/*  Playing Dumb */  By: Screamer Chaotix

	In past weeks I’ve found myself ranting on and on about my teacher’s utter lack of understanding when it comes to the Linux operating system.  And while I would never dedicate an entire article to just that, it did bring up an issue that affects a large number of people, especially students.  I’m referring to the more gifted students, and by gifted I mean those who simply understand a particular topic more than the teacher.  For the purposes of this article, I’ll call it “playing dumb.”  In reality, it means behaving a certain way so as not to offend the educator who is generally assumed to know more than the student.
	Playing dumb occurs when you know the right answer to a question, but the teacher does not.  They’ll put something on the board, state it as fact, and yet you know it’s incorrect.  But wait, you’re the student…how could you know more than the teacher?  Even worse, should you point it out?  This person does, after all, possess the ability to change your grade, do you really want to humiliate him/her?
	You sit there, perfectly quiet, hoping they’ll realize their mistake.  No luck, they continue on and leave the wrong answer on the board.  Do you say something?  Do you let the truth be known?  After a while you give in to temptation and raise your hand.  The teacher points to you, and you point to their error.  They look, seeing their mistake, but rather than acknowledge their mistake they shoot back another question.  “What if you were root?”  “Are you sure that’s the only way?”  “What if you have a different version of Linux?”  Anything to take the heat off them, because they’re the teacher, and they must be right.
	You don’t buy a word of it, they made a mistake and that’s that.  Still, you’re the student, and what does that mean?  It means you have to play dumb.  You have to pretend like you’re learning something, when in reality, you want to ring the teacher’s neck because they won’t admit to a mistake.  You nod, smile, appear to be considering his mad ravings, but then come down to one inescapable fact.  You have to put an end to this, you have to stop bullshitting and put him in his place.  Speaking firmly, you point to his mistake and tell him the right answer.  He’s shocked that you didn’t play along with his ramblings, you actually understand the subject so well that you don’t get confused when he tries to throw you off course.  
	It’s not a pleasant experience.  The teacher now has to either lie outright, or admit he screwed up.  In my case, it’s usually neither.  It’s either blame the book, or pretend like both answers (yours and his) are correct.  Once again, you don’t want to curse him out and spout off about how wrong he is, so what do you do?  That’s right…you play dumb.  You nod, say “oooh” as though you finally understand something, and give him the satisfaction of “educating” you.  He moves on, you let it go, and get ready for his next mistake.
	Are there alternatives to just accepting the teacher’s word as law?  Yes, but they’re even more unpleasant than calling him out.  You can go to someone higher up, tell them the teacher doesn’t know anything about this subject, and insist that the answers he marked as wrong (when they were really right) be corrected.  Naturally the school will hear your concern, and may even speak with the teacher, but let’s be serious.  Who will they believe?  The kid who claims to know about computers, or the teacher who’s a “trained professional.”  Worse yet, regardless of what happens you’ll be labeled for the rest of your days.  The teacher will know you tried to get him in trouble, that should make things at school a lot easier for you….
	And now, I’d like to do something I don’t normally do.  I’m going to do nothing but rant.  No facts, no evidence, just good old fashion bitching.  If you don’t care to listen, thanks for reading the article.
	Playing dumb is something no student should have to do.  Pretending not to know the right answer just so the teacher feels better about his/herself hurts no one but yourself (and the rest of the class actually).  Teachers should not be teaching subjects they know nothing about, or if they do, acknowledge that they’re only staying one chapter ahead of the class.  Of course that will make many demand their money back, so it won’t happen.  If you know the answer and you’re certain you’re right, say it!  Say it loud and say it proud, don’t worry about the teacher’s feelings because they’re in the wrong.  They’re the ones that are feeding the students in that class bullshit, and that can’t be tolerated.  Be polite, there’s no reason to spout off, but let the teacher know when something is wrong.
	Will you?  Kind of doubtful, because you would have to do it every single time.  In my case, that means I’d have to correct the teacher about ten times a week.  Do I really want to put that much heat on myself?  Even if I play dumb, act as though I’m asking a question and not just coming out and telling the teacher he’s wrong, he’s going to take offense.  How dare a student think he knows more than the teacher, right?  The nerve of him, who the hell does he think he is?
	This is the situation I’m now facing.  Every class he makes a mistake on something, and every class I grind my teeth and hope it doesn’t show up on a test.  Only I don’t know how long I can go on like this, constantly dropping my head as he explains something completely bogus, or dances around my comments so as not to look stupid.  That’s right, my teacher won’t admit fault, he’ll try to confuse you…or smile as though you did something wrong.  Once when he had a command on the board, a command I knew would not work, I experimented before I said anything to him.  I tried the command, and instead of doing what he said it would, it wiped out the files in my current directory.  When I confronted him on it, what did he do?  He smiled, chuckled a little, and probably thought “aha, stupid kid, what did you do now?”  Fortunately I showed him his command was wrong, explained what the right one would be, and even had another person in the class back me up.  What did the teacher have to say then?  I can’t quote, but I’ll do my best.  “Why did you trust my answer?  Just because it’s on the board you think it’s right?”
	More bullshit.  
	At this point I’ve declared war.  If he wants to mark my answers wrong and laugh at me for trying something he said would work, then I’m going to be pointing out his every flaw from here on out.  If he wants to label me a smartass, fine.  You can’t argue with facts, and truth is a great thing to have on your side.  

- screamer