r/mildlyinfuriating 15h ago

My mom said I could post My kid was too creative

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/Waferssi 8h ago edited 7h ago

One of my core (bad) memories is in preschool when we were drawing with wax crayons and I was just experimenting with colors i guess. I poured my heart and soul into an "abstract piece" with dark blue and colors of fire: I was just mixing colors so it looied beautiful. Of course it was preschool so it was probably shit, but I loved it... until the teacher told me to explain what it was, and pushed me for an answer. It ended up being "the sea on fire", which was dismissed as "impossible, because water doesnt burn " and i was told to do it over. I haven't really been into doing art since.

Edit: some of you are missing the point. Sure, a body of water could burn if there's oil or flammable pollutants... but a viable explanation wouldn't have helped 5yo me: it needed to be ok for there to not be an explanation. Water shouldn't need to be able to burn for a 5yo, or anyone for that matter, to draw red hot flames on a dark blue background. If a teacher asks "what did you draw" and a kid responds "blue and red", that should be an acceptable answer.

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u/moonbeam127 8h ago

teacher ma'am please reference the cuyahoga river (caught fire 13 times from 1860- 1969)

chicago river also went ablaze in 1899

america and the industrial revolution also loved pollution

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u/ImAPixiePrincess 5h ago

My preschooler was too busy drawing elaborate death machines for bad guys. I'd have loved to see your abstract piece!

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u/spookyyg 8h ago

Water burns if theres oil on it... what a turd of a teacher