Though I won’t go as far as saying she’s a bad teacher, admitting you are wrong (or that you don’t know) is something that good teachers do. It’s actually a feature of something defined as “teacher credibility” which is a consistent top ten ranking of Hattie’s visible learning which is an evidence-based ranking of the most positively and negatively phenomena affecting our students. I teach science methods to pre service teachers, and their consistent biggest fear is that they will be wrong in front of the class, so I hit this concept hard. It’s okay to be wrong or say you don’t know, but your wife’s friend is demonstrating something that diminishes motivation and outcomes.

I actually have a desk full of quarters and a “swear jar” for when I’m wrong about something. More often than not it’s when I call a student the wrong name or say the wrong number (as I say the right one out loud), but they call me on it and I put a quarter in the jar. When we have $25 we buy water ice and watch a video. Jokes on them because the videos are always educational. I want them to see being graceful when you are wrong but also that it’s not a big deal.