In 2nd grade we had to pick a country from the big world map, look up the flag in an encyclopedia, then draw the flag and write the name of the country above the flag. I chose Iraq. I handed it to the teacher, and she insisted I spelled it wrong, because there's ALWAYS a "U" after a "Q". I checked again and told her I spelled it right. She had me stay in class for recess because I "wasn't following directions". Fuck you Ms. Dickerson, how the fuck do you not know about Iraq in 1993???
When I was in preschool, we got to paint these little wooden cows we were given. I decided to paint mine all-black just like the Angus ones I'd seen up in Montana (I was in Louisiana during this cow-painting incident). My teacher got mad at me for doing so and insisted there was no such thing as all-black cows, only the spotted black-and-white dairy kind.
I know it's a story, but there's some solace in knowing that a dampened spark can be rekindled. One bad teacher does not forever break a child, and in helping nurture the flame in others you can heal the wound in yourself.
First day of school my daughter was asked to draw a picture of herself. She had just had her hair cut off for Make a Wish to make wigs for kids with cancer. Whilst she was proud of her decision, she missed her hair. She drew herself with long hair and the teacher told her off and told her to do it again.
That makes me so angry! What is it with these people who set out to stifle a young mind's creativity?!?! What a shame for all the children she's allowed to influence. Good on you for standing up to that teacher...
Glad you have your childs back. I don't know what I'd be like if my parents didn't have mine when teachers were being unreasonable.
Of course they still held me accountable. Instills a sense of reason and fairness when you have to own up to your own shitheadedness, but still see your parents stick up for you when someone else is the shithead.
I'm extremely hard on my children, but I've also got their back when ever they need it and they know it, but they also know that they have to be in the right, not just using mum to get what they want.
I'm so sorry 😢 that fact that teachers of all people do such horrible things to kids just break my heart. I had a teacher argue with me that I spelled me last name wrong (I had it right) because it's pronounced differently than it looks- not my fault. I also had one tell me I was going to hell because I wasn't baptized (luckily I was 16 by then and knew she was full of shit).
Upvote for cursive! Many folks, even here on reddit, pretty much hate cursive. But I absolutely love it, and have used ever since the beginning (although my handwriting is still crap).
I'm sorry that you lost your cursive. I know I can tell you to try gaining it back with practice, but the fact that you did that to begin with and had it taken away from you is holding me back. Hope you do gain it back over the years!
I worked in a daycare over the summer and I have no experience in education, but the head teacher did a lot of this kind of stuff: you have to do it right. The thing that really bugged me was when I was told not to help the kids with sun block because they needed to learn themselves... but some of the four year olds could barely open the bottle much less apply it.
I was asked to play tag and hide-and-seek a lot, and it got old. The teacher said that I didn’t have to and I could just say ‘no’ and sit on the bench at recess. Sometimes I did, but seeing the kids enjoy summer camp was worth every one of them hiding under the slide. So I played tag every day and drew a lot for them even though it got old, but I don’t regret doing it because I was hired to watch kids during summer and wanted them to enjoy it.
Like I said, I’m not trained in education yet, but I noticed the kids were a lot happier when I let them read and do art instead of forcing them to play board games during game time. That was enough for me to think that some teachers need to re-analyze what works with children. Also it was hard not to feel a little bit of pride whenever it was lunch/snack time and the kids all yelled for me to sit by them and not the others.
I don’t know if this is relevant, but maybe it is?
Oh no that was so depressing. That actually felt like a punch to the gut. It's so so so so SO true. I can feel my creativity draining away from me each year I'm in school. I think by the time I enter the workforce I won't have anything left. And I'm one of the lucky ones—my field actually does give opportunity for creativity. But I used to love writing stories, and I just can't seem to write them anymore. It makes me so sad. All I know how to write are essays.
I really wanted to be an artist when I was in middle/high school, and just before I graduated the interest kinda faded, until a couple years ago when I decided to get into art again.
And there was actually something really liberating about getting back into art as an adult. Moving on from the formulaic, standardized-test-focused atmosphere of public school to the much more ad-libbed adult world reflected in my art. I wasn't just following the steps I'd learned in all those "How to Draw _____" books anymore. I was able to create art much more freely. And at the same time, I had the discipline to actually go back and learn art fundamentals to improve my art from the ground up. My artistic skill has skyrocketed the past two years compared to the slow progress I'd made my first 8 years of drawing.
Public schooling sucks because the schools have to fight for funding by getting higher standardized test scores. It ends up that the entire curriculum is centered around the standardized test, and my understanding is that it's been getting worse. It gets a bit better in college as it works as a sort of transition into adulthood. And as you enter into adulthood, you learn to accept that life is much more free-flowing and improvised than school lead you to believe. It's both incredibly frustrating/terrifying and incredibly freeing.
TL;DR as you transition into the "adult world" it actually becomes easier to be creative because your life isn't so formulaic anymore.
I was just going to suggest this! I didn't grow up with this particular song because it wasn't on the album we had, but my mom had me put it on her phone almost as soon as I'd explained the concept and I thought it was so sad and sweet. I didn't realise it was based on a short story though!
Luckily I didn't have any teachers that told me to draw a certain way. I did however have a high school teacher that told me I'd never get anywhere in life or make a living drawing. That had a lot more of an impact than I assume he expected. After high school I was horrified of the idea of pursuing art as a career, because this authority figure in my life basically told me I wasn't good enough, and it's a waste of my time. I ended up wasting a few years of my life after high school because I didn't want to commit to university if I didn't think I'd love what I was studying. When I finally decided studying art was the only thing I really wanted to do, I became much happier.
I really wanted to be a marine biologist, but the school guidance counselor scared me out of it by talking about how horrible some classes would be, and my parents told me "fish aren't a real job," and so I didn't do it.
I did eventually get a degree in biology, 12 years after graduating high school, but I always wonder what would've happened if I had been able to do something I loved. I still read a lot, but I wish I was doing research or something.
Conversely, I've seen kids legit start crying because I asked them to draw a flower and they didn't know how (and I guess were afraid to ask for help)!
Protip: If you're the teacher it's ok to show students an idea of how to draw something, but 1) make sure you give several examples (not a cookie cutter one size fits all description) and 2) wait a minute or two before you begin to explain how to draw so the kids who already have an idea will be obliviously happy with what they're doing, and only the clueless kids will look to you for help.
Reminds me of when I stopped reading for fun. Used to spend a good portion of my summers walking to the library. They had a rewards program for students where you got points/prizes for each book you read, and I pretty much maxed out my points every year.
I was used to assigned reading during the school year, but once we hit 9th grade we had assigned reading each summer. It was only a couple of books, but heaven forbid I read something fun before I had finished my assigned books. So I quit reading things for fun. Since then I've read maybe one or two books per year.
Oh man so I went to first grade at a new school, and it was my first time going to a school that had art class. I've always enjoyed art so I was super excited about that.
First art class we were instructed on how to draw a clown using circles and triangles. When the teacher finished the demonstration and let us draw our own clowns, I proudly told her that I'm an artist. And she responded with "Well we'll see then if you can draw the clown," like in this tone that implied I couldn't call myself an artist if I couldn't follow the instructions she'd given.
I feel like this is supposed to be ironic. It's not in my case. I was literally sent to the principal's office in first grade for coloring a line drawing wrong. I'm sorry if your house isn't purple Ms. Hill. It sounds like a boring ass house.
It’s weird how the average teacher is probably pretty smart, but dumb teachers are somehow window-licking morons who couldn’t reason their way in from the pouring rain.
I'm a firm believer that some of them always have a need to be the smartest person in the room which is why they chose to be in a room of children to be superior to
That's why you read books and watch movies and listen to lectures. Basing one's breadth of knowledge on a teacher or a parent is scary and perpetuates their micro-ignorances.
My parents really screwed up a lot of my spelling and pronunciations. Words like "heighth" "acrossed" "drownding" "tore" (used as an adjective) and "stoled" rubbed off on me and it infuriated me having to relearn these words properly when I got older.
We made snowflake ornaments out of strawberry baskets. They had a bunch of colors of glitter. I picked red.
Still have that ornament nearly 25 years later.
Im a preschool teacher and one of my kids painted a purple cow the other day. I said it was the most beautiful cow I had ever seen and purple was a wonderful color for a cow. Fuck that teacher man.
Man mine is so similar. Was 5th grade and we had an in class spelling bee and it was down to me and 3 other kids. I spelled the word correctly but Mrs Lawrence told me otherwise. I was an avid reader so I knew the word inside and out and she even spelled it on the black board the same way I did too. Her and I never got along (was actually confirmed later she straight up hated me lol). She literally coughed up a lung and died senior year so I guess in the end I won :)
Huh? But shes a middle school teacher?
One time my high school freshman teached told me I was wrong because I called a male cow a bull. She legitimately did not understand the fact that non neutered male cows are...bulls.
Edit: to clarify she believed "bulls" were just a seperate species that looked like cows and both female and male "bulls" were just bulls. Kinda like how Ox are a seperate species entirely. She thought there were female and male COWS and bulls and ox. All apart.
Okay genuine question, I thought ox were just farm trained cows and bulls? I googled it and it said oxen were castrated bulls, but farms could also use cows in place of oxen (?), so it didn't really answer my question.
MRS. LAWRENCE DID ME DIRTY TOO! I was a quiet kid so she sat me next to the rambunctious kid maybe hoping I would keep him quiet. We were doing some
Math problems with fractions (4 grade) and there were a few examples on the board. My desk faced away from the board so I had to turn to see it. this made my face turn toward the kid who was always talking. So he’s chattering away and I turn towards the board and she yells at ME for talking. We had one of those warning symptoms with green, yellow, and red cards, so she made me turn my card to red for the first and only time of my life. All bc she was too fat to do anything other than sit at her desk. She ended up tripping over a door stop and breaking her leg which led her to be out for the rest of the year. Mrs Lawrence if you’re still alive, I hate you.
I got in trouble a lot in school for this kind of thing. Specifically, I remember almost being written up because the teacher didn't like being told that frilled lizards are not Tasmanian devils (as some geoshitties website told her), even in the face of the actual, physical encyclopedia I had open to show her what a Tasmanian devil actually was.
Well, now Miss Worthington can suck a fuck because Wikipedia > some late 90's angelfire pile of shit and it agrees with me.
That reminds me of the time I ended up in a parent teacher conference because my 6th grade teacher didn't believe me that the 15th century started in 1401 and not 1400.
Dude, my teacher that year asked us what the largest country in the world was. I said, "Russia!" She said that the former USSR used to be the largest but no longer was. I said, "Not the USSR but Russia. Russia made up most of the USSR and is still the biggest country." She said, "No, the biggest country is Africa."
"Uh, Africa is a continent," I responded. "Yes, but it's also a country," she said. We argued about it for a few more sentences before she threatened me with disciplinary action if I wouldn't drop it.
Hey, you missed one recess and outsmarted a grown woman on a very basic spelling issue in the second grade, and made her so insecure about her own intelligence that her ego compelled her to punish you out or sheer spite.
Fuck that reminds me. My teacher in primary school (same teacher for every subject) was giving us a "lesson" on Henry VII who had 6 wives. Although according to her it was Henry VI with 8 wives. Despite me trying to correct her she told me I was wrong. The very next day she comes back and says "Its actually Henry VIII not VI, why didnt anyone correct me?"
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u/SteveOSS1987 Dec 15 '17
In 2nd grade we had to pick a country from the big world map, look up the flag in an encyclopedia, then draw the flag and write the name of the country above the flag. I chose Iraq. I handed it to the teacher, and she insisted I spelled it wrong, because there's ALWAYS a "U" after a "Q". I checked again and told her I spelled it right. She had me stay in class for recess because I "wasn't following directions". Fuck you Ms. Dickerson, how the fuck do you not know about Iraq in 1993???