I remember distinctly when the private school she worked for moved her off of geography and into science on the basis that all she had to do was teach out of the textbook, so what was the worst that could happen. She came home one day and asked me, "Why is the sky red around the sun at sunset then, come on - you know everything."
I was 14 and love the Usborne books, and so could explain about the thickness of the atmosphere we view the sun through when it's overhead versus the thickness when we look at the horizon, and about water molecules scattering light, and how the classic experiment to demonstrate it involved milk and torches.
She listened baffled and I could tell she'd tuned out, and so I asked her, "Why?"
She laughed; "Oh, some kid in class asked me, so I just made some stuff up, he'll never know!"
She taught me in her way, I think it's safe to say. (c:
My parents were very good about this stuff - we had encyclopedias and dictionaries in the house for as long as I can remember (including a wonderful set of illustrated encyclopedias published in around the 1950s with lots of those glossy, slightly blurred technicolour illustrations you got then), and the 'Ask Me Why' books too. So the response to a question my parents couldn't answer was always, "I don't know - let's look it up!"
I had experience at school of teachers who would refuse to admit they didn't know the answer to something, though, and would either talk around it, give a madeup answer, or tell a child off for asking a 'stupid question'.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-01-16 12:24 pm (UTC)I remember distinctly when the private school she worked for moved her off of geography and into science on the basis that all she had to do was teach out of the textbook, so what was the worst that could happen. She came home one day and asked me, "Why is the sky red around the sun at sunset then, come on - you know everything."
I was 14 and love the Usborne books, and so could explain about the thickness of the atmosphere we view the sun through when it's overhead versus the thickness when we look at the horizon, and about water molecules scattering light, and how the classic experiment to demonstrate it involved milk and torches.
She listened baffled and I could tell she'd tuned out, and so I asked her, "Why?"
She laughed; "Oh, some kid in class asked me, so I just made some stuff up, he'll never know!"
She taught me in her way, I think it's safe to say. (c:
no subject
Date: 2009-01-16 01:04 pm (UTC)My parents were very good about this stuff - we had encyclopedias and dictionaries in the house for as long as I can remember (including a wonderful set of illustrated encyclopedias published in around the 1950s with lots of those glossy, slightly blurred technicolour illustrations you got then), and the 'Ask Me Why' books too. So the response to a question my parents couldn't answer was always, "I don't know - let's look it up!"
I had experience at school of teachers who would refuse to admit they didn't know the answer to something, though, and would either talk around it, give a madeup answer, or tell a child off for asking a 'stupid question'.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-16 04:17 pm (UTC)GAH!