My day at school

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wannabeagunsmith

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So, I go to a public high school. Today, a new book for us to read in english called Fallen Angles. It is an anti-Vietnam War book, no surprise, being as we have a very liberal school and this isn't the first bit of indoctrination we have received. Anyhow, so before we read the book my teacher deciedes to go on a bit of a political rant about the war that happened decades ago basically saying America is stupid for wanting to stop the spread of communism and that if the people of Vietnam wanted it, who were we to try and stop them (never mind the fact that the people of the south didn't want it at all for obvious reasons)! This isn't the end however, and soon it was time to go over 'military terms' that we would happen across in the book. So he starts talking about the weapons of 'nam and then he gets to the M-16. He says, in his words, "the M16 is an assault rifle that fires semi-automatically, which means that if you hold down the trigger, bullets will keep firing until the clip is empty." SO I raised my hand to try and set him straight but he IGNORED me and went on to the next item, which was 'clip'. Well as you can guess, it should have been phrased MAGAZINE but to hell with it I suppose. Anyhow, that was my day. I am really glad I have autoshop for the last half of the day so I don't have to deal with their crap all day long. I am not looking forward to the future when my classmates run the country..that is for sure.
 
I'm not sure why, but I must tell this story.
I had a Vietnam vet for an English teacher when I was in 8th or 9th grade.
He was one of those who might not have returned in 100% condition. I liked him, and trusted him very much.
He once told us, and I'll never forget this, that the M-16 was as powerful as a bulldozer. If you got hit by it only on a finger, it would knock you down, or rip your arm off.

I was so impressed by this fact, that I had to relate it to my Father.
My father asked me: if you had your finger run into by a bulldozer, do you think you would fall down?
Of course I answered no.

I have often wondered why he told us that.
 
I took a summer college class titled History of Vietnam Conflict. I figured it would be interesting. It was, only not for the reason I figured.

It was taught by a commie red professor who loved the viet cong and hated the USA. Everything USA was bad. The books were interesting, but everytime he opened his mouth is was anti-USA.

There was guy in the class who had family in the military or had family that served in vietnam and it often spiraled down to a shouting match or back and forth insults. He would call the professor a communist and viet cong sympathizer. :p:p

Hang in their. It will be over soon. Maybe you can go to college and be a teacher and do a better job.
 
A wonderful (?) film on the subject of the Vietnam War is entitled Hearts and Minds that was required viewing for a sociology (my major) class at the Univ. of Calif. at Santa Barbara circa 1974-75.

It was a very effective anti-war propaganda piece for a fatally-impressionable doofus like me.

That was a day at school for me.
 
The mature thing to do is to write a note to your teacher explaining that his lecture was fascinating and in fact, inspired you to find out more about what he was talking about. Having done so, you learned that some of his facts were misstated. You then provide the correct facts with the understanding that he would want to clarify to the class what he said for the sake of historical accuracy. Make sure though that if you call him out on his mistakes, you are correct in your facts. He probably won't like it or correct it but he probably will be more inclined to check his facts the next time knowing that someone is paying attention.

Be polite and make sure your note is properly written and punctually correct. Most important be right with your facts. and be able to defend your facts with sources.
 
BBQJOE said:
I'm not sure why, but I must tell this story.
I had a Vietnam vet for an English teacher when I was in 8th or 9th grade.
He was one of those who might not have returned in 100% condition. I liked him, and trusted him very much.
He once told us, and I'll never forget this, that the M-16 was as powerful as a bulldozer. If you got hit by it only on a finger, it would knock you down, or rip your arm off.

I was so impressed by this fact, that I had to relate it to my Father.
My father asked me: if you had your finger run into by a bulldozer, do you think you would fall down?
Of course I answered no.

I have often wondered why he told us that.
Click to expand...
Ah, grasshopper! It was wise proverb, "stay out of way of bulldozers".
 
Frankly, a burn based on the differences between a clip and a magazine and semi-automatic action and fully-automatic action would have been boring and irrelevant in a high school history class. You would have been better off engaging in a discussion of whether or not the intervention in Vietnam's civil war was a good idea in theory and execution. If your teacher does not want to have such a discussion, then you might have a grievance.
 
Somewhat-related story: Back in the mid-60's I had a 5th grade 'science' teacher who, while describing the properties of plain cotton one day, claimed that it was the stuff used in bulletproof vests, and that a cotton ball would stop a bullet! I was in the Junior Rifle Club at the time and I told him in front of the whole class he was dead wrong, but he insisted that he was correct. So I took a few cotton balls to my regular Monday night club shoot, stuck one on the target hanger, reeled it out 50', and shot a hole through it with my .22. Took it to show him the next day and he insisted that I must have 'drilled' the hole! He simply wouldn't get off his crazy notion that plain cotton was bulletproof. There is an excellent book on this topic, "Lies My Teacher Told Me". I can't recall the author but it is a great read for those so inclined...
 
James W. Loewen, and the book dealt more with matters that the Texas Board of Education would find disagreeable than with with whether cotton balls could stop .22 bullets. :)
 
Some teachers -ok, many teachers- live in a special world where their notions are seldom challenged. If they think it, they are right.
 
It's easy for teachers to live in a world where their notions don't get challenged if no one challenges them. And I'm not talking about the difference between a clip and a magazine.
 
There was a science teacher at my high school that firmly believed the moon landing was staged, and his evidence was that you can't see the flag from Earth...

Fortunately, my history teachers were fairly bright. My US History teacher probably would have loved a discussion on weapons terminology.

It takes all kinds, I guess.
 
This reminded my of a teacher I had in the 5th or 6th grade, in 1952 +/- a year. He was a WWII vet and frequently told some "mild" war stories. The one thing that has always stuck in my mind was when he spent most of one day teaching us the mechanics of the 30 cal machine gun. Somehow, I don't that would fly today.
 
Unfortunately, the teaching profession generally seems to attract some of the least competent people. As the saying goes, "Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach." That said, I found out very early in my academic career that's there's no percentage in correcting teachers. Just parrot the misinformation, get your grades, and move on. It's a game of "ticket punching" and has very little to do with real life. You get your revenge when you're making 2-3 times more money than your former teachers.
 
Honest John said:
Frankly, a burn based on the differences between a clip and a magazine and semi-automatic action and fully-automatic action would have been boring and irrelevant in a high school history class. You would have been better off engaging in a discussion of whether or not the intervention in Vietnam's civil war was a good idea in theory and execution. If your teacher does not want to have such a discussion, then you might have a grievance.
Click to expand...

I wasn't allowed too open my mouth in history class. Looking at the way kids are now they do not want thinkers. She told my classmate that his question was along the lines of "the chicken and the egg." That no-one could really answer it. So I raised my hand answered her quotation and asked her to answer his. Then I got kicked out because I disrupted her class with the question. Welcome to the liberal agenda.
 
"Unfortunately, the teaching profession generally seems to attract some of the least competent people."

Fortunately, that's a truly ignorant supposition.
 
Let's see, about 7 years ago I also had to read this book in a public high school for my sophomore English class. The day that we started it my teacher brought her father (a Vietnam veteran) in to tell a couple stories that were similar to the themes that we would encounter in the book.

About halfway through one of his stories our principal (a very liberal woman) walked in and cut him off and told our teacher that he had to leave. Fortunately, our teacher knew this would happen and had already invited the district superintendent (another Vietnam veteran) to sit-in on the class. He stood up and told our principal that she needed to take a seat because there were lessons being told that she also needed to learn. I'm also sure that they had a nice chat afterwards ;)
 
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