/*  Playing Dumb */  By: Screamer Chaotix

	In past weeks Ive found myself ranting on and on about my teachers 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.  Im 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, Ill 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.  Theyll put something on the board, state it as fact, and yet you know its incorrect.  But wait, youre the studenthow 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 theyll 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 thats the only way?  What if you have a different version of Linux?  Anything to take the heat off them, because theyre the teacher, and they must be right.
	You dont buy a word of it, they made a mistake and thats that.  Still, youre the student, and what does that mean?  It means you have to play dumb.  You have to pretend like youre learning something, when in reality, you want to ring the teachers neck because they wont 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.  Hes shocked that you didnt play along with his ramblings, you actually understand the subject so well that you dont get confused when he tries to throw you off course.  
	Its not a pleasant experience.  The teacher now has to either lie outright, or admit he screwed up.  In my case, its usually neither.  Its either blame the book, or pretend like both answers (yours and his) are correct.  Once again, you dont want to curse him out and spout off about how wrong he is, so what do you do?  Thats rightyou 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 teachers word as law?  Yes, but theyre even more unpleasant than calling him out.  You can go to someone higher up, tell them the teacher doesnt 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 lets be serious.  Who will they believe?  The kid who claims to know about computers, or the teacher whos a trained professional.  Worse yet, regardless of what happens youll 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, Id like to do something I dont normally do.  Im going to do nothing but rant.  No facts, no evidence, just good old fashion bitching.  If you dont 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 theyre only staying one chapter ahead of the class.  Of course that will make many demand their money back, so it wont happen.  If you know the answer and youre certain youre right, say it!  Say it loud and say it proud, dont worry about the teachers feelings because theyre in the wrong.  Theyre the ones that are feeding the students in that class bullshit, and that cant be tolerated.  Be polite, theres 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 Id 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 Im asking a question and not just coming out and telling the teacher hes wrong, hes 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 Im now facing.  Every class he makes a mistake on something, and every class I grind my teeth and hope it doesnt show up on a test.  Only I dont 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.  Thats right, my teacher wont admit fault, hell try to confuse youor 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 cant quote, but Ill do my best.  Why did you trust my answer?  Just because its on the board you think its right?
	More bullshit.  
	At this point Ive declared war.  If he wants to mark my answers wrong and laugh at me for trying something he said would work, then Im going to be pointing out his every flaw from here on out.  If he wants to label me a smartass, fine.  You cant argue with facts, and truth is a great thing to have on your side.  

- screamer
