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Question:

Did my teacher basically b*tch slap me in front of the entire poetry class?

The class centers around interpreting poetry. I'm very quiet and usually don't ask questions in class, but I had what I thought was a good and valid question.
There was a word in the poem that I didn't know. So I looked it up. The word had two meanings, both of which were very different from the other. I didn't know if one definition or the other was to what the author was referring. I asked, 'Which is it?' She answered, 'Both.' Then she looked away from me and to the class and says, 'Too bad people don't realize they have a stupid question until after they ask it.' What the hell? Maybe the use of multiple definitions in one instance is commonplace in poetry or other fictional writings (is it?), but I took the class to learn these things. And in the rest of the world, writing is supposed to be concise and precise to get the point across without confusion and misinterpretation.
Do you think there is any validity to her remark?

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Additional Details

4 months ago
Later, I thought about what I could have said had I not been so flabbergasted. What do you think of this? I wanted to say to her, ??If I said that I learned that I must be an idiot through my studies, would I be referring to my classes which are part of my academic studies or to a research study designed to collect empirical data to determine the perceived stupidity of any question? It must be both???


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Yes, you were b*tch-slapped. However, it is not necessarily your fault and, while words often have double meanings in poetry, it was mean of her to call your question dumb and embarrass you. A better teacher would have kindly corrected you and after class offered you additional help. Remember, you were the one brave enough to ask the "dumb question" that at least one other person had and was too afraid to ask...