OT: The dumbest question I've ever been asked as a teacher

was one of my 5th graders asking, "Do they have a 4th of July in Canada?"

Camel toads, anyone? LINK

Up until middle school, I had no idea what Harvard was. I thought people were saying "Harbor."

This thread really gets me. There are a bunch of other botched words that I can't recall at the moment, else I'd share them.

My high school history teacher regularly told us to read silently from the textbook rather than actually presenting a lesson.  One day I was sitting in class reading about the lead-up to the Civil War and came across a line that said, "Stephen Douglas was a master debater."  It was too much for my bored teenage brain to handle and of course I got in trouble when I couldn't explain to the class why I was laughing so hard.

This story has made the rounds:

When I was young my father said to me: 



"Knowledge is Power....Francis Bacon" 



I understood it as "Knowledge is power, France is Bacon". 



For more than a decade I wondered over the meaning of the second part and what was the surreal linkage between the two? If I said the quote to someone, "Knowledge is power, France is Bacon" they nodded knowingly. Or someone might say, "Knowledge is power" and I'd finish the quote "France is Bacon" and they wouldn't look at me like I'd said something very odd but thoughtfully agree. I did ask a teacher what did "Knowledge is power, France is bacon" meant and got a full 10 minute explanation of the Knowledge is power bit but nothing on "France is bacon". When I prompted further explanation by saying "France is Bacon?" in a questioning tone I just got a "yes". at 12 I didn't have the confidence to press it further. I just accepted it as something I'd never understand. 

It wasn't until years later I saw it written down that the penny dropped.

Not directly a stupid question to a teacher, but a stupid question nonetheless.  In Marine Corps bootcamp, a fellow recruit asked a Drill Instructor, if they actually teach us to fight with NCO swords, the response was this "Yep, eventhough everyone else maybe using automatic weapons, were going to give you a sword and send you in first"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQdhMSEqhfg

My wifes friend in 9th grade history



Teacher notices this girl isnt paying attention and asks



"Ms. ______: who won the civil war ?"

"umm.... The Germanies?"



I mean how could you make up an answer dumber than this one ? This girl was called "germanies" the rest of highschool. I wish you could all know what she does for a living now, youd all be pissed.

During a lesson on mitosis, I had a student ask me if a girl could get pregnant through anal sex...his cousin, who was also in my class, then proceeded to ask him if he had eggs up his ass. Hell, even I had to laugh at that one.

I remember a time in my middle school science class we were talking about extreme weather and shit. One student asked the teacher if you could ever have a hurricane and tornado in the same place at the same time.

This was followed up by another kid asking if a hurricane and tornado were happening simultaneously, "would they start fighting?"

i took a freshman level poli-sci class at EMU, and the professor asked an honest question:

How many of you know how United States Senators are elected?

In a class of about 50-60 students, me and 4 others raised our hands...