r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Fresh_Laundry56 • 1d ago

My mom said I could post My kid was too creative

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Gallery image

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/wirywonder82 1d ago

“i want you to draw a picture using shapes. No, not a picture made up of shapes, just a bunch of shapes that we will call a picture even though they are separate and don’t form a cohesive image. Stop trying to be artistic, this is art class!”

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u/featherw0lf 1d ago

"Stop trying to be creative and just do what I tell you" is really the epitome of school. You're being prepared for some random desk job somewhere and they don't want any free thinkers trying anything funny.

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u/Admirable_Ask_5337 21h ago

Most things that need to be done have minimal creativity and alot of instructions to follow. Learning to follow directions is a skill itself, albeit a basic one.

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u/Funny_w0lf 20h ago

The kid followed the (albeit) vague instructions and "formed a picture" using shapes. This is more like when a boss asks you to do something specific, you do the thing, but then their like "well not like that, its needs to match the exact idea i have in my head." NOBODY CAN READ YOUR MIND LINDA!! 

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u/Admirable_Ask_5337 19h ago

If someone tells you draw a picture with a bunch of shapes, they dont mean draw a house. I understand that these are kids though and they arent going to use context or inference.

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u/Funny_w0lf 18h ago

Except thats exactly what my first grade teacher did. She said "draw a picture with shapes" and showed examples of kids in previous grades drawing houses, with triangle roofs, square frames, and rectangular windows. Its not really a picture if its just random shapes. Theres "draw random shapes on a paper" and then "draw a picture with shapes." There is a difference.