"JohnH" wrote in message
news
Also, keep in mind that teachers are very time constrained. They must
cover
a given amount of material to satisfy the teaching objectives given
them.
If there were enough time to go off on any and all tangents, I'd spend a
lot of time talking about motorcycles. The kids would love it.

Actually, that was his reason, although I don't really buy it. You've
heard
the term "teaching to the test", I'm sure. This teacher's running out of
time. Too bad, because the kids asked a good question which was directly
related to what was being taught. Fortunately, my son is becoming obsessed
with physics. He found, and dusted off my copy of "The Dancing Wu Li
Masters". He promised to explain the mirror experiment to me by dinnertime
tomorrow.


Sounds like the teacher is doing a great job. She provided enough info to
get your kid interested enough to look it up himself.

Yes, she's running out of time. Final exams are coming, and maybe the
SAT's, or state Standards of Learning tests. It would not be fair to the
kids to make them responsible for material that wasn't covered in the
classroom because the teacher went off on too many tangents.

My 10th & 12th grade bio teacher handled "excess" questions nicely.
Sometimes, so many kids wanted more info, she'd quickly jot the questions on
the blackboard, and then, by show of hands, see who wanted to return after
school. There were days she'd have almost 50 kids (two classes) coming back.
Great teacher.