Science Teacher Who is Stupid


 I have mentioned that I really liked science and I did a lot of science reading on my own I didn't read the Scientific American but I did give it a real thorough perusal and picture look every month when my uncle sent it to me. I had that great seventh grade science teacher and I had also read several science books and a whole set of World Book Encyclopedias so I always wanted science to be my favorite class and it never was. My teachers were either incompetent, unstable or both and I don't think anything I hadn't already learned on my own was covered in a science class until I was in college. In 9th grade they had a three hour science class which was the holy grail of science nerd ambition but unfortunately the teacher was a moron and I had called him on it too many times. He would say something in an authoritative voice and the other kids would write it down or otherwise validate his authority and I would raise my hand to clarify the position. I would whip out the nerd's sharpest blade, the 'actually'. At the first of the year he would call on me pretty regularly and I would start in, 'Actually, Devils tower is a volcanic formation not an erosive one like plateaus in Southern Utah.' I knew this because it said it in the book that we were supposed to read for the class. In fact it was in the caption of the picture we were looking at on the page he told us to turn to. Even though I pointed out my source and read it after he argued with me he wouldn't admit he was wrong and claimed the book was mistaken. I offered, in a sassy tone, to correct the book for him. He told me we were moving on and that was that. I jumped in several more times in the first couple of weeks in class and he started just telling me he was not interested in my opinion. It was not my opinion it was my well documented fact that I wanted to 'actually' into the discussion. The final straw was when I brought in a box of fossils that my family had found scuba diving and I was showing a knee cap from a mammoth which I described as a patella. My teacher jumped in to add some information and called the bone a PUTT-UH-LA. I had to call him on that so I asked him what he had called it, he repeated and I gave a smart-ass correction and I was invited to take my presentation and leave the class room. I didn't talk to much in class after that but I also didn't bother signing up for three hour science because I figured there was little chance he would select me and be 'actually'd' for three hours a day.