Okay, today was just not my day to get along with my teachers. I’ve got two stories…
[list][*]In second period, World History, we’ve been discussing the different Chinese dynasties. So, I come in today, and we’re gonna learn about Abraham-based religions from the Middle East, in a totally different time-period. She starts off by asking us, “Why is the Bible a primary source?” I restrained myself from blurting out that it wasn’t, but she continued to explain because they had letters from Jesus, etc. in the Bible, therefore making it a primary source (not quite sure about these letters, but I know that the Bible is not a primary source; it was written several hundred years later after being told by word-of-mouth from when Jesus died). I again restrained myself from asking, but we continue to watch a video continuously quoting different parts of Genesis (it was an A&E production, I think about the Bible), and explaining the life of Abraham. Obviously, the parts in the Bible referring to Abraham are not primary, as I already stated that it was not until ~100 CE that it began to be written down, according to my English teacher.
So, I held back the entire period, and left annoyed, to rant to my friend the next period. In fourth period (computer science), my other friend comes in completely pissed off. He tells me that last week, when we were doing a “frame of reference” activity, he had mentioned that he didn’t believe in a God, and she had responded by patting him on the back, and responding, “I’m sorry.” Today, when she had explained that the Bible was a primary source, he had asked, “So, with that logic, is God a primary source?” Second hand, she replied with something along the lines of “oh, um, yeah, I guess so.” During the course of the video, he couldn’t stand it, and walked out for the restroom for about 20 minutes, and also left for water for about twenty minutes. He was steaming.
My friend also pointed out that on the worksheet she gave us, one of the sources she cited was jesuscult.com. Wow! My dad suggested that the next time she does something like this, I ask her if it’s really appropriate to be here, as God states in the Qaran that all women should wear shawls. I don’t know exactly the quote, so that’s difficult to do, but next time my friend has assured me that he’s going to walk out, and request a conference with the Principal immediately. His parents agree…
I’m just amazed that she would actually do something like that. It was completely tactless, and I had even begun to respect her.
[*]Second, my Alg. II teacher (she doesn’t know English all that well), had a problem on the quiz yesterday. Basically, it had a submarine at point (18, -6500), with the x-axis at sea-level. The question asked for the depth of the submarine, to which I wrote “6,500 ft.” She took off two points, because it should have been negative. Somebody in an earlier period had already argued, so she allowed people who had put the word “below” following their answers to receive credit.
I didn’t do this, as it’s rather silly. According to the Wikipedia, [w]Depth[/w] refers to “the distance from a surface, such as depth of the lake or the depth of frost.” Thus, the depth of the submarine, is 6,500 ft, and -6,500 ft. would be incorrect (you can’t have a negative distance, at least in this context). So, when playing linguistic games, as she did, her answer is technically incorrect. Gah![/list]
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Thanks. 
