Hacker News Reader

Comment by mavelikara | Hacker News Reader

While I agree with many points the article raised,

  > Well, of course it's true. I just told you.

this is a very dangerous attitude for a teacher to have. Aristotle said that men have more teeth than women, but that does not make it so.

View on HN

My mother is a teacher, and she has several anecdotes about teachers falling into traps like this. My favorite:

Teacher, to parent: "(You need to listen to me.) Who do you think knows your child better? Me, or you!?"

I was not advocating taking the child's word over the teacher's. What I found disturbing, as I explained elsewhere in the thread, is the teacher getting upset by the very act of me asking my child's opinion about the incident at hand.

They're not speaking as a teacher, but as a person with integrity, someone who endeavors to tell only the truth, especially in a situation as grave as the discipline of a child under their watch.

They are human like the rest of us, good and bad. Do not assume integrity simply because of somebodies profession.

I already said the profession wasn't part of the consideration.

Asking the child if what the teacher said is true is seen as an affront on the author's character as a person, not as a teacher, so it's reasonable for them to take offense at the accusation.

It's entirely reasonable not to trust the teacher's authority by default--I'm not challenging that. I'm only defending the author's position on taking offense to being challenged on something that was just said.

Yes, I understand. After all, I am paying for their professional, expert advice about my child and I want to give it due consideration. Nonetheless, I want to give my child a fair chance to explain her side too. If I do not do that, I fear that it will alienate my child from me. So I seek her opinion. Of course, once I hear her side, I will not trust her blindly either.

The very act of doing this seems to irritate the author - which I find very disturbing. Trust, but verify, is the principle here.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com