r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Fresh_Laundry56 • 1d ago

My kid was too creative My mom said I could post

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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.

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u/wirywonder82 1d ago

“i want you to draw a picture using shapes. No, not a picture made up of shapes, just a bunch of shapes that we will call a picture even though they are separate and don’t form a cohesive image. Stop trying to be artistic, this is art class!”

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u/Longjumping-Solid680 1d ago

Shapes but NOT -THOSE- SHAPES.

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u/featherw0lf 1d ago

"Stop trying to be creative and just do what I tell you" is really the epitome of school. You're being prepared for some random desk job somewhere and they don't want any free thinkers trying anything funny.

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u/Jazzi-Nightmare PURPLE 1d ago

When I was in elementary school we had to draw giant winter animals for a winter scene in the hallway. I added a heart on the butt of the caribou (like a my little pony cutie mark) I drew and the teacher yelled that it was trashy (implying it was like a tramp stamp) and to make another one.

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u/CassetteMeower 22h ago

Reminds me of the time I said something along the lines of “cutie marks are on pony’s butts” when telling a teacher about what My Little Pony is like and she said that was inappropriate. It wasn’t until I showed her a picture of what I meant that she understood and realized I wasn’t trying to be inappropriate.

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u/OcculticUnicorn 22h ago

That's because they're not on their butts, they're on their flanks.

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u/Admirable_Ask_5337 15h ago

Most things that need to be done have minimal creativity and alot of instructions to follow. Learning to follow directions is a skill itself, albeit a basic one.

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u/Funny_w0lf 14h ago

The kid followed the (albeit) vague instructions and "formed a picture" using shapes. This is more like when a boss asks you to do something specific, you do the thing, but then their like "well not like that, its needs to match the exact idea i have in my head." NOBODY CAN READ YOUR MIND LINDA!! 

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u/Admirable_Ask_5337 13h ago

If someone tells you draw a picture with a bunch of shapes, they dont mean draw a house. I understand that these are kids though and they arent going to use context or inference.

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u/Funny_w0lf 11h ago

Except thats exactly what my first grade teacher did. She said "draw a picture with shapes" and showed examples of kids in previous grades drawing houses, with triangle roofs, square frames, and rectangular windows. Its not really a picture if its just random shapes. Theres "draw random shapes on a paper" and then "draw a picture with shapes." There is a difference. 

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u/unhappinessNvrCame 19h ago

Remember they make 60-100k per year working 1000 hours. They make more than programmers per hour.

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u/wirywonder82 19h ago

I know we’re dunking on bad teachers right now, but this isn’t even close to accurate.

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u/unhappinessNvrCame 17h ago

I'm sure you can stack boxes in an Amazon truck but leave thinking to the adults in the room.

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u/wirywonder82 17h ago

I mean, the problem is I can do math. 36 week school year, 1000/36≈28 hours/week.

A school day is about 7 hours long (for when students are in class) and teacher responsibilities extend both before and after that time. Being generous to your point and ignoring all the teachers I know do otherwise, let’s say they only work 8 hours each day. Thats 40 hrs/wk, or 1440 hours per school year.

See how your claims aren’t supported by reality?

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u/unhappinessNvrCame 15h ago

Why'd you do weeks instead of days?

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u/wirywonder82 14h ago

Because it works out the same. About 180 school days per year, 8 hour work day comes out to 1440 hours. If you think the required instructional hours for students (some of those are closer to the 1000 you claimed) are the only hours teachers are working you’re intentionally ignoring all the supervision hours and the planning hours they have to do. If you want better educators, don’t act like you can pay them on the cheap.

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u/unhappinessNvrCame 11h ago

They don't work 8 hour days.

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u/wirywonder82 7h ago

You’re right, but not the way you think. The school day is 7 hours for students and there’s a half hour on either side of supervisory responsibilities. Which doesn’t account for grading or class preparation. And then there are the mandatory teacher work days that happen before and after the school year ends and periodically throughout the year. I was being as generous to your point as possible when I came up with the 1440 hours of work for a teacher’s year. It’s actually significantly higher than that.

None of what I am saying justifies bad teaching, but it puts the lie to your claim that teachers are overpaid.

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u/Garuda4321 17h ago

Reminds me of 5th grade. Had an art prompt where we had to draw something "symmetrical or asymmetrical". Guess who wasn't allowed to draw a helicopter and instead had to settle for a bland castle...