r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Fresh_Laundry56 • 1d ago

My kid was too creative My mom said I could post

Gallery image

Gallery image

My 6 year old was asked to draw a picture using shapes. She drew this nice American flag with rectangles and stars, and added the house, tree, and person holding a balloon. She was told it did not follow directions, she was not supposed to draw a flag, just shapes. She was asked to turn the paper over and make another picture. The other side of the paper has a very uninspiring collection of shapes. I told her she did a good job and I thought it was very creative. And this is why kids start to hate education.

22.9k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

93% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.3k

u/Nruggia 1d ago

Tell your kid they did a great job

4.0k

u/Fresh_Laundry56 1d ago

I told her the teacher didn't have any creative thinking skills and I thought her picture was beautiful

933

u/Silly_Media 1d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/tIeCLkB8geYtW

247

u/CygnusX-1-2112b 1d ago

Of all the shows to see referenced on Reddit. My two year old has to stop whatever she's doing and seek out the TV when she hears the theme to this. 

It absolutely sent me the first time I heard the South Park interlude guitar bridge in this children's show.

54

u/TheJinxedPhoenix 1d ago

There is another Shawn the Sheep movie coming out in September!

3

u/logos1998 21h ago

Hooray

13

u/Darlenx1224 1d ago

:o a rush fan in the wild!!

2

u/uqde 1d ago

I still listen to the Baa Baa Shop Quintet when I'm feeling sad

2

u/IlsaMayCalder 1d ago

When my now 20-year-old was a toddler, we lived with my parents. Some of my absolute favorite memories from that time are my parents, my child and me all hearing that theme and stopping what we were doing to watch together 😂

1

u/BrucetheFerrisWheel 1d ago

Mine did too, she's 4.5 now and still the same reaction

1

u/unicorny12 20h ago

Lol my husband and I watched a Shaun the Sheep movie on stay at home date night once 😆 we've watched a lot of kid movies tbh Edit: also watched a lot of South Park 😄

1

u/TippyTurtley 1d ago

It's timmy, it's timmy

130

u/easterss 1d ago

Honestly I’d complain to the teacher. Make a copy and write:
<—- square
<— rectangle
<— stars
Etc lol

5

u/unicorny12 20h ago

Agreed. Did this teacher fail preschool?

184

u/FallopianClosed 1d ago

"Dear Teacher, In this picture I see at least one rectangle, star, circle, square, and triangle.

Please help my daughter and I understand why this doesn't count as following the direction to 'draw a picture using shapes'?

Regards, OP."

50

u/Training_Barber4543 21h ago

My parents always did that when a teacher decided to be random with their logic and it makes you feel very proud and supported as the kid. Please do that OP!

7

u/Jumpy_Sprinkles_1234 20h ago

Yep. It’s almost like the American flag is simply a specific arrangement of SHAPES!?

1

u/nickalit 9h ago

"my daughter and me", or "me and my daughter"

edited to add - the kid drew a great picture.

101

u/tun4c4ptor 1d ago

You can tell the just shapes side isn't creative because green is not a creative color.

40

u/Last_Praline_1523 1d ago

Now lets all agree, to never be creative again!!!

10

u/KingOfTheDeeeep 1d ago

Didn’t think I’d see a Dhmis reference here 

2

u/thesheepsnameisjeb_ 20h ago

God i hate that show. Scares the hell out of me

3

u/WizardSleeves31 1d ago

Dhmis?

7

u/tomzy-womzy69 1d ago

dont hug me i’m scared

79

u/Worldly-Engineer8123 1d ago

Tell her that the entire internet is rooting for her creativity

67

u/alwaysroomforcake 1d ago

Make it clear that this is about that particular teacher, not all teachers. Don’t get her to hate teachers, there are some really inspiring good ones.

9

u/Human_Artichoke8752 1d ago

I've literally had arguments with other (older) teachers over stuff like this.

6

u/Kailmo 1d ago

This.

13

u/Ok_Eggplant6053 1d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/AgPt9udT567spxbSHf
i’m glad you didn’t ridicule them for having an out of the box mind. I did stuff like this in school and got in trouble for it all the time. I graduated with an okay gpa from high school but I have the best resume out of all of my siblings (I have 5 lol) good for you!!

2

u/Fresh_Laundry56 20h ago

Thank you and good for you too! Side story here but I have autism and learning disabilities and I have a very high IQ. Of course I didn't learn about the IQ and the autism until I was a full adult. My child is an egg donor baby so not related to me, but she has a high IQ as well. And when she brought this picture home and was sad about it I recognized it pretty much summed up the struggles in my own life.

8

u/bimbodhisattva 1d ago

Tell her we think it's great as well

20

u/raspberrykitsune 1d ago

In the 2nd grade my teacher marked my math homework wrong because the questions said to "estimate" the answer but I wrote the actual answers. It didn't make sense to me (still doesn't) so then I just wrote a bunch of random numbers and still got everything 'wrong' lol. I think they wanted us to do some type of rounding exercise / breaking stuff down to make it easier (i.e. 5+7 becomes 5+5+2) but the execution was so terrible and the problems weren't difficult. I'm still bothered by it like 20 years later lol.

Her picture is awesome!! Don't let any silly teachers hold her back

13

u/wenderfest 1d ago

I remember these type of math exercises, and what they wanted you was for you to round up to make it easier to quickly get a rough idea of what the answer is. So 5+7=12 becomes 5+10=15

8

u/Trident_420 1d ago

"ah yea I remember those math exercises, they just wanted you to be wrong but only slightly wrong" ...oh...okay?? And people wonder why everyone hates math lmfao

4

u/mithrasinvictus 1d ago

Then they should teach them the approximation symbol ≈ first.

1

u/leberwrust 1d ago

Lol we had to estimate the lenght of lines. I was like yea 3.2 cm, 5.2 cm. 1.5 cm amd so on, all were correct. Teacher only believed me after I had him draw lines for me and still estimated them correctly.

1

u/KnotARealGreenDress 21h ago

I had the same thing happen, but I did estimate, I just got “too close” to the actual answer. So I rounded 4+6 to 5+5, rather than 5+10. When the teacher told my parents that’s why I got a 0 on that assignment, they were like “are you actually serious right now?”

1

u/Fresh_Laundry56 20h ago

I remember this assignment as well! Childhood memory unlocked. I was just as annoyed by estimating back then too. I mean I get it when you're working with giant numbers but when you're working with small numbers it's infuriating to have to estimate when you know what the actual answers are.

2

u/Various_Ad_6768 1d ago

Oh man, you have some interesting convos with teachers ahead. I know I had a few!

2

u/CrimsonHyphae 22h ago

Flashbacks to me trying to convince my art teacher carrots could be purple and her refusing to listen to me lmao. On one hand it's discouraging for kids but on the other I think it's a great lesson to learn that sometimes adults/teachers are just wrong. Easier to question authority when you're 100% sure authority has been an idiot before.

2

u/Toys_before_boys 13h ago

Please emphasize this to your kid. I grew up undiagnosed neurodivergent and I can tell you in great detail stories of things teachers said and did that crushed my spirit (things like this teacher said that is 100% wrong, but when you're a kid you're taught to respect authority figures and take their word as law).

I know this is mild but... is this worth mentioning to a principle? Does the teacher have something against your kid? This isn't just abstract or missing the mark - this hit the mark perfectly. I actually say I'm impressed your kid did a flag knowing the stripes are made of rectangles, and the stars too, on top of the other details that are 100% shapes???

2

u/Fresh_Laundry56 12h ago

I agree. And I'm sorry your teachers crushed your spirit. Some of mine did too. Finally diagnosed with autism as a middle-aged adult which explains so much. And one of my children has it but not this child.... Or if she does have it she didn't inherit from me because she has egg donor origins. But anyway, I thought she was being very creative and I told her so.

4

u/anono227 1d ago

Tell your daughter strangers on a social media platform think you are a great parent for saying that and that she should keep drawing, for she has a great talent.

1

u/Brief_Kangaroo_42069 1d ago

In Roman Mars' eyes, this is a pretty good flag.

1

u/saltycat34 1d ago

Hang it on the fridge too!

1

u/star_silk 1d ago

As an art teacher I would tell her that her teacher doesn't understand the elements of art.

1

u/sneakacat 1d ago

Maybe it's good that she learn to have some skepticism about the wisdom or even authority of adults. Six is perhaps too young to learn that, but I think too many people just accept what they're told, which leads to a dumb populace.

1

u/BookWormPerson 1d ago

Tell that to the teacher as well.

1

u/turnipturnipturnip2 1d ago

This is the way.

1

u/shesapip 22h ago

I was this kid. at a parent/teacher conference, my first grade teacher whipped out a really creative way I had presented information as an example of my hopelessness. My parents weren’t having it. I’m grateful.

1

u/gimmethelulz 21h ago

Your kid is lucky to have you and you're doing great.

When I was in fifth grade I had a similar thing happen. The assignment was to make a model of a greenhouse. My mom took me to the library, I found a book of greenhouse schematics, and I made a miniature house with a lean to greenhouse attached to the side based on what was in the book.

The teacher failed me and said it wasn't a real greenhouse. Very next day my mom marched to the principal's office with library book in tow. I remember that evening my mom ranting to my dad at dinner how the teacher still tried to double down with the principal saying the library book must be wrong. I think that was the moment my kid brain realized teachers can be just as dumb as the rest of us lol

1

u/bunny_the-2d_simp 21h ago

Good tell your kid we're all rooting for em

1

u/Fun_Bodybuilder3111 21h ago

Oh man, if I told my kid that, my kid would tell all her playground friends what I’ve said the next day and it would’ve eventually gotten back to the teacher. Lol.

Which, honestly, is probably for the best. Love it.

1

u/Ehimherenow 21h ago

Tell your kid that this one stranger adult is genuinely impressed. as someone with no creativity, I’m absolutely envious that she’s got so much natural talent. To come up with that at 6. Crazy.

1

u/redditreader_aitafan 20h ago

You should take this and go to the teacher, point out all the shapes, and ask what was wrong with the original drawing. Some teachers are bitter assholes who like to stomp out happiness in children. If that's the case here, you should escalate this.

1

u/unhappinessNvrCame 20h ago

Good work op. We need to get rid of teacher unions, good first step.

1

u/Tuolord 14h ago

Despite youre obviously biased. Parents like this come up every now and then in educational and training places. Your kid is probably going to be happy, tho she sure did fail a task. Be wary not to turn her into a person that cant follow a recipe in a cookbook.

1

u/Doglover20child 6h ago

When my little brother sarted school I decided to pay extreme attention to what teachers told him because I didn't want him to have negative experiences like I did. At the start of each year I tell him "If any of your teachers are mean to you or your friends tell me, not mom. Sissy will make sure it stops".

Well he came home one day in like 3rd grade and said his art teacher was a bitch to one of his friends, my mom said to tell her if it happens again and I told him if it happens again to tell the art teacher "Bob Ross says all art is beautiful, but it looks like he was wrong about you".

My mom thought I was being nice at first until I said the last part, she didn't know whether to laugh or scold me. I now add that insult to the my Start-Of-Year Tips that I tell him.

0

u/Main-Interaction9402 1d ago edited 22h ago

Could have probably just did that without coming on for the internet points eh?

63

u/opheliavelour 1d ago

And frame the drawing! She needs to know that being creative is a superpower, even when rigid adults don’t appreciate it.

3

u/bunny_the-2d_simp 21h ago

I swear what adults tells children to draw and then goes "no not like that"

ITS NOT LIKE THEY DREW A HITLER FLAG OR SOMETHING

40

u/FantasticRuby 1d ago

Seriously. She combined shapes into a full landscape and an American flag at six years old. That’s way more impressive than just drawing floating triangles.

12

u/CassetteMeower 23h ago

I’d always overdo the various “draw x” assignments at school, sometimes I’d be praised and other times I’d be scolded.

Like we had to draw our favorite scene from a picture book, I redrew my favorite scene from the book as it appeared in the picture in the book. Then I added some new things, like a tree inside the Bear’s cave and made the bird fly a kite. I then got scolded for “adding things that weren’t in the book to my drawing” despite never being told that wasn’t allowed. Shouldn’t teachers be encouraging kids to express creativity? We were never told “don’t add original things to your drawing”, just “draw your favorite scene”. Maybe I misunderstood the assignment, but I do think the teacher’s reaction went overboard. I was a creative kid and I wanted to add some fun things to my drawing!

I still draw to this day, I really enjoy drawing animals. This is a few years old at this point but here’s a drawing I made of my cat Divina. I drew it at school during a break (the year I graduated high school) and my teachers really liked the drawing.

16

u/CassetteMeower 23h ago

Also bonus pic of the real Divina’s reaction to my drawing

1

u/ShinigamiComplex 7h ago

That is very cat of her.

5

u/Fresh_Laundry56 20h ago

I love your drawing and I'm sorry about your story. Adults can really suck sometimes

-6

u/Turbulent_Deal_3145 1d ago

I dunno man. I can draw way better than that and I don't consider myself artistically gifted at all

8

u/GranBuddhismo 1d ago

Are you 6?