Christopher Mackay's Blog

There was a thread on Reddit.com recently titled “What’s the dumbest thing a teacher has ever said to you?”

I don’t know if this qualifies as dumb, exactly, but it was wrong and it has stuck with me for a long time.

When I was in second grade, I noticed the moon up in the sky as I was walking to school in the morning, probably around 8:45 am.

With a child’s knowledge of astronomy, that didn’t fit with what I thought I knew — that the sun was up in the daytime and the moon only came out at night.

Excited by my ‘discovery’, I told my second-grade teacher about it when I got to class, and she proceeded to tell me — in front of everyone — that I was wrong and that everyone knew the moon only came out at night.

I was 7. I wasn’t a rebel, and I wasn’t about to tell her to look out the window. I was taught that teachers were authority figures, and that they were to be respected.

Looking back on it, I suppose she was just a kid herself; probably new to teaching, overwhelmed by having 30-some 6- & 7-year-olds to deal with, maybe not enough time for coffee that day, and who-knows-what kinds of problems outside of the classroom, but the way she dismissed me out-of-hand was wrong.

While it may have seemed like an easy way to deal with a question that didn’t line up with the day’s lesson plan, or maybe made her feel insecure about her lack of astronomy knowledge (I have lectured in introductory astronomy at the undergraduate level — trust me, even most educated people have a very limited grasp of astronomy), it was wrong.

She no doubt forgot it immediately, if not sooner. It was more than 30 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday.

It wasn’t a crushing humiliation; I wasn’t scarred by it. I don’t remember the other kids teasing me about it or even mentioning it.

‘Teachers pretend to know more than they do’ was the most important thing I learned in second grade, though. I guess she did me a big favour.

CBC News – New Brunswick – Mansbridge named Mount Allison University chancellor.

This morning Mount Allison held a gathering at the Wallace McCain Student Centre to announce Peter Mansbridge’s replacement of John Bragg as chancellor.