I heard about this situation from some relatives and I need to share some thoughts.
Young boy A, fourth grader, lives next to relative B. In school last week boy A’s class was talking about cities in geography and his teacher, C, tells the class that New York City is the biggest city in the United States. Boy A raises his hand and says “Actually, that’s only by population. By area it’s really Jacksonville Florida.” To which teacher C responds “No, you’re wrong. Sit down.”
“But..”
“End of discussion.”
Now, as it turns out, he’s right as long as you’re talking about the contiguous 48. And I can understand the teacher cutting him off as this kid can be a bit of a handful and a trouble-maker at times.
So boy A goes home, looks up the facts online, prints out some pages proving him right, and brings it to school the next day. When he shows his references to teacher C she takes the papers, rips them up, throws them in the trash, and tells him the subject is not up for discussion.
What the hell kind of learning environment is that? Okay, so his behavior lost him the benefit of the doubt on day 1, but on day 2 when the kid comes back with evidence don’t rip up his work and continue to claim he’s wrong!