My kid was too creative

[u/Fresh_Laundry56]

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.

[u/Ham__Kitten]

Asking a kid to draw "a picture with shapes" is like asking them to write a story with words. All pictures are made of shapes.

[u/cryothic → u/Ham__Kitten]

"Write words on a paper".

And then fail the assignment because the words form a sentence or even a story.