Rejecting fact over opinion is probably not a good trait to have, especially when working in education, but that’s unfortunately what one Missouri community college teacher is allegedly guilty of. Reddit user DerCatrix shared the results of a quiz question in their English composition class, presenting quite the conundrum. The question asked whether Global warming is a fact, to which DerCatrix answered yes. According to their teacher, this was incorrect.
Evidently baffled by the answer, DerCatrix said they emailed their teacher, thinking that she just made a mistake when creating the quiz. This wasn’t the case. “The English Comp teacher told me that she still believes Global Warming is an opinion,” DerCatrix explained, adding that she accused them of “ad hominem.”
The Student Said the College Teacher Accused Them of Attacking her Character
The teacher wasn’t done. She apparently also wrote several paragraphs giving the student a lesson about “structured debate and ‘shutting down conversation before it began’ by trying to correct her. Needless to say, DerCatrix wasn’t having it, saying, “I talked to the school and will be changing teachers.”
Other Redditors were just as confused as DerCatrix and flustered as to why a college teacher would do this. “Either the quiz maker messed up or they’re some kind of conspiracy theorist,” remarked a commenter. “Is it a *trick question? My guess: Global warming isn’t real, but global climate change is?” questioned a second user.
“What specific Red State in the US are you from?” asked a third, implying they suspected what the teacher’s political leaning is. “More than mildly infuriating,” expressed a fourth commenter.
While the teacher and anyone else are free to have their opinions on global warming, research published by NASA would disagree with this Missouri community college instructor. A page on the official site clearly states, “From global temperature rise to melting ice sheets, the evidence of a warming planet abounds,” accompanied by grounded studies and observations.
DerCatrix made sure to personally let the teacher know her folly, as well as give them a few other choice words for how they thought of her. “I called her an anti-science, right-wing conspiracy theorist who puts cops on a pedestal and blames people for getting murdered(by cops),” they wrote. It is truly ironic that this all happened over an incorrectly graded quiz question about discerning fact from opinion.
