Many years ago, when I started out on my teaching career, I had the pleasure of working in one of the best science departments in the Province. Lets clarify: the teaching wasn't necessarily that good, but the craic was mighty! A pack of practical jokers you never met the like of.
I remember marking piles of exam papers, and coming across one paper where I became seriously disillusioned, wondering had the student even turned up to class, never mind taken anything I said in. For example,
question: whats the difference between a conductor and an insulator?
answer: the conductor collects the fares on buses and the insulator doesnt
question: what is a current?
answer: a thing you put in a bun that is not a raisin
... and so on and so forth. You get the general picture. Anyway, I marked the entire paper and even started to total it before realising there was something very suspicious going on, and it was only a few days later that I was able to establish that it had been filled in by one of my highly esteemed colleagues and left for me as a joke.
Last week I has the joy of bumping into the same un-named ex-colleague in a school I was subbing in. Even better, I had the delight of teaching his classes. He very generously ran me through the lessons he had (allegedly) planned for that day and explained what he would like me to do. The topic was the Solar System and the general idea was that the children would do some research and make short notes on each of the planets.
Easy.
Until he says 'Oh, and don't forget to tell the class that Pluto has been downgraded and is no longer a planet'
Yeah, right!! So I laugh knowingly and say theres no way he's catching me out with that one - I'm not going to stand up in front of his class and tell them that Pluto has been downgraded and make an eejit of myself.
'No, seriously ... Pluto has been downgraded. They need to know that for the exam.'
Sure, and Goofy's been upgraded in his place no doubt. I was having none of it, much to his great amusement and mild concern.
Hmmm...
The rest of the lesson actually went extremely well, I have to say!
1 comment:
As the un-named ex-colleague I feel I have to comment on your Pluto blog. I don’t think you are taking the situation seriously. The fact that Pluto has been downgraded to a dwarf planet has far-reaching implications for the teaching of science.
First, it is going to cost a fortune to reprint all the textbooks. My department budget does not allow me to replace all the books we use so I will have to Tippex out Pluto from all diagrams of the solar system. Then there is the problem of all the mnemonics generations of science students had to learn to help with the order of the planets - My Very Early Morning Jam Sandwich Usually Needs….now we’ll never know! Or, My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming …what?? Why couldn’t the astronomers have downgraded Mercury or Mars then there would be only one planet starting with “m”?
My pupils feel so strongly about the situation that they are organising a campaign to reinstate Pluto as a planet.
Where will it all end? Today Pluto, tomorrow ex-planet Earth? Just think of the stigma attached to living on a dwarf planet!
Hands off Pluto!
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