Strange, having children in my life has taught me a different way of teaching than when I was as a student/child.

I would have enjoyed your classes ER.

When I came back I briefly taught at a private school, the kind where people with too much money and no sense send their kids and buy them a diploma because even the Florida school system had given up on these slugs. It was hell, and I had nothing but contempt for them.

I also taught classes as a graduate assistant at the University level, in elementary Astronomy and Fortran programming. I got a few of both types of students there.

Teaching to those who want to learn is a privilege, and a joy. Trying to teach to those who think learning is a chore that I’m trying to impose on them is a nightmare.

Too many kids have come to believe that the teacher is trying to get away with something by teaching them, and its their duty to resist it. I simply have no use for them, or for the parents that let them get that way.

My son and I maintained a magnificent salt water 100 gallon aquarium for five years. We adopted a Huma Huma Trigger fish that grew to be quite large. We imported established coral and sand from the South Pacific.
After careful consideration, I acknowledge your frustration with the student.
Had you been a teacher you would have been a task master. The respect students would have had for you would have been from fear, fairness, consistency and extreme knowledge of the subject at hand.
Had I been a teacher I would have been the laid back one. The respect I would have earned would have been from a different style of teaching altogether.

You and I have different styles of communicating.
We need both.

There may very well be a lot wrong with our schools, but this kid is certainly not shedding any light on any of it.

Maybe these kids did too.

So the teacher’s question isn’t stupid at all. The kid is stupid.

The same goes for the fence question. Its a math problem, an exercise in elementary geometry. Its not about agricultural practice or animal husbandry. The kid obviously missed the point, and apparently, so have you guys.

As far as being crushed into Myrmidons…that’s how I remember high school. The Pledge of Allegiance, the morning homeroom prayers, sports, cheerleaders, majorettes, the marching band, the Big Game. Being popular, cliques, the Prom Committee. Student Council.

The minute I got there I realized they were fucking with my head. It wasn’t until five years later that I realized why.

Maybe I’d do it a little more politely. But how the hell else would you answer that question? The question involves only opinion unless you assume the kid is an expert on aquarium stocking issues, and like the kid says, does any small child want to watch barnacles in action?

I’d be fascinated to know what answer the teacher was actually looking for.

I’m seeing examples on this thread of living young minds being crushed into myrmidons. Sometimes an answer actually does “depend on the livestock.” If I were a teacher I’d be more amused than offended, and I’d be singling out that student for some brain-stretching exercises or projects.

Assuming, of course, the kid actually could answer the perimeter question correctly.