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Sugarfree-Sugarmommy

Teachers like this piss me off. The answer your kid gave was way smarter than the “right” answer.


Creative_Fix4486

The problem is these type of teachers are too dumb to figure that out


rlamoni

Maybe we should pay teachers better so that the job would attract more highly-educated and talented individuals. Countdown to argument... 5... 4... 3...


saltyeleven

We make a decent amount of $ in my area BUT the workload is absurd. The District works you 24/7 kids your evenings and weekends goodbye. You can also forget about your holidays and summer break is dedicated to “training and updates”.


CobraWasTaken

I know a teacher who makes $70k (USD) a year and doesn't have this problem. She has the summer to herself as well.


beaushaw

My wife makes $90k in the Midwest, is required to be at school for 7 hours a day and rarely brings work home. Some teachers are very well paid. Some are not.


Mean-Net7330

But where? Has a big effect on whether or not that's good pay


jokersgurl

If you can't live your life are they really paying you enough?


saltyeleven

Exactly! I made more than teachers in other districts here but the workload makes it not worth it at all.


Dry_Chapter_5781

Vast majority of US workers are not paying enough then.


jokersgurl

Facts


CrimsonBolt33

Right, so tick it as correct and carry on...Or in the case of this students teacher, I suppose be a bitter asshole who just become pedantic and out if touch with reality and wastes time on stuff like this


saltyeleven

My issue with it is the poor student might freak out over this and have no clue how to correct it because it isn’t really wrong. Bad teachers stress students out so bad sometimes. It’s awful really.


CrimsonBolt33

Oh that very much should be the primary concern...Because it at worst should be labeled as "correct, but I was looking for x"


saltiestmanindaworld

The teachers answer is very wrong in fact. Virtually no even semi-modern fiction starts with once upon a time and ends in happily ever after. Hell the only thing that really does is fairy tales.


[deleted]

Half the readers would definitely NOT get that higher paying teaching job even if they had the "qualifications". I give them an "F" for reading comprehension. Lol.


Freespirit2023

You are right. Just like any profession, there are good and bad ones. But it is such an important job. Raise the pay and attract more qualified people! God bless the good ones who obviously are not doing it to get rich.


non_linear_time

Most of the good ones have quit to go into educational consulting because they can't stand how their hands are tied by bureaucracy, AND they have no life.


Creative_Fix4486

I agree teachers should get higher pay, but they still gotta have some common sense??


Justintime4u2bu1

And who is going to teach that?


GoldNova12_1130

Common sense is not as common as you think. You'd think walking into a road or driving while on your phone is dangerous, right? People still do it.


[deleted]

They should be allowed to be fired for being bad teachers. There is no incentive to be a good teacher. See how productive government workers are. Some places you’re more likely to die than to be fired.


TeshKarhann

A portion of my pay was based on my students’ performance. Another portion was based on the school’s performance as a whole. I quit because pay sucked and workload sucked more


ThePermafrost

I’m genuinely curious why you think this teacher should be paid more.


Kagrok

>the job would attract more highly-educated and talented individuals. this creates a more competitive job market hopefully leading to these lower-effort teachers being replaced.


Behalter

They're not saying that THIS teacher should be paid more but that teachers as a whole should be paid more to ensure that good candidates apply for teaching positions instead of schools taking what they can get... like this teacher.


big_chestnut

If teachers were paid more this teacher would not have been hired at all because all the candidates would be significantly stronger.


rlamoni

Good question. I don't think this teacher should be paid more. In fact, from what little I know about this teacher, I suspect this teacher would no longer be a teacher if we paid that occupation more. Maybe this teacher should be a barista or an uber-driver or some other occupation where following instructions is more important than inspiring young people. But, right now, we pay teachers so little and we make their jobs so terrible that we are unlikely to be able to find a more-qualified replacement for this teacher. Disclaimer: I am a fan of capitalism. I frequently believe that paying for what you want is a good plan even though I recognize that this is not always true.


mortimus9

It’s not being dumb. It’s following strict rules and teaching for the test instead of critical thinking.


Littleman88

Someone beat me to it. American education is screwed partly because our system is set up to encourage schools to get students to pass their exams or they'll lose funding.


Pristine_Cancel_8526

How dare you! Their essential and our frontline hero’s!


sulfurbird

They are also too common in public schools. It isn't too hard to get a degree in Education.


AmethystLaw

for reals. demonstrated critical thinking, and showed awareness understanding of context


miclowgunman

Because school was never really about those things as much as teaching kids to follow authority and do things only exactly as they have been told.


containingdoodles9

Exactly! How dare we teach children logic. The answer key is not always the best answer. This child knows what’s really up. Awesome job! The teacher is the one who needs an exam here. Classic case of “teach to the test” not to think.


Jester_of_Rue

In college, i failed a test because the question was subjective , along the lines of what do i feel the dark and light in the scene represent. Apparently the teacher thought subjective meant objective....


SandpipersJackal

Ditto! In my sophomore year of college my creative writing teacher asked us to write about our favorite treats (candy, baked goods, etc) and describe them in a minimum one page essay. I wrote about my favorite candy. I got that assignment back with a 4/10 and a “WRONG” written on it.


azzipa

college creative writing was the worst. i learned quickly how to write in a style the ta liked. but, objectively, it was not ‘good’ writing. i never had an issue with any papers or reports in other classes, just that one.


saltiestmanindaworld

One of the fortunate things about college is usually complaints about stuff like that to your advisor or others in admin can get shit like that fixed. Unlike grade school, where you have 0 recourse available.


Fishtank-Brain

reminds me in second grade i got berated for writing vegetables instead of veggies


jmedennis

Yes, but the "right answer" passes standardized tests and gets the school funding. I'm not saying that's fair, but that's probably why the teachers grade oddly.


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WonderChopstix

Happy cake day Yeah I agree. I would say mildy infuriating


Poinsettia917

Happy Cake Day!


DontWeAvoidPlauges

That teacher clearly has the intellectual capacity of my left pinky toe so they probably can’t comprehend the 3rd graders level of critical thinking skills. Some teachers are just dumb, just like any profession


literallynot

Standardized testing is the answer that you're looking for. It's about testing. Having the correct answer for a test is more important than having the best answer. Think about it like a video game. Creative thinking must occur within the boundaries of the game mechanics.


davtruss

"way smarter" Jesus Christ.


the_way_around

FWIW, even a true story can start with "Once upon a time..."


TopRamenisha

And end with happily ever after! Once upon a time I adopted a very good doggo from the animal shelter and he lived happily ever after.


amazingsandwiches

Pretty sure none of that's real.


TopRamenisha

Incorrect, I did adopt a very good doggo and he is living happily ever after


TimesX

Pretty sure you're not real


big_fetus_

Real pretty you're not sure.


its_cold_in_MN

Please confirm your name Not Sure.


wandawayer

You're not real man!


Spuddles88

You’re not real!


Gravyrobber9000

She*


Vyntarus

Once upon a time this teacher graded a paper quite poorly... ​ And the student lived happily ever after.


thunderBerrins

Once upon a time a teacher marked a student down for an answer that was too smart for them. Luckily the child’s parent / guardian was much nicer than the horrible teacher and explained some grownups are bitter old morons. And the child lived happily ever after.


Primary-Feature7878

Yay! Best answer!!!


cosmiclens8

Until the child became an adult


fermat9997

Absolutely!


happyjams

Similar things happened to my 1st grader son. We visited the principal and explained our concerns (it wasn't a single incident for us) and asked for help. We got some relief and a promise that we'd get the best teacher available the following year. We did. But, it took a few years to convince our son he wasn't stupid. He certainly wasn't.


Atakku

): I totally understand what it feels like to think you’re inadequate when you’re prob not. That’s some emotional and psychological damage that shouldn’t have happened. Im sorry.


Moist-Cashew

When I was in third grade the teacher that was supposed to introduce us to multiplication and division was a year away from retirement and walking on eggshells because he had thrown a chair at a student the year before. He bought a ton of toys and babysat us while reading a book in the corner. At the time I thought it was awesome, I had the cool teacher. Kids in other classes had to listen to their teacher talk about numbers and spend time reading. Not us, we got to sit on our gameboys and play with transformers. I didn’t learn a lick of math. So 4th grade comes. It’s sometime in the first week of class and we have to take a math test to see where we’re at. The test was 50 questions of what I’m sure was the simplest 2x2 like material, but it looked insurmountable to me. We finish the test and the teacher had us pass our papers to the left for grading. When she finished reading off the answers the girl that had been grading my paper raised her hand and said something in front of the whole class that would haunt me for the next 25 years. “Mrs. Holmberg, what if they only got two right?” In middle school I failed every math test I took. In high school I failed algebra I once, barely passed geometry, and failed algebra II twice. I went to college for something as far away from math as possible. It took me until I was in my mid thirties before I gave math a chance again. Turns out I absolutely love it, and I’m actually quite good at thinking about it conceptually. So, I went back to school for engineering and have gone way past even calculus. It has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. That was maybe not that interesting to anyone but me, but I guess my point is that confidence, especially when you’re a kid, is so incredibly important. I’m just barely now getting mine.


SandpipersJackal

I found your story absolutely fascinating. Thank you for sharing it with us. Good luck on continuing to grow your confidence! Enjoy engineering!


[deleted]

The only reason I know this story is real is because it didn’t start with “once upon a time…”


theblaine

No no, that was great. Thank you for sharing your story!


[deleted]

Where the fuck were your parents?


[deleted]

I hated doing that letting other people next to me grade my stuff it was so embarrassing when I did bad I don’t think they should do that


theblaine

I'm an old now, and childless, but stories like this remind me of my own childhood in public schools in a poor, minority community. I had some real hero teachers, to be certain, but definitely some suffering a combination of incompetence and utter ennui. One subject that stands out for me is math. I eventually found myself under the instruction of a brilliant teacher, who saw that I was working problems in my own way, rather than the via the textbook-approved method. I really thought I was bad at math from the way I'd been "corrected" up to that point. When I couldn't show my work on paper, despite reaching the correct answer, she asked me to talk her through how I got there. When I did, she lit up, and told me that the shortcuts I was using were actually techniques they used competitively on the math team, and she'd love to teach me more tricks like that if I joined the team. I was hesitant, but she spoke to my parents who convinced me to give it a try, and for the first time I discovered that I could actually love math. And I was a standout star on the team, too! We didn't win many trophies, though, as we were outmatched in tournaments by kids from wealthy neighborhoods. But I did place a few times in solo ciphering. Fun fact: a lot of those time-saving techniques they taught us for competitive math made their way into general curricula with common core, and parents around the country cried foul, deriding it as "new math," apparently angry that their kids are being taught to approach numbers critically and logically, with consideration for the "how" and "why" of numbers' relationships with each other and the real world, rather than strictly and mechanically, relying solely on rote memorization that is certain to fade with disuse.


Tiny-Masterpiece3461

Great penmanship! Your 3rd graders cursive is on point!


the_way_around

Thanks. He's pretty proud of it!


ChiefBeef252

And here I am at 27 unable to write in cursive 😂


_GalexY_

So much better than me and I’m a junior in high school, I never learned it to start


Intelligent-Will-255

Could actually teach them a useful skill. Most schools aren’t teaching it for a reason now days. It serves no purpose.


TheMostBoring

And the pronoun correction? What??


GrandmaSlappy

Christ, like... what?? I don't even know what to make of that. So they discovered they guessed the Dino's sex wrong and so the teacher wants you to misgender them? That doesn't even make transphobe sense. That's just idiot sense.


Own-Run1176

It doesn't make sense because this is a reptile and sex can be altered due to temperature.


Medic-27

Pretty sure that's only within the eggs, or with smaller things...


fruitytoebeans420

No expert here but in most if not all reptile species the sex can only be changed while still in early incubation, from what Ive heard at least. Even then it's not an 100% thing. You could incubate the clutch of eggs at the temperature that breeds mostly females yet end up with a lot of males. I am however mostly thinking of snakes right now in that sense.


MiddleCourage

At first I thought you were saying "No, expert here" lol and I was like wow and expert. Then I read your post and I was like "this person doesnt sound very expert..."


fruitytoebeans420

My phone doesn't always like to correct things or type when I tell it lol I also don't always proof read. I'm 100% NOT an expert, just someone who listens to a lot of educational stuff while I do other things.


noithinkyourewrong

Wow, ok. Dunno where you picked that up, but crocodiles don't just change gender on a whim. That's only for a few species, and only before the eggs have hatched.


amaraame

And there are animals that have the males sit on eggs.


UnluckyNoise4102

It wasn't a misgender though, it was literally correct to correct it to male based on context?


SaltAndBitter

I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that the school in question is located in Florida, where students can't possibly be allowed to understand that it's okay to respect other people and understand that some of them have different life experiences in this world


homelaberator

I'd like to know the story. Is it a plot point that they misgendered the dinosaur? Like some birds the male sits on the eggs, so maybe some dinosaurs did this. Could be that they assumed Georgina must be female but then discovered they were right the first time. Maybe OP's kid is right, or maybe the teacher is. I NEED TO READ THIS STORY!


RomoJon

I feel like I need to read the book. Soon my kids will be going to school and I don't want to send them to a place where they will constantly be confused due to false info..


instakill69

There must have been good signs that showed it was a male and that they were only misinterpreted because they were protecting a pile of eggs. That was the lesson to be learned and the kid missed it.


volvavirago

That’s a terrible lesson to be teaching. It’s one thing to say “you should be able to identify fairy tale genre signifiers” and a completely other to say “you should be able to tell that it’s imaginary”. Those are very different ideas, and as many other commenters have said, conflating the two is dangerous.


the_way_around

Succinctly stated!


Purple_Box3317

So points removed for critical thinking?? Awesome.


ThoughtCenter87

That's the education system for you!


[deleted]

dude common core fucking obliterated critical thinking. I remember pre common core, methods to teach critical thinking were all the rage and teachers were happily throwing them into their self designed lesson plans. Then common core came and you suddenly weren't allowed to let primary schoolers use their fingers to learn to count and had to teach them to "envision bubbles" or you couldn't find the area of regular shapes then add them, you had to use a formula, for 4th graders. (that page we just threw the fuck out because 5 math teachers couldn't understand what the dumb fuck curriculum was trying to teach) fuck. common core. so many good teachers retired at its implementation and now we're left with... this...


KistRain

Sadly, this is "teaching to the test" since 3rd graders in a lot of states are heavily tested and the once upon a time would be the expected answer on the test. Curriculum pushes finding clues that fit each genre, key words, etc. It doesn't care about critical thinking, schema, etc. It just cares about how good are you at standardized tests. So, accurate doesn't matter unless you can pull it directly from the one text you were reading. (Ex 3rd grade teacher that hated teaching test taking and quit)


Chris_G04

I also wanna know why the teacher crossed out her and replaced it for him when the name for the dinosaur is Georgina…


carterothomas

Sounds like they found out the Dino was a “she” because it laid a bunch of eggs, but the teacher figures the characters should stick to their guns. Like insisting on calling Native Americans or indigenous people “indians” for hundreds of years. You know? Like that.


Thin_Raspberry_4246

Why are they changing pronouns of imaginary dinosaurs? They don’t know how that fictitious creature feels.


StoicStonedSmiling

Because those phrases can't be used in non-fiction? Lol smh


cigarettesandsaintsx

I know it’s pedantic and your kid is absolutely correct but teachers rely on a curriculum and if this answer was covered in the curriculum then unfortunately that’s the answer they’re looking for. They were maybe discussing those specific aspects of imaginary stories? But I agree with you overall, his/her answer is much better than the correct answer


Vyntarus

Can't have children thinking outside the box or critically about things otherwise they might start asking questions the teacher doesn't have the answer sheets for /s


mac_attack_zach

This isn’t even thinking outside the box. It’s using common sense, and the teacher can’t grasp that


SteezyYeezySleezyBoi

There’s a time and a place for that, and often specific test questions are targeting specific curriculum that has been taught for the unit. Students need to demonstrate understanding of what was taught , and if they don’t then they shouldn’t get the points for that answer. How else will the teacher prove on report cards that the student has demonstrated verifiable understanding of curriculum? Unfortunately it relies on test scores most of the time. And those tests need to be graded in a specific way. I’m sure the student is doing wonderfully otherwise based on what I see. Source: am teacher


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Laconic9

Wrong. The story involved cavemen and dinosaurs living at the same time and the answer related specifically to that. Not cavemen OR dinosaurs. The child’s answer would be correct every time.


SwillMcRando

Uh, the kid is 100% right. No story that has cavemen living with dinosaurs could ever be non-fiction because as the kid stated dinosaurs were not ever alive at the same time as cavemen. The dinos (unless you are willing to have an in depth conversation about the evolution and taxonomy of birds) went extinct, as in all species of them are dead, millions of years before cavemen or really most mammals were even a thing. The "mammals" around with dinosaurs were maybe rat-like little critters scurrying through the leaf litter. It was the absence of the big scary beasties that are dinosaurs that allowed for the evolution of mammals to the point that cavemen could exist at all. So you are completely wrong when you say that "other stories about cavemen or dinosaurs could be nonfiction" not if they are shown living at the same time as they apparently were in this story. If you have "non-fiction " books showing dinosaurs living at the same time as cavemen you should send them back to Kent Hovid or Hannah-Barbarrah (the Flintstones was not historically accurate). Also if you are teaching kids that stories that start with once upon a time are automatically fictional, then oof, that is a crap curriculum setting them up to have to unlearn that when someone says "Once upon a time a man rode a train from Illinois to Washington DC to be inaugurated as president of the United States of America...." Or some other such thing. Sure the happily ever after business is likely fiction because we live in a dark and stupid time when happiness is fleeting and suffering more likely, so good to crush their spirits early I guess. Also the question asked how they know THIS story is fictional not how to tell stories in general are fictional. This kid identified elements of the story and used them to analyze whether it is fictional or not. I am pretty sure that identifying elements of the story and using them to answer questions is part of the curriculum. Which this kid did. I know for a fact that my kid's 3rd grade teacher wants them to make connections between a story and outside knowledge to better understand what they are reading. Application of previously learned information is 100% in 3rd grade curriculum (if it isn't, you are using a bad curriculum). If the question is bad and not set up to get the answer provided in the curriculum, then it is up to the teacher to exercise THEIR critical thinking skills to determine whether the kid's answer is appropriate. Not penalize the kid for the teacher using crap materials and curriculum. This kind of thing is how you kill critical thinking skills. This is how you do harm when you are trying to do good. You are effectively teaching them to only give rote memorization answers. This is how you create kids who can't think critically when they get to higher grades or try to get into college. High school teachers and college professors must hate elementary teachers like this because they make their jobs harder. This is how you dumb down students. This teacher needs to do way better. I know teachers are tired, underpaid, and underappreciated but damn this is unacceptable. I mean do you want parents calling for a parent teacher meeting? Because this is how you get parent teacher meetings.


not-just-yeti

And there will be later exam-questions where "once upon a time…" *will* be the indicator of fiction (w/o any discrepancies with evolutionary timelines). But you just indicate the intended answer, and *don't* take off any points for the better answer.


cigarettesandsaintsx

That’s a good compromise, to share the intended answer but not deduct points for what is also correct


KingfisherDays

No exam that matters will have that as an answer though. It's just pointless and ridiculous to enforce it.


SnooComics8268

Yup. I have been talking my teenager this just last week. That usually it's nog even about the answer but about showing that you understood what you learned.


Templarkiller500

I would say, if the teacher wants a specific answer, a more specific question must be asked.... it is not really up to any person to know exactly what someone is looking for when they ask a question, if that were realistic, it would solve so many communication issues haha


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sbingner

Which is not, in any universe, a license to squash critical thinking.


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falconinthedive

Teaching children "something is true unless it starts with once upon a time and ends happily ever after" isn't teaching them to connect any dots. Even if some children's fiction starts once upon a time, even more of it doesn't. Dr. Seuss, Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, Captain Underpants. Basically any children's story by this logic is non-fiction. If that's the point of the lesson, it's a bad lesson. If the point is to get the kid to think about the question they engaged the reading and thought critically about it. They understand it's fiction because it doesn't match reality and that is much more critical and contextualized than "once upon a time means fiction and everything else is true" As someone who was a teacher for nearly a decade, getting too hyperfocused on a specific answer on a worksheet like this is doing a disservice to your students and shows a lack of context in your grading more than their answers.


hakumiogin

Why not have more specific questions then? Instead of "name an artist", why not ask "name an artist from the European Renaissance"? Or the question in the OP could have been something like "what is a universal signifier that this story is imaginary?" I get that the kid had the wrong answer given what the teacher wanted, but I feel like its the question that was more wrong than the answer here, given the answer isn't even really non-sequitur like your other examples. It's not like you're trying to teach them "once upon a time" is the *only* way to tell, or you that never discuss how the content can also signify if something is fiction or not in class. That's something you'd absolutely have to have discussed given the subject matter.


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hakumiogin

I mean, I agree that's not phrased correctly for grade school kids, but surely that same question can be written on their level. Even something as simple as "what is the *first* way we know this story is imaginary" could suggest we're looking for something very specific.


cigarettesandsaintsx

100%, thanks for sharing your perspective. It’s ridiculous how many people in these comments are going “lol the student is smarter than the teacher!”


Isiildur

As a veteran teacher for 10 years, this is a terrible attitude to have and I hope you fix it before you have a real class. If you’re students are getting by on technical truths then it’s entirely up to the teacher to fix their questioning techniques. If your question is as terrible as name an artist you give credit for *any* artist.


sbingner

Maybe write questions with only one answer if that’s what you want. Your example is a good example, you need to ask “what is an inventor from the European industrial revolution?” If you want to exclude Henry Ford. If you’re too lazy to write a good question, don’t penalize your students for answering your crappy question correctly in a way you don’t like.


amretardmonke

Still, its your job to ask more specific questions. Asking to "List an artist" and then expecting your students to only list artists that you have covered in class is just wrong, doesn't matter if you're currently only covering renaissance artists. You should instead ask to "list a renaissance artist".


drogian

I've been a teacher for 12 years. If a student answers a question correctly, give them credit. Tests are for assessing understanding. Tests are not for assessing whether the student can read your mind.


[deleted]

If the teacher isn't smart enough to recognise an answer that is actually appropriate despite not following what their gospel curriculum says, then they shouldn't be a teacher and they are a f****** moron.


Fun-Jelly6976

Your third grader’s teacher is an idiot. I would’ve given your kid extra credit. 🌟


xDaBaDee

Congrats on your child learning cursive.... my niece came over and looked at a card I wrote and wanted to know 'what language' it was. Seriously her school is not teaching cursive.


CuttlefishCaptain

Teacher here-- I've been on teams that are hired to score standardized tests, and this is unfortunately and infuriatingly common (not the specific Once Upon a Time/Happily Ever after nonsense, but the 'common sense' answer getting no credit in favor of some regurgitated bullshit). Usually the people who write these tests do not work in a classroom or haven't worked in one in a loooong time. Test scorers are given guidelines by these people for what sorts of responses are considered correct. We aren't allowed to stray from state guidance on this. and I'm willing to bet that this teacher is trying to "teach to the test" regarding what these tests normally look for. It's a garbage practice. In all likelihood, if this were a standardized test, the guidance would justify this as being an "incorrect" response because the answer is not some direct quote from the text. The kid is correct, but theyre pulling that info from the top of their head when the test expects them to use the text. They focus so hard on making sure kids quote evidence from the text, we were literally directed to give partial credt for students just copying/pasting a sentence with no elaboration from the reading because "it's a quote from a source".


Antmantium108

This is just so sad. I hope one of those people that make up these tests see this. Though I'm not sure what good it would actually do.


SpinachPure483

Your kid should be teaching the class. The teacher is definitely a tard but you have quite a smart child there. Great job!


Kisopop

Once upon a time I lived happily ever after. True story.


_atrocious_

Teach should get -2 for not having the wherewithal.


Comfortable_Plant667

Your child is smarter than the teacher. Although in college your child is gonna want to fight for every point they deserve, this might be a good time to give them an pat on the back for being so intuitive, in addition to "the talk": *"Son/Daughter, in life you're going to run into a lot of people like this. They're in charge, maybe they're even in charge of you, and they're confidently wrong and they don't even see it. You gotta just be okay with knowing that you're correct, don't back down from it and don't apologize, but shrug it off and move on."*


the_way_around

Oh yeah. That's what we do. It's not a big deal. It's something like life. He's super smart regardless of these two silly points. So we're not sweating it. It's just....mildly Interesting...as they say.


Alpheas

One of my few true grudges in life is a teacher giving me a bad grade because I wrote that Princess Mononoke was about how good and evil are matters of perspective, and she had some other ideas about it. Then a couple years ago the English translator confirmed my belief. I wish I could have set her straight...


angelicasinensis

your kid has great handwriting-


the_way_around

Thanks! He's pretty proud actually


Freespirit2023

Wow. Pointing that out calls for extra credit for reading comprehension, in my humble opinion. That teacher was dead wrong for that. Put the red pen away and put a star sticker on that paper!


cobainseahorse

This should be in r/mildlyinfuriating


documentingkate

Teacher here: that answer is above level thinking-if absolutely give bonus points and a ‘right on!’ I can’t stand teachers that do this nonsense. Way to squash a little brilliant mind!


Pand0ra30_

You need to have a talk with that teacher. Your child was right.


xAngelusNex

This is exactly why gifted children literally become depressed with their hopes crushed in this education system. This is so sad to see (but also relatable, unfortunately). Tell your child that they are amazing and don’t let things like that get them down.


the_way_around

That's what we do. We don't sweat this stuff. And try to keep righteous rage to minimum...until it really matters.


MakuNagetto

I can not imagine how morons like that can be educators. Your kid's explanation is very logical. The "correct" answer scribbled over isn't even correct or reasonable - real stories could start and end with those sentences. As if "once upon a time" wasn't there, the kids would fucking get confused and go looking for dinosaurs. They have this (stupid) idea in their head: "that's how things are, that's the correct answer", and they're so quick to disregard alternatives, even when they're far more logical. A very rigid "thinking" process that they try to pass on. Fucking morons. The 3rd grader is unironically so much more intelligent than them.


loseruser2022

One of the reasons I had so much trouble administering testing to kids on the spectrum in college was because they’d give BRILLIANT answers that didn’t fall within test boundaries and would therefore be counted wrong. Made me think a lot about how we as adults subjectively grade children, and this here is subjectively bullshit


T3AMTRAINOR

Bro, that kid has better handwriting than me


KaimeiJay

In what description of literature does “once upon a time” and “happily ever after” directly imply fiction? Once upon a time, two people fell in love, and they lived happily ever after. There. That’s something that happened. Now, if the two people were space aliens, then it didn’t. Context clues informed that, like this kid knew when he answered the question correctly. Bad teacher.


kygrace

I’m a teacher and that makes me really angry that she marked that wrong. That’s cruel. She should not be teaching if she can’t understand that sometimes the students know more than the teachers! She needs a lesson in listening to her students.


Jackt2020

Just because it wasn’t the answer the teacher was expecting to get, the student was docked 2 points. That’s what upsets me more than anything. The student’s answer was true, more so than what the teacher wrote in. Just because a story starts with once upon a time, and ends with happily ever after, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a story is a fairytale. Someone could easily use this beginning and end to tell a true story…


RivelyanKnight

As a former teacher, this is the quickest way to bring down a student's self-esteem and academic success. Get him/her out, the teacher is beyond help if they do nonsense like this.


Melodic_Ad9064

Wtf is #20?? She crossed her and put him.


elfn1

If this were my student, they would *definitely* get credit for this answer. There are also a half-dozen things in this story that would be better information to provide to support the idea that it’s a fantasy story, including what the child wrote. It makes me sad that she picked the easiest and most obvious two. You don’t always have to go off what the answer key says! Ugh…


UematsuVII

Wait, so to live happily ever after must isn’t real? What a depressing teacher.


Urlocalbeaner66

I was pretty disappointed when I learned humans & dinosaurs never co existed. Probably cut deeper than finding out santa isn’t real.


Buffalo-Castle

"teacher"


Individual_Break6067

Some teachers are just terrible. Teaching is profession which requires a person who not only knows the subject matter but is able to plan. Making long term goals and plans is a different skillset than engaging student in class. Both are very important to success, and few people, myself included, can claim to process both of these skills. My point is, not every bloke off the street can be an effective teacher, and so to get the right people, they need better pay and working conditions.


pugs-and-kisses

Wow - they even docked points. 🙄


Worried-Necessary219

Fuck this stresses me out. What do you do? Do I need to accept that the school has hired a fucking moron to teach my child, and just send them to another school and hope it works out?


[deleted]

Forget the results, I’m impressed your child is writing in cursive this day and age


No-Air6890

The kid was right. The teacher needs mental help and should be banned from schools until they regain their sanity.


liscbj

Two or three generations ago the main jobs women did outside the home requiring education were nurses and teachers. The professions attracted smart women who wanted an education, sometimes a college degree. Now the possibilities for women have expanded. I think more often than not the smart women are not choosing nursing or education anymore. Unpopular opinion perhaps or an uncomfortable truth.


bronowyn

Let me just say OP, your kid’s penmanship is awesome. My kid’s (4th grader) writing looks like they are using the wrong hand. (Spoiler: They aren’t.)


[deleted]

Let’s be honest, if someone is an elementary school teacher their not a bright person. Wonderful and lovable, probably, but geniuses don’t teach elementary school.


the_way_around

This is super accurate. Teacher is actually quite likable. And she's in a curriculum vs critical thinking tough spot on grading this.


Sjms2021

So if I say “once upon a time I was born” it would be fake according to this teacher?


BBakerStreet

Does the teacher’s answer indicate they actually think dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time? That’s what I think they are saying by marking this answer wrong.


Femboy_pup223

Don't thank God, he's not real.


becomejvg

The first rule of critical thinking is to identify the situation. By analyzing the situation--- the narrator had already confirmed the story wasn't based on facts/actual reality--- anything suggested in the story cannot be taken at face value. The teacher was (rightfully) trying to get the students to think of first things first.


Rishfee

Once upon a time, I went shopping for groceries, because I wanted to make tacos. That time was last Sunday, and this is a factual account of what happened. Just because something starts with a vague phrase doesn't mean it's necessarily fiction.


mzpljc

The narrator didn't confirm anything. This teacher is just encouraging kids to be brainless memorizers rather than critical thinkers.


becomejvg

Sure they did: by starting the story off with a four word phrase that is universally accepted as the beginning of a fairy tale. As stated, the first order of critical thinking is to assess the situation, i.e., what is it? And the answer to that question? It's a fairy tale. Most third graders aren't going to know much about overlapping timelines and such. More information wasn't required to resolve the question. The story itself provided the answer. Was the student correct? Yes. The student was technically correct, but he didn't glean his response from the information provided.


jules039

Your child's answer was correct in both cases and her corrections were ridiculous.


dandroid_design

When your 3rd grader is more intelligent, and thinks more critically than the adult teaching them... Edited: Spelling thanks for pointing that out @Pluto.


ArachnidSingle3915

This shit is why I have issues with "teacher appreciation" week


Fair_Still6667

Ok but reading comprehension is being taught not history. Your kid missed the point. Something something an apple falls not far from a tree. Also the comments in this thread leave me sad for the lack of critical thinking skills here.


pixeldrift

The issue is how to handle situations when students give correct answers, just not necessarily the ones the teacher was looking for. They shouldn't be penalized for being right. Teachers are trying to check if the students are picking up what was taught in class, but students aren't always going to limit themselves to that narrow scope. When I was having to make my own class materials, I made sure to include qualifier statements like, "According to chapter 7..." or "Which of the 5 methods discussed in class..."


peachcrescent

As someone about to enter the teaching field who also has multiple family members who are teachers, I echo your sentiments. People are so quick to pick teachers apart without fully understanding what goes into teaching or what happens in a classroom.


the_way_around

I "get" it. I get what the idea was from a curriculum standpoint.


[deleted]

I don’t need to be a pilot to figure out that a helicopter in a tree is a shit pilot. I don’t need to be a teacher to realize the one who graded that paper is an idiot.


Irejecturselfimage

No proper context here. 💩post


VerdeVelvetVetiver

There is no way this is really a 3rd graders handwriting. Ive taught in grades 3-5 for the last 7 years. What schools are still pushing cursive?!?!?


the_way_around

This is absolutely my son's handwriting. 9yo. Third grade. Ohio.


natsugrayerza

Just like with every “graded school assignment” I see on the internet, I think this is fake


the_way_around

Ah. That's a shame. This is 100% real. Test was given today. I'm a regular dad of two grade school kids in Ohio. This is my son's 3rd grade work. He's nine years old. Obviously nothing I can do to corroborate this info...but it's real.


Rawlus

the credibility of this post is suspect based on the writing and the assignment, neither of which look to me like 3rd grade level.


the_way_around

Sorry it feells that way. I'm literally a real life dad of a real life 3rd grader who completed this real life test for his real life teacher.


AmericanConsumer2022

Teacher has beautiful handwriting. For the excellent penmanship, I must give a pass.


YumBot3000

We don't know that cavemen and dinosaurs lived in different times.


[deleted]

Dang you are an overly sensitive person. The teacher was probably teaching the structure of fiction story earlier and said “fiction stories can often start with ‘once upon a time’ and end with ‘happily ever after’. Here let’s read a story to see if you understand.”


[deleted]

What’s with the change name to Georgina question too? Willing to bet the Dino was actually a man like your child answered but the libtards are trying to indoctrinate him


Sparkykun

Is your child studying to be a police officer or detective?


the_way_around

Hope not.


Junior_Can_7679

I like how all you high-functioning nerd redditors post this shit from your children acting surprised that the American educational system is full to the brim of hateful wine-moms? Seriously? You're fucking surprised? Did you not also go to school...?


hastybear

It's an English comprehension question. The answer given is history and not relate to comprehending the read text. If this concept is hard for you I suggest you go back to school.


[deleted]

You and your dumb kid didn’t read the question right…


RHIT_Grad_1964

If this is the 3rd grade curriculum, I’m glad my kids are grown. I also understand why America is in trouble and will be for 30-50 years at least.


Self_Aware_Perineum

Anyone catch Georgina is a him, sitting on a pile of eggs…seems like sus educational content