Posted by finelinebob on August 15, 2006, at 23:58:56
In reply to what is your most embarrassing moment, story??, posted by wildcardII on August 15, 2006, at 11:49:39
I used to teach high school physics. No matter what you teach at what level, you are bound to embarrass yourself completely at least once.
I had just finished prepping a class for a test on color and light the next day, and had brought out some toys from our ancient lab storage room to show them. One was one of those color-blindness test books with the colored dots and the "hidden" numbers to determine if you were color-blind and what type of color-blind you were.
I became a physics teacher for several reasons, one being that I hated biology. Too squishy. Anyway, someone eventually asked what caused color-blindness. I knew the answer. It wasn't even on the tip of my tongue, it was more back towards the middle. It really was a question for a biology teacher anyway, not some hard science physicist like me. I really, REALLY should not have responded since my brain had stopped functioning, but I spit it out anyway:
"I'm not certain, but I think it is a genital disorder".
Which just goes to show that your mothers were only partially correct -- if you play with it, you'll go color-blind.
poster:finelinebob
thread:676674
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060806/msgs/676949.html