The Teacher

When did Big T's teacher get more credibility than me? It all started innocently enough when his teacher asked the kids to not bring in backpacks due to the lack of space to store them. So unless you rode the bus or went to daycare, no bag was needed. That was fine. I told him one day that if he wanted to take his bag he could. His reply was that Mr. Riley says we don't bring backpbacks unless we ride the bus or go to daycare. So fine. I'm good with that, he listens to his teacher and all is right with the world.

But he came home with some of his math homework the other day and had two questions marked wrong that I was pretty sure were right. They had to do with patterns and circling the correct answer. The two options were ABAB or AABA. Simple enough right? Only two options. He circled ABAB, which was right. The other question was similar, two options ABCABC or AABAAB, only one of two options could be right. He circled ABCABC which was right. These questions were marked wrong because he said Mr. Riley said the answer to the first one was to circle AB and not the ABAB, even though there were four shapes and only two options. The second one was marked wrong because he circled both ABCABC instead of just one ABC, even though, again, there were six shapes in the pattern. The two options of ABAB and AABA were seperated by a space with no space between the four letters. I told Big T that those were the right answers that he circled, and he was adament that he got them wrong because Mr. Riley said so. That he was only supposed to circle the first part of the pattern and not the whole thing. I tried to convince him that the answers were correct the way he originally answered them, but to no avail. Now I have access to the teacher editions of all his books due to my job. I checked the official answer sheet this morning, and lo and behold, I was right, and so was Big T, the first time. I now have proof that his teacher marked these two answers wrong when they shouldn't have been. Well, actually Big T marked them wrong because they correct their own papers. But I won't say anything. Why? Well, he's only in first grade and I don't feel that it's really worth fighting about. You gotta pick your battles, right? And besides, now I know. And knowing is half the battle.