Your child brings this letter home from school...

[Anonymous]

Dear Mr. Doe,

You may already know this, but in case your son has neglected to tell you, I am assigning him to detention for one hour this Friday, April 22nd. The reason is as follows:

Alex consistently defied me. During class he contradicted me numerous time when I insisted that the length of one kilometer was greater than that of one mile. Every other student in class accepted my lesson without argument, but your son refused to believe what I told him, throwing such rebuttals as, "You're lying to the class," and commanding other students to challenge my curriculum.

Although he was correct, your son's actions show a blatant disregard for authority, and a complete lack of respect for his school. In the future, your son would be better off simply accepting my teachings without resistance.

Please see to it that your son understand this.

Sarah Derpkins

What do you do?

[Xenland]

Sounds familair, i had a teacher appoligize once for giving me detention back in 4th grade. She was getting all pissy about why everyone doesn't do there home work and asked the first 4 people see layed eyes on and asked why they didn't do there home work... the first two replied with serious ones like I didn't have time becuase of baseball practice, or somthing like that; The 3rd one said "My dog ate it" to be funny of course i was the 4th and Honest Xenland Me i replied with "I just don't feel like" and she point towards the door and said GET OUT OF MY CLASS, i got a detention and after school detention... later that day the teacher appoligize becuase she realized i was the only honest one....

I say congradulate the kid for showing authority of "The Truth"

[TiagoTiago]

Congratulate your kid, pick him up early before detention to get some icecream or somthing; and write to the school asking for some punishment for the teacher for trying to teach the students wrong things and trying to punish students for his/her own mistakes.

[Maged]

What do you do?

Send it to Fox News. They eat that stuff right up.

[myrkul]

Congratulate the child (I see a trend here)

Have him do his time, and then take him out to Pizza. While he's in detention, he is not to do any homework, or anything remotely 'productive'. If he can sneek a book or something in, even better.

[LastBattle]

Mock the teacher for being called "Mrs.DERPkins"

Congratulate the kid

[Sannyasi]

i'd keep him home from school that day and lock him inside the closet all day with the two ferrets- then call the school telling them it'd been dealt with.

[The Script]

What do you do?

Send it to Fox News. They eat that stuff right up.

I like how Atlas is on a "it's for the kids" kick. It's amusing to watch the debates that happen.

[bitfreak!]

What do you do?

Firstly I try to figure out if my kid is trying to fool me with some stupid prank letter. If it turns out to be real then I would get into contact with the school and demand to know why they are teaching my son false information. Then I would continue on with some massive rant about thinking for ones self and learning to question everything you are told, even if it comes from so called authoritative figures. It's a good thing I don't want kids.

[Alex Beckenham]

Just because you're right, doesn't mean arguing with the teacher during class is the wisest thing.

What would be so bad about knowing you're right, but not saying anything?

I'd tell the kid that he's right, but that there's a time and place for arguing one's case and it's not always best to do it immediately, and so publicly.

[Yeti]

Send it to Fox News. They eat that stuff right up.

Although they will probably badmouth the teacher as being Anti-american for using kilometers in the first place. Real americans should not learn about these things or the terrorists will have already won.

[onesalt]

You do realise the letter that this entire thing comes from was photoshopped to show a teacher in bad light, correct?

[giantdragon]

Although he was correct, your son's actions show a blatant disregard for authority, and a complete lack of respect for his school. In the future, your son would be better off simply accepting my teachings without resistance.

It is absolutely ridiculous! Why he need to accept bullshit just because his teacher has fiat authority? Answer hardly to this letter. These people can cause science collapse in your country, think about future!

P.S. If it would happened in Latvia, this teacher will be immediately fired and she probably lost qualification (that mean never able to work as teacher again).

[Bimmerhead]

I would get into contact with the school and demand to know why they are teaching my son false information.

You do realize you'd be calling your (public) school every other day, right? 

[bitfreak!]

I would get into contact with the school and demand to know why they are teaching my son false information.

You do realize you'd be calling your (public) school every other day, right? 

Hahaha. Yeah...that's one of the reasons I don't want kids. I don't have time to home school a child, although it would probably be kind of fun for a while...so I'd have to send the kid to a public school (since private schools have proven to be a waste of money imo and full of rich kids who take everything for granted). I've thought about becoming a teacher too, but I don't think I would last very long.

[Rassah]

I would question the authenticity of the letter, and contact the teachers to verify it first. Teachers usually know what the hell they're talking about, usually having earned a teaching degree and have studied the topic they were hired to teach in depth.

[JBDive]

Professor in a "Social Deviance" class went off one day:

"So how many of you go to Bar X every Friday night? <show of hands> Considering this city is only about 30% study body and by those hands I see only about 50% of those go to Bar X then about 15% or less of the General Populace feels going and getting drunk at Bar X is normal behavior so that makes those 15%, and you that raised your hands, social deviants.

I do however thank you deviants because by being deviants you keep all the cops busy on that side of town so I can take my Porsche out and speed around the mountain roads."

<ME> Professor there are only about 20-30 Porsche in this town, of those your the only one I know that waits for Friday night to go racing around, doesn't that make you the deviant?"

Class laughed, Professor side stepped, I got a C.

Sometimes planning your attack for a later date is the better solution, timing is everything they say? Hey I had an @##hole teacher in HS and I let him be that butt the entire year but when he tried to give me a D at the end of the year I had every test, every graded homework assignment and my entire family met with administration showing the work was completed the grade should be a B- and didn't the Administration find it interesting all the girls in the class got A's? That teacher was not there the next year.

[enmaku]

Just because you're right, doesn't mean arguing with the teacher during class is the wisest thing.

What would be so bad about knowing you're right, but not saying anything?

I'd tell the kid that he's right, but that there's a time and place for arguing one's case and it's not always best to do it immediately, and so publicly.

What would be so good about allowing an entire classroom full of kids to be taught something incorrect when it could have been stopped? I've seen this "letter home" before, it's on snopes and it's gone around in emails a lot. I don't remember whether snopes said it was verifiable or not but whether this instance is true or not, I know firsthand that this sort of thing happens.

I've actually done this, though I didn't get punished for it. I almost got punished for it once (9th grade biology class) but I cordially reminded the instructor that science isn't about respectfulness or minding elders, it's about finding the answers that mesh best with observed reality and that part of the scientific process is publishing your work for others to point out when you've made a dumb mistake because we ALL make dumb mistakes.

It's hard for a science instructor to punish you for following the scientific process rigorously.

[Thanak]

I'd explain my kid my perception of the situation...

School is not made to learn stuff, it's to get a diploma to give you access to better job in the future.

It's important to know the truth, but don't lose track of your objectives. Learn to play the game and get good grade. When you have your diploma in hand, then fell free to tell your teacher what a moron he really is.

I'm more a Peter Keating than a Howard Roark

[JBDive]

I'd explain my kid my perception of the situation...

School is not made to learn stuff, it's to get a diploma to give you access to better job in the future.

It's important to know the truth, but don't lose track of your objectives. Learn to play the game and get good grade. When you have your diploma in hand, then fell free to tell your teacher what a moron he really is.

I'm more a Peter Keating than a Howard Roark

Actually I perceive High School as the Slave Indoctrination Camp. We will give you enough education so you can be of service to the powers that run this country but not so educated that you question their right to rule. While you get that education you are totally indoctrinated into what is permissible, what is expected, and what is not.

College is little better.

Shut Up Slave....