As a teacher and as a parent I have to weigh in on the side of teaching children to respectfully stick up for themselves by providing evidence to support their viewpoint/response. I think though that rather than taking an apologetic approach, I would want my kids (or my students) to lead with Something like: "would you consider giving me credit if I can provide a sound reason/example to support my response?" or "may I explain how I reached that answer?". Besides being respectful of what my kids/students know/have learned, it is also an excellent opportunity to prepare them for later work in which they will be
expected to defend their thinking with evidence. I have also used the opportunity to talk to my kids about how "knowledge" is a fluid thing, and how it's not uncommon for someone to have learned something at some point and not to have revisited it recently.
That said, we've had our share of examples here too. DD once took issue with using an avocado as a model for the earth because it's not round. The teacher was offended because she wouldn't "let it go". Really, all the teacher needed to do was say, "Good observation--you're right. We're going to use the avocado anyway because even though the shape is wrong, it works well as a model of the earth's layers". More recently, DS came home with a geography paper in which the substitute teacher crossed out "southern ocean" (even though there were five blanks on the worksheet)because "there are only four oceans". I took him straight to the computer to look at the different ways that geographers label oceans and continents. We chose an article that he could bring back to school with an article supporting both the four ocean and the five ocean ways of looking at the world. Sounds like the sub was dismissive, which is unfortunate. Another lost opportunity for an educator to support a child's efforts as a learner. Sad. Really, I just have no patience with adults who are unwilling to learn--especially if they are responsible for fostering curiosity and learning in others.
