My teaching method

Part of teaching is making sure your students are properly humiliated when they make mistakes.   My class recently told me one of our printers wasn't working.  I first told them it was their business and it was working the last time I used it so I'm sure it's something simple.  After another day of struggling they were still not able to figure out the problem.  I intervened, found the problem and fixed it in a matter of seconds.  Since it was such an easy fix I created a nice storyline for the students to follow so they could see my experience and how I reached my conclusion.  The email is below.....

The other day you told me the printer in 107 wasn’t working.  I was told that you had tried everything but there was something wrong with this printer.  So, I decided to check it out.  

I started to assess the situation.  First thing I thought to myself is that this printer used to work.  The front panel said it was ‘ready’ so I looked behind the printer and noticed there were sooooo many connections on the back (3).  I got a bit dizzy from looking at all of these and had to step back and try and decide what to do. 

I noticed an ‘ethernet’ cabley type of thing on the ground beside the printer.  I also noticed there was an Ethernet input connectionny thing on the printer as well. 

 

 

They looked similar to me but I just wasn’t sure if this was a problem.  Just because they look the same, does that mean they can go together?????!!?    So, I  decided to call some people from Microsoft and even made a call to the guys at NASA because this seemed like a high tech, maybe even space type of technology.  After some serious research they came back to me and said,

‘Dave, we have figured it out.  You need to plug the Ethernet cabley thing into the Ethernet connectionny thing’

‘No, no!!  that can’t be it!’  I said

‘Trust us’

‘I can’t guys, this is serious.  What if I get hurt?  What if I die?’

‘Dave, we’re sure of this.  You won’t get hurt, we think’. 

So, I closed my eyes and plugged in the cabley thing to the connectionny thing…..

All of sudden the printer sprang to life..IT WORKED!!! IT WORKED!!!! and the best part was that I wasn’t hurt and I wasn’t dead.  I was still alive! 

Can you tell me what the moral of this story is?

Stay tuned for the next story, arriving whenever you guys give me the opportunity. 

Sincerely,

Dave'