it 4 years ago off Wikipedia.

If it's something moderately important, I'll ask my question during class, but otherwise I just mention it after class.

 

[Cogwulf]

I did this often in science class when I was younger, and became known as a huge smartass, but these days (senior year high school) I always make my objection known in the form of a question, and I pretend I'm a moron who only knows this because the correct answer happens to be in the textbook, when in fact it's something I recognized instantly, having learned it 4 years ago off Wikipedia.

If it's something moderately important, I'll ask my question during class, but otherwise I just mention it after class.

I think I've always phrased my objections as questions, but initially it was due more to being uncertain of myself than for the benefit of my appearance

 

[Nicholas A. A. E.]

I did this often in science class when I was younger, and became known as a huge smartass, but these days (senior year high school) I always make my objection known in the form of a question, and I pretend I'm a moron who only knows this because the correct answer happens to be in the textbook, when in fact it's something I recognized instantly, having learned it 4 years ago off Wikipedia.

If it's something moderately important, I'll ask my question during class, but otherwise I just mention it after class.

I hope this will not need to happen anymore once I start university, and can take classes from professors who at least know as much as the textbook. Dare I hope, more than I? I sound like an arrogant ass, but I've got a right to gripe. High school science classes are really frustrating for me because they move so damn slow and half the stuff they teach I've got memorized already. I could have taken this stuff freshman year, and because I couldn't, they're now wasting the most valuable years of my life. Major theoretical breakthroughs happen disproportionately in youth. Instead of getting chances at that as early as possible, I have to put up with AP physics teachers not even knowing what a non-inertial reference frame is.

It's not even a calc-based physics class - that's not offered, and the teacher wouldn't let me independent-study it because he didn't think I could handle it. I took calc in sophomore year, FFS. Next week I'm going to revisit that issue with him, since I hope it's now clear I can handle it, even if not for credit.

As you can maybe tell, this pisses me off a lot. Still, I'd gladly spend a full week straight in my physics class if I could, even if it's just scraps from the table.

All right I'm done griping for now. Anyone else think similarly?

 

[Cassandra]

I argued with teachers all the time...but only over incorrect information, unfair treatment of other students, or disagreements in philosophy (that was fun...it was in my "Philosophy and Debate Class" which should be retitled: "The Argue Till Your Face Turns Blue Class"....

...good times.

 

[James Black]

I think blatantly disagreeing with a teacher or two is an INTP prerequisite. I once argued with my Computer teacher about how many bytes were in a kilobyte, kilobytes in a megabyte, etc. I gave up in the end, however. She was a Maths teacher as well, however, so that is partly to blame for her misunderstanding. She was truly unreachable, though, and I had no desire to push the subject any longer if I wasn't going to convince anyone I was right. Honestly, you would have thought I was the spawn of Satan for even suggesting that there were 1,024 bytes in a kilobyte, and not 1,000.

 

[tashi]

Yes, I've definatly had issues with this in the past. The majority of my teachers have labled me as the smartass.

 

[tashi]

I argued with teachers all the time...but only over incorrect information, unfair treatment of other students, or disagreements in philosophy (that was fun...it was in my "Philosophy and Debate Class" which should be retitled: "The Argue Till Your Face Turns Blue Class"....

...good times.

We're doing logic in my english class at the moment. My teacher and I have had quite a few animated discussions.....

 

[Cogwulf]

I think blatantly disagreeing with a teacher or two is an INTP prerequisite. I once argued with my Computer teacher about how many bytes were in a kilobyte, kilobytes in a megabyte, etc. I gave up in the end, however. She was a Maths teacher as well, however, so that is partly to blame for her misunderstanding. She was truly unreachable, though, and I had no desire to push the subject any longer if I wasn't going to convince anyone I was right. Honestly, you would have thought I was the spawn of Satan for even suggesting that there were 1,024 bytes in a kilobyte, and not 1,000.

The official definition is actually 10^3. 2^10 is used in certain contexts such as for RAM sizes and within windows, but KB/MB etc. are only meant to be used as an approximation of the actual value.

Although within computer programs it's always expressed in numbers so the definition isn't important

 

[Nicholas A. A. E.]

The standardized definitions:

1 kB = 1000 B
1 MB = 1000 kB = 1000000 B
etc.

1 KiB = 1024 B
1 MiB = 1024 KiB = 1048576 B
etc.

 

[Cobra]

Syracuse University, Maxwell School, international relations, 1970, the professor wanted us to explain why the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were morally worthless and bad people and why we were morally right and had God on our side. It was the theme of the entire course and one of the questions on the final exam. It was not an exercise in debate, the man was vehement, emotional and pretty much out of his mind on an ideological tangent. The teaching assistants saw my discomfort and noted my comments pointing out the many errors of fact and conclusion in his lectures, and strongly advised me to shut up and get through the course and put it behind me and of course I could no more do that than I could flap my arms and fly. When he smugly asserted that no nation would ever use nuclear weapons in a war, I pointed out we already had, for instance.

E1 ftw. Loved this. I read it in my head with Ken Nordine's voice(s).

Here's something that's relevant to the topic I just read today: reed it hear nao

So who would like an anecdote? Nothing really tops the craziness of EditorOne's professor, but... I'll give my best.

Once upon a Freshman English class, our student teacher (filling in for a teacher on maternity leave) felt she had the right to address me as, simply "Dunce" for having been sick the day prior and not understanding her allusion to material from the day missed; even after explaining to her (or reminding her, rather) that I had missed a day due to sickness (politely). She kept saying, "What was that, Dunce? I didn't hear you," and cupping her hand to her ear. She was ignoring my raised hand and saying things like, "Yes, you. [name]. Behind the Dunce." She was getting a pretty mixed response from the other students; some were laughing, others were looking at me like "WTF." She was smiling and using me as the butt of her rather unfunny joke. It would have been in good taste if I hadn't simply missed a day of school. I was still not feeling well and wasn't particularly in the mood for arguing with her. I was already not her favorite student (obviously).

I got pretty angry, though, when I asked a question aloud, and she did the ear cup thing again and called me Dunce another time. I said, "You know, you're being extremely rude and unprofessional!" She said, "You know what? You're right. A professional would have done this right the first time... *walking across the room hurriedly*... Let... me... see... *tears off some large sheet paper from a roll and proceeds to make a dunce cap out of it with Scotch tape and a permanent marker*... ... There!" *puts it on my head* Half the class laughs.

As she returned to the board, I felt a little more myself, so I stuck a sharpened pencil inside it, called her name, and when she turned her ear and cupped her hand around it, the dunce cap flew straight into it.

She was fine, I went to the dean's office, and I was acquitted of any wrongdoing. I still don't know if she was ever reprimanded for this, but she certainly didn't talk to me anymore. Our real teacher came back a couple weeks later.

 

[Tyria]

I have. I tried to do it respectfully, but when it became obvious that nothing would come of it I looked out the window for the rest of the class. I did some of my best thinking not paying attention...

 

[snafupants]

There is probably a more tactful way of saying someone is simply wrong. Few arguments are that simple and unrefined.

Put yourself in the professors shoes, he may or may not give a crap about the material, but he certainly cares about his reputation and cachet. Academia is just another place where people compete with one another, just like in business.

 

[Lobstrich]

@ OP -

Of course? Why wouldn't you do? As I said countless of times: "Conflict breeds creativeness"

And in this I'm not saying that one should disagree just for the sake of it, of course there should be a reason. But as you said yourself. There is no need to just follow unless the teacher can't come with some sort of justification.

I've disagreed with teachers alot of times.

 

[Agent of Chaos]

You think teachers hate being corrected (and most of them do), try calling them overpaid babysitters (and that's all some of them are). That's something that will really put you on their happy list.
What makes most of them even angrier is when you prove in front of the class that they are wrong. I wasn't trying to be disrespectful or a smartass, I just hate inaccuracies coming from those that are supposed to know what they are teaching.

The only teachers I respected were the ones that actually made me think.

Oh yeah, let's give the students a textbook and only cover about an eighth of it during the entire school year (that's if you're lucky).

Sorry, I have a thing about bad teachers wasting my time.

 

[dreamoftheunknown]

Many times, going back to when I was little. I was almost always right, too. It usually happened when I either had absolutely no respect for the teacher and didn't care to hide my disdain (an extremely rare situation, but it did happen a couple of times) or if I had the utmost respect for the teacher and was asking them to clarify something. One of the most memorable occasions was during a philosophy class my junior year of college. Yeah, I know, you're supposed to debate in philosophy class, but I really did take it to a whole new level. I thought the professor was an arrogant ass (well, he was) and he had said something that didn't logically follow. I challenged him. Eventually, he tried to move on, but I must have had the recalcitrant expression that I can get when someone insists on flawed logic because he paused for a few seconds, and then said, "Do you have anything else to add?" I responded, "As a matter of fact, I do" and then went through all of the reasons why what he had said was completely stupid.

Ummm, I was a pain in the ass to teach.