I think this was posted here before, but it stills amazes me each time I read it.

Playing devil's advocate is one thing; this clown is perfect for the role of Satan's pedagog.

I have to think this is fake. Not that there aren't many, many high school teachers who express this kind of sentiment. I think few of them would be dumb enough to spell it out in writing.

Crikey Moses. I wish we knew what the parents' response was. Presumably something along the lines of 'Dear Headmaster, this teacher needs to be sacked'.

He didn't say it was longer, he said its length was greater. .6 miles is WAAAY better than 1 mile; why do you think so many countries measure distance in units of six-tenths of a mile?

Ugh. I got detention for something like this, too. And had to write "I will not be sassy" 100 times.

My friend teaches 3rd grade now, and I'm amazed at how young and ignorant the other teachers are. Mostly their in their early 20s and haven't exactly been exposed to the world. But when you're 8 they're still older and wiser.

Eid, write out 100 times "I will not be a smartarse"

Heh. "Sassy." I love it.

What gets me is she said he was correct, but would be better off just accepting her teachings. How could she not be too embarrassed to write this letter?

I made the mistake of piping up when a professor was blatantly wrong once. Creative writing, the prof said that copyright was 28 years plus renewal -- which was true when he went to school!

We never got along after that. Of course we never got along before so...

s_r, I want you to write out "I will be sassy" 100 times. In a card. Which you then send to me. And then, I dunno, I can think about you being sassy. Rowr.

Maybe this is for real, but a few things seem odd about it. First of all, "Alex would be better off simply accepting my teachings without resistance" is right over the top, of course.

Also, the teacher says "when I insisted that the length of one kilometer was greater than that of one mile." Why would the teacher phrase it this way? It seems to me that the teacher would just point out the child's bad behavior without focusing on his own stupid mistake. As the teacher, wouldn't you be much more likely to write something like, "I've given Alex detention for being rude and disrespectful while pointing out an error"? I certainly wouldn't emphasize that I "insisted" on something that was incorrect.

Improper usage of "curriculum" is a mistake that a teacher is unlikely to make... unless he is saying that Alex tried to get the students to challenge the entire course set, which doesn't make much sense - but even if he did, the teacher wouldn't be likely to refer to it as "my curriculum" since teachers aren't responsible for curricula.

There's no school letterhead, which there would be, but let's say it was cut off before scanning; what is the mechanism by which the mother is to assure the teacher that she received the note? It seems to me that it should contain a request for her to sign the note, or call the teacher or something. It seems to me that the school would have special forms for this sort of thing, and a particular process for conveying the information to the parents. I'd like to hear from pips or mrs. doohickie about this.

Yeah, true life is often strange, and perhaps this is genuine... but I have my doubts.