Mathematics Mad Cow

My son has started school and is quickly settling into a routine. He's already gotten into a kerfuffle with his geometry teacher though.

He tends to have "Open Mouth - Insert Foot" disease. I think it is related to "Mad Cow", however I could be mistaken. Must be a genetic thing.

When something hits his brain it tends to come spewing out of his mouth. Now it isn't necessarily a bad thing. He doesn't mean to come across as a know-it-all or anything. He doesn't intend to offend, but sometimes his teachers don't like having their errors pointed out to them in front of the whole class.

I guess it comes from having a grandpa who is a college mathematics instructor.

The teacher gave an incorrect definition for a theorem in relation to the problem. My son happened to be absolutely certain of that particular definition and questioned the instructor, who proceeded to harrumph (according to my son) it away and ignore him. One thing about my son, when he does actually take the time to speak up, he's usually very confident of his answer. So he went a step further, looked up the definition and proceeded to read it to the instructor, who didn't take kindly to it at all.

My son was fuming when I arrived home from work. Just to make him feel better, we called my father to ensure that there hadn't been a misunderstanding. Nope - no misunderstanding. My son was right.

Just because he was right didn't make what he did completely appropriate. I told my son that he needs to learn to temper himself in those situations, to not be afraid to question those in authority (with respect), but to leave it alone if the teacher doesn't respond to the question or point. Then after class it is 100% appropriate to talk with the teacher about it one on one. Teachers are human too. They can make mistakes, and like the rest of us probably don't appreciate having it pointed out in front of the entire class.

Yes, my son was okay to ask for clarification on the issue. But he should have then left it alone until they could discuss it in private. That way he could save the teacher a bit of his dignity.

He could also demonstrate tact and something else he greatly desires - his maturity.

With great intelligence comes great responsibility.