[alt text: a 4-panel comic by @introvertdoodles, which is titled “Not ‘Appropriate’”. The first panel depicts a child wearing a very creative and unique outfit, and their parent is pointing at them and saying, “You can’t wear that to church.” The child is replying, “Why? All my bits are covered.” In the second panel, the same child and a grandparent are eating dinner at a dining room table, and the grandparent is saying, “You aren’t excused until you eat everything on your plate.” The child is replying, “Why? I’m full.” In the third panel, the same child is holding a stuff animal, and a different parent is telling them, “You’re too old to be carrying that toy around.” The child is replying, “Why? The tag just says ‘ages 3 plus.’” In the fourth and final panel, the same child is sitting across from a school principal in the principal’s office. The principal is saying, “You can’t argue with the teacher.” The child is replying, “Why? He was wrong.”]

  • As a neurotypical i do not relate that much to the other three but my pride gets into my way when a teacher says something incorrect. In primary school i was always given some small punishment for it and learnt that it isnt worth it but the nice thing about the high school i went to is thay teachers actually listened to what you had to say.

  •  Swallowtail   ( @Swallowtail@beehaw.org ) 
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    8 hours ago

    As a teacher, I’m not going to write a student up for disagreeing with me. I’m sure that there are some who do (and it would be warranted if the kid started name calling, yelling, refusing to let it go if the teacher said they wanted to look into it more after class to double-check etc), but in the years I’ve been working in schools, I have yet to see it happen. Here’s an example of what I mean:

    A few weeks ago, I was talking with the class about how I study Spanish on Duolingo to help do a job of teaching my kids. One of my students spoke up and said that Duolingo sucks and won’t help you learn language. He actually said it sucks, not exaggerating there. I chose to ignore the wording and just talked about how it wouldn’t be good to use it in isolation, but I also study with a flash card app for vocab, read in Spanish, listen to podcasts in Spanish, and talk with native speakers in Spanish all the time. He still disagreed with me and said so, I told him it is my specific area of professional expertise to know how language learning works, he still disagreed but we moved on.

    When a student disagrees with me and I’m not sure I’m right, I try to look it up then and there or consult with a colleague if it’s possible to. If not I make a note (like literally write out a note then and there, I keep sticky notes around at all times) to check on it, and I’m pretty good about getting back to them. Being able to admit you were wrong is extremely important as a teacher, and it can actually help your kids grow as people because you’re modeling how you want them to behave as an adult–owning up and admitting it when you make mistakes. Seeing authority figures do it is powerful!

    •  sanzky   ( @sanzky@beehaw.org ) 
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      54 hours ago

      there is for sure a lot of snarky students who believe they are too clever, but it does happen. There are tons of awful teachers out there. I had a science teacher who refused to acknowledge that heat and temperature were no the same

    • Had an argument with a teacher in primary school that a piece of paper itself is a 3D object, whilst the drawings on it are 2D. I pointed to a ream of paper across the room and enquired how it could be that thick if the pieces were 2D. She gave me lunchtime detention.

    •  hihi24522   ( @hihi24522@lemm.ee ) 
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      9 hours ago

      I grew up in a rural Utah town. Here are things I attempted to correct my teachers on while in elementary school with the result of them telling me if I continued to disagree with them I’d be sent to the principals office:

      • Evolution does in fact exist and “monkeys aren’t turning into humans today” because that’s not how evolution works.
      • There are different methods for multiplying numbers (lattice)
      • The amount of protons in an atom is equal to the number of electrons not neutrons. Yes for lighter elements they can be the same but isotopes are a thing (yes this actually happened and the next day we watched a bill nye that said exactly what I was saying. Of course bringing up the fact I was right and she was wrong was not a wise course of action.)
      • If the earth was a few feet closer to the sun we would not die. The earth actually is closer and further throughout the year on the scale of a few million miles. (Asserting that this was also not proof of god’s existence was similarly not a wise thing for elementary me to do)
      • “Foot zoning” has been debunked and you should tell people to see a real doctor when they feel sick
      • Those white homeopathic medicine pills don’t do anything
      • If we know how disease spreads and it’s due to human action/choices then it’s not gods punishment because he couldn’t control the spread unless he controls those people.

      I’m sure there were more seeing as I frequently had to “pull a card” in nearly every class and most times had no idea why what I said was wrong. There were definitely some on global warming but I don’t remember the specifics.

      Anyway, it is almost certain that I would argue some things that were wrong, after all, I was like < 12yo and surrounded by people who would constantly tell me the encyclopedias I read were wrong (I didn’t like chapter books and encyclopedias had pictures) but even then, there still definitely were things I was and still am right about.

      And it probably would have been better for my mental health growing up if I hadn’t thought “wow if all these adults believe this thing then it must be true and I must just be an idiot” No past me, you were right, they were wrong. Essential oils are bullshit and definitely don’t cure cancer, animals do feel pain and deserve to be treated with respect, and yes the cult you were raised in makes no sense whatsoever. Basically the entirety of your hometown, and most of your family members are just delusional. You’re not wrong and they don’t just not believe you because you’re a kid, they just don’t believe in evidence, and there’s no evidence one can use to convince people who don’t believe in evidence.

      Edit: to clarify, this was a legitimate public elementary school not some weird religious institution. Its just the typical education found in small Mormon towns in Utah.

      • And it probably would have been better for my mental health growing up if I hadn’t thought “wow if all these adults believe this thing then it must be true and I must just be an idiot” […] Basically the entirety of your hometown, and most of your family members are just delusional. You’re not wrong and they don’t just not believe you because you’re a kid, they just don’t believe in evidence, and there’s no evidence one can use to convince people who don’t believe in evidence.

        for me, the thought was: ‘wow, these are the people who get to have power over me? and they use that power to actively limit my potential and freedom of association? these are the people who keep clawing me away from independence, because they think they know better what’s good for me?’

        it made ageist remarks — particularly the sexist ones — go from irritating to infuriating. disappointment, anger and deep depression, that these people are allowed to have any responsibility at all.

    • when you have an AuDHD student who skips lunch every day to read and work in the library, and all the teachers are conspiracy-thinking fundamentalist yokels who: haven’t studied anything in over two decades; only became teachers so they could have power over children; regurgitate superstitions, fakelore and urban legends; and have no concept of information/media literacy — then it’s very possible to be smarter than your teachers and get regularly put in detention for pointing it out.

      their diplomas would’ve been better used as toiletpaper.

    •  TehPers   ( @TehPers@beehaw.org ) 
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      1611 hours ago

      Someone I know failed an algebra exam for using calculus to get the vertex of a parabola. It’d be one thing if the reason was that it wasn’t a method that was taught yet, but the teacher straight up didn’t know any calculus and failed them by saying it was nonsense.

  • … Okay, sorry if this is off-tone but I really wanna see more adults shining their inner cuteness and carrying around plushies >:3 Among whatever other “inappropriate” things they wanna show. I saw someone outside who had a tail and damn near jumped out the window to go squee at them 😅 Super cool.

    Maybe I’ll start carrying a plushie around 🤔 At least in my purse or something. … Oh wait, I’m trans. I might get shot for that 🤔 Probably worth it. 🐭👍