Today, I received an email from an angry parent, demanding that I give his daughter an A on a project which I had given her a 0 on. The project was to pick an article related to science and to write an essay on it. Hers was a hoax article relating to Ebola patients rising from the dead. FML
Collection
Fall
Dead leaves, the first cold of the season and an umbrella flipped inside out: fall, the season of grace.
Today, I got an A+ on a writing assignment. My teacher asked me three times if I really did write this article myself, and didn't memorise an article from the Internet. FML
Today, a fifth grader gave me a note from his "father" excusing him from PE. It was riddled with spelling errors and shockingly poor grammar, so I rejected it as a blatant fake. Several hours later, I was informed by his very angry father that it wasn't actually fake. FML
Today, I turned in an essay after staying up late to work on it. I was away when the teacher assigned it, so I'd asked my friend what the subject was. It transpires that she'd given me the wrong one, all because she was mad at me for not returning her pencil. FML
Today, I got a history project back that I worked very hard on. The teacher didn't bother to write any feedback, besides, "Did you even understand the assignment?" on the back. FML
Today, I got an F because I’m an idiot and wrote my essay on WW1 instead of WW2. I offered to resubmit a correct essay, but my mom stormed to school to demand it be changed to at least a B, because it was a good essay, even if it was on the wrong war. God, she’s impossible and embarrassing. FML
Today, I accused a student in my class of getting his dad to do his homework. It turns out that his dad died two years ago. FML
Today, my teacher read my story about a haunted house for a class assignment. She liked it very much and turned it in to the office to be sent into a state writing competition. An hour later, I was called to the office where the guidance counselor called my work "disturbing" and said I "need help". FML
Today, my classmate told me she can copy an article from the internet and hand that in, as long as she cites it at the end. FML
Today, I’m a high school teacher and I finally learned how to use the smartboard properly. I connected my laptop to demonstrate a lesson… and projected the last thing I had open: a half-written email complaining about how loud this exact class is. Thirty teenagers read it in silence. One kid raised his hand and said, “Fair.” FML
Today, my son came running in, saying he had a project due tomorrow. I asked when it was assigned; he said two weeks ago. I refused to help, saying that he failed to act responsibly and had to live with the consequences. Now he's throwing a tantrum and my wife is screaming at me. FML
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Top comments
Indianboy9321 25
It's one thing to politely ask you to allow his daughter to redo the assigned work with a proper article, and it's another thing to "demand" a near-perfect score for nowhere near acceptable work...
SharnaaaBanana 22
It really amazes me how ignorant some people can be.
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Comments (247)
wanted_2_want 40
That student and her family watch too many stupid TV shows. ZOMBIES DO NOT EXIST....same with vampires and werewolves, people. Geee
Wedgietime 14
It's sad how many people think the student should have gotten points for attempting to do the essay. As far back as I can remember, from elementary school to college, proper resource finding has been hammered into students skulls. This wasn't a question where you can get points for trying to answer it correctly, this was an essay in which all of the information used to write it was wrong. We need more teachers like the OP. It is teachers like them that are hated by students throughout schooling, yet are thought differently about when the student becomes an adult. It is more than likely this student will pay much more attention to future assignments from the teacher and the parents will be much more involved. Even if it is only for spite.
Axel5238 29
Agreed, a good essay it may have been, but it isn't the assignment. Don't know what grade the student was in, but if she isn't in college yet she's gonna be in for a rude awakening. Most college professors I've had have been cool, but none would have allowed this not even in high school or elementary.
nitrog100 21
I highly doubt that the assignment had anything to do with assessing the chosen article's validity. Even though it was 99.998% likely that the article was a hoax, it sounds like she worked within the parameters of the assignment.
poronator 3
@44 You only get a zero for either non or late submission in most curriculums. Sourcing doesn't have weighting of 100% or else it wouldn't be a written assignment.
xoxo_tsth 3
IT IS A PROPER RESOURCE, CHECK AFRICAN NEWSPAPERS
tantanpanda 26
ok, so the parameters was to write about an article of science. ebola zombies is not science. pseudoscience does not count as science. just because you stick the word science after something does not mean it's science. science fiction is not science. I'm so done with people like you
mansen 15
@122 You don't understand what using a proper resource is do you. It is not just citing where you found the article. It is also making sure it is valid, the facts are real, the research used in the cited resource is proper (peer reviewed, etc, not based on anecdotes, or hype...at least not ever in science...actually, in anything). If any student wrote an essay using the Onion as their references for where they got their resources, they would fail. Or should, if they were using that as a serious reference for facts and news for a basis. Would you grant them a pass because they just used a resource? No matter where it came from? That is low and shoddy standards.
shadypalmtree 20
if you wouldn't grant a pass for using a good resource then you can't grant a fail for using one that East's well chosen
FalconCrunch 4
Wow, way to go. Sure glad my taxes go to pay for lazy dicks like you.
whosemr2 5
In what way is this teacher a "lazy dick?" The student clearly didn't follow the instructions
Jak0p 25
#42 What's about cats with laser eyes? Are they real??
SuperMew 22
You should update the criteria of the assignment for the future. However, sometimes you need to inspire your students. Give her a chance to redo the assignment for a lower grade. Then do an extra credit assignment with something fun like this.
gpg5 19
Or demons? Or revenants? Or even ******* Shojos?
AnalAssassin1 14
Not zombies that rise from dead, but theres a parasite that targets our brains and essentially takes control of it. Not really a zombie but more like infected.
nitrog100 21
Well, while I think the girl would have to be an idiot to actually believe the article was valid, you mention nothing about the assignment involving an assessment of the article's validity. Would you have failed a student who wrote an essay based on research that failed to meet the critical value of a chi squared test or had fewer than 35 subjects? Is p<0.05 all that matters to you? Andrew Wakefield was published in the Lancet; you should cut the girl a little slack and give her a C.
poronator 3
@58 Don't sweat it, judging by the comments made most of these people probably never made it through high school. Those who did probably went to state college. Typical drones who are quick to turn down ideologies which doesn't fit with what they believe.
tantanpanda 26
The criteria is for the article to be about science (ebola zombies falls under pseudoscience or non science, which aren't sciences), not whether the article can provide statistically significant data. Although, if something is to be science, it would probably have to pass those requirements. the converse is not true though, so your example is invalid. Any experiment could satisfy the chi square test or the n > 30 theorem, but it doesn't mean it's science.
Thatguy334 7
Awesome comeback to the blatant stupid preceding
goreajek 13
Well... You didn't specify whether the article had to be real or not. You just said it has to relate to science. Never underestimate people's stupidity.
Lil_Red777 21
How do you know she didn't specify that? There's a word limit she can't exactly lay out her whole lesson plan for us.
tantanpanda 26
related to science means exactly that. pseudoscience is not science regardless of the science attached to the end. OPs instructions were crystal clear
Thunderstruck14 30
Did you show her parent the essay? Haha, I'd have trouble keeping serious in that situation.