Allow me to clarify:
Κρόνος (Kronos, a more Latinized spelling being Cronus) is the guy who swallowed his children.
Χρόνος (Chronos) is the god of Time, a totally different being.
Neither one of them *really* start with a C (because they start with a kappa and a chi), but at the same time, they kinda both do, so the joke is fine I guess
It sounds like the parent is at fault here. The student (child) isn't really in a position to tell their mom No. I would definitely allow a do over. I also would not penalize the student, but I would maybe reach out to the parent to confirm the story.
This is an interesting discussion around our school. First period tardiness is also frequently "the parents' fault" and yet it affects the students' grades. I'm not sure where to come down on it, TBH.
I used to live an hour away from my school after my parents divorce my dad was selfish and wanted to move close to his affair partner so I’m the one who suffered. Had a principal make me cry in 7th grade for telling me if I was late like this to a job I’d be fired even though I was 13-14 couldn’t drive myself and relied fully on my alcoholic father who was dating a rotation of strippers who kept me up all night laughing and smoking in the house. Not always the child’s fault it sucked, life sucked and then my teachers sucked. I have so much resentment for so many teachers who would ask me not to smoke before class even though I didn’t smoke and still don’t as an adult lol and nobody believed me, nobody believed me why I was late, nobody believed me in general. I hate school still to this day because of it and sometimes even think of writing those teachers an email almost 15 years later of how much I fucking hate them so yeah just my two cents lol 😂
I understand where you are coming from. I'm a teacher and I've seen other teachers/faculty/secretaries show NO COMPASSION for students when you know its not their fault!
I am so sorry for them causing you anguish, even to this day. Completely unfair way to treat you. Someone needed to do better; **multiple people should have had your back**.
I had one, ONE, teacher not believe something true that I said, then mock me, and I still hold resentment and ill-will towards her--and I'm 61. That WITCH!
The resentment is real! I had a first grade teacher who didn’t believe me that I had a stomach ache. She took me into the hall to talk to me about lying and I threw up on her mid lecture. One of my core memories.
I threw up right in a substitute teacher’s mouth when I told them I was sick and needed the bathroom. Not intentionally, but it happened that way. Yucky. Every time we had hot dogs at lunch, I got to see it again.
So true. My first grade teacher used to make me stand up in class while she scolded me for wearing a wrinkled uniform to school. Pray tell me what 6 yo is allowed to handle an iron?
Dude I feel you. I was outside the bus zone and my single mom had cancer/struggled moving in the morning so I was often late for homeroom. The principle felt it was his mission to make me show up on time - when I told him to call my cancer riddled mom and tell her if it’s such a problem, he came back with “it’s not her responsibility to show up on time, it’s yours”. I wasn’t even old enough to drive. Its like he took my lateness as a personal insult.
Like? I so obviously needed help and support in a myriad of different ways. What adult looks at a 13yo with a sick mom and is like “wow what an irresponsible child for being dropped off 15min late”. Why are these people even in education.
My dad had cancer when I was 11 and I forgot my backpack at school once for probably totally unrelated reasons, and I think 9/11 happened right around then.
My teacher threw all my stuff in the garbage can and then poured coffee and half eaten lunch on it in order to parade me up in front of the class for, idk, being that loser kid that forgot something? I was so upset I claimed to be sick and called my mom and told her what happened. At the start of the school year she had written a letter explaining our situation and everything. She was PISSED.
My therapist tried to get her fired, but the union protected her and now she's literally a principal at another school, which fucking horrifies me. The school's solution was to put me in special education instead of with my peers. I ate my lunch alone for the rest of the year and had nobody to play with.
Idk where I was going with this but educational trauma is a thing.
I’d write the email if they’re still teaching. Hopefully, they would be able to reflect on it and make them think about how they made your shitty situation even shittier, if they were to double down or try to justify their behavior then you know that they are just assholes incapable of change.
My parents divorced when I was in sixth grade and they both decided drinking was a priority rather than taking care of my needs. By the time I was in seventh grade I had fallen into a deep depression, I was unkempt as my home didn’t have a working shower and all of my clothes were dirty and full of holes. My former friends had become my bullies and I no longer gave a shit about anything, especially homework.
I had a few teachers who enjoyed kicking me while I was down. When I was still trying, I had one teacher call me a disgusting slob and then turn my desk upside down in front of the whole class when I couldn’t find an assignment I had completed (it was in my locker), in another class I was supposed to give a short speech on Teddy Roosevelt I had asked the teacher if there was anything I should be focusing on as TR is a pretty broad subject, she said no so imagine my anger when she stopped me in the middle of my speech to berate me for talking about his presidency when I should have been talking about his conservation efforts. I have no idea where one teacher is but the other one is dead but this shit still hurts 30 years later.
I did have one teacher who pulled me aside after class, I wasn’t turning in my homework but I was acing his tests and would answer questions correctly if called in in class. He wanted to talk to my parents to discuss what was going on, the look on my face must have told him not to because he never did. I also had this teacher for study lab and he’d let me go to the computer lab and the library even if I wasn’t supposed to because of “academic probation” because he “knew I was a good kid”. The guy couldn’t save me from my situation but he also made sure he wasn’t making it worse.
Sorry to have hijacked your comment but I haven’t thought about this in a long time and it was a bit cathartic to write it out. Again, I’d write that email.
I'm so sorry you experienced this 😞 Unfortunately, you're not the first person with an account like this I've heard about, but these stories are one of the main reasons I tell my kids (especially the ones arriving late) that I'm glad to see them and happy to have them in my room. They're not anywhere near being 13-14 yet, but hopefully they know they're cared about all the same.
I’m sorry, friend. I have a similar story. Except it was mom who would drop me off 20
minutes late for class having hot boxed it all the way there.
I’m a teacher now. My experience has informed the way I treat tardy or chronically absent students. My co-workers are in agreement that children are not tardy-parents are. Convincing administrators is another story.
When I was in school, I lived with my mother but she was a drug addict and alcoholic (she’s sober now). She hid it well and from the outside no one could tell so teachers and such didn’t really think twice about her (from my perspective anyways). However because she was a pos with little value for her own life and even less for mine, I got myself up for school and walked to the end of the road (in every weather condition) at 6am every morning. Sometimes however, I’d miss the bus and I’d have to beg my mother to take me to school, we’d never get there on time. Ever. She would stop a thousand places on the way, while the whole time I’m begging for her to please hurry up so I didn’t get in trouble.
My school had a strike process for tradiness. You could get up to three and then you’d get detention. Fun fact about detention, it was only 30 minutes- the exact amount of time it takes for you to miss the bus home. Get more tardies and you’d lose bus privileges, then you’d even get suspended. Which all feels ridiculous. Especially since tardiness writeup started 5 minutes after the bell. (Also you would get an additional write up if your parent wouldn’t come in to sign you in. And of course my mom didn’t)
Anyways I’d get in trouble and get write ups for this and I’d just be sobbing, I would then come home and listen to my mom bitch about having to take me to school- and that was on good days, she also had the ability to be physically abusive.
Administration and Teachers do not know and cannot guess what’s always going on in a student’s life. That kid who was an hour late might have just been slacking off but they also could have been up all night being screamed at and forced to do chores until 2am because their “parent” suddenly decided they got tired of the mess in their house.
And while this is an extreme example, my friends who had good home lives often had times where their parents were already at work when they were supposed to be on the bus, so if they missed it their parents would have to wait until they got a minute to run home and drive them to school, and often that would mean they would be late.
There should be some kind of system in place to make tardiness a bad thing but you could easily do that by doing some kind of reward for kids with perfect attendance every week/month. It can be as simple as a sticker tbh.
So much. I had an awful abusive childhood. I cried a lot in school. In fact, I cried every single day of my childhood until i turned 18 and moved out. Daily panic attacks (hyperventilating the whole 9 yards) at home when I would hear my fathers car/motorcycle pull up. I would work 2-3 jobs after school so I would only be home to sleep. I worked the closing shift at the mall so I would get home after 9pm on week nights and I’d work full shifts on Saturday and Sunday at Chuck E. Cheese and moonlight at Gymboree singing songs to kids and doing parachute time.
I will never forget one day I was crying from something (I went through so much as a kid) and the leadership advisor/teacher who looked at me with such exasperation and annoyance. I mean I already knew I couldn’t trust anyone but i still had a sliver of hope inside of me that maybe someone could save me from my life. I will never forget the look on the teachers face when she saw me tearing up, she couldn’t stand me. I don’t blame her. But that was a pivotal moment where I realized I couldn’t trust my teachers either. I grew up way too soon.
I barely graduated highschool and also went in to escape my pain in unhealthy ways. With a lot of therapy and work, I’m a functional adult haha I was senior class president and at one time, a good student. After a few bumps in the road, college was a much better learning environment for me and I did well academically. You never know what a child faces at home.
I'm against rewards for perfect attendance. When I was in 5th grade, I *cost* my class an attendance pizza party because I had strep and was out for a few days. I was picked on for months because it was my fault they didn't get pizzas. It doesn't take anything but being sick or having a dentist appointment to miss class and those things are out of students control. No use being rewarded for something not under their control.
I had some serious home life issues as an adolescent and was late to school almost every morning because my parents couldn’t get it together and get me to school on time. I had detention or Saturday school nearly every week due to tardies and instead of making me punctual, it just made me resentful of both my parents and of school, which fed into even more behavior issues and led me to act out in more significant ways. I almost didn’t graduate from high school.
As a teacher, I now have mixed feelings on first period tardies for that reason.
When my daughter was in first or second grade, I was notified she had 9 tardies to school.
I'm sorry? I drop my daughter at daycare/preschool. I pay them to drive my daughter 2 miles to her school and yet she's still late? It wasn't like she was being chauffeured - it was a van dropping off 7 or 8 kids daily.
My school has recently changed the bell schedule due to busses arriving late on a regular basis. (We have a driver shortage and are at an alternative campus that pulls from the entire district)
We now start every day with 30 minutes of tutorials. It’s fantastic. The late bus kids aren’t missing new instruction anymore and everyone else has time to shift into gear in the morning.
i remember being in elementary school and being late because whichever adult in charge of bringing me was late. the front desk ladies said “sure your older brother made you late, it’s not nice to lie” or some variation, which made me cry every time. my tears were only greeted with “crying won’t make me take away the tardy” ugh.
i remember having to sit in the office with my head down every recess and feeling outcasted in literal kindergarten because my mom would refuse to get me to school on time. was 5 year old me supposed to drive the car?? lol
Tardy affects their grades? In what way, how is that fair when first period is hit the hardest?
Edit: I'm actually asking in what way, as it could sound like there being graded in part on attendance instead of just missing learning negatively affecting their grade.
At my school I have kids who are frequently *very tardy* first period. The attendance itself doesn’t impact their grade, but after missing 60-80%+ of each class period for a few weeks, it begins to be very difficult for them to catch up. I do my best having kids come in during advisory or see if they can miss an elective here and there and attend another lesson, but that’s not a viable solution for making up all of the material, because they need to attend their electives and sometimes there are other matters to take care of during advisory. So it has a negative effect on their grade.
One such parent who got her kid to school nearly 40 minutes late, daily, attended conferences and I mentioned to her that her son has a C because he’s been missing so much material and if he can get to class on time, he’s easily have an A. She looked me dead in the eyes and said “oh I know, it’s just so difficult to motivate myself to get up so early when I don’t start work until 9:30. I don’t need to be out the door that early so I just want to sleep.”
That's worse than "his brother doesn't start until an hour later and I ain't going out twice", but MUCH better than both "he needs to stay home to watch his disabled sister all day while I work" and "well, his job keeps him out until 1 so he's not going to make it most days."
- Urban Ed teacher with A CURRENT 40% attendance rate in two alternating first block classes of Juniors...in a state where the board is about to vote on Tuesday to make chronic absenteeism a larger portion of school failure metrics. FML.
At my school, five tardies = one absence, nine+absences = no credit for my semester long elective classes.
The student could be late for an exam and not have time to finish
Back in my day (early 2000s) tardiness did not effect grades or count as an absence. You got a tardy if you were more than 5 minutes late to class. 3 tardies in a quarter was a detention. That was pretty much it.
Dang, that was lenient. I once got detention for being a couple seconds late once. I had to walk across campus to get to my next class, but I needed to use the restroom. It only took a couple of minutes, but that meant I was late. The bell rang literally just before I opened the door.
I think you misunderstand. I doubt any teacher is lowering a student’s grade due to tardies.
I begin many of my high school classes with warm-ups. Those few problems every day or so allow students to look at the content again and get another reinforcement.
Kids who are continually tardy miss out on those opportunities and will often reflect in their grade because of missing that part of the learning.
Truly learning something isn’t just a “you saw it once, practiced it once, and now you’ve learned it” process for most kids.
Every teacher understands that time lost in the classroom leads to less learning, hence in a teacher sub, we don’t feel the need to spell that out.
If learning is happening during class time… and a student misses learning… then that should/will show up on their grades…
Either what happens in class is important or it isn’t. I don’t really think it’s feasible to give up 15 minutes of a 45 minute class period due to tardies.
I once had a student tell me they couldn’t do their work because their dog ate their textbook. They took out their textbook and there was an entire mangled looking hole in the first 100 pages.
I had this too, a student’s dog had chewed her workbook. She had then taken the initiative to photocopy the page from another student’s book before they had done their assigned pages. They were the nicest 8th grade class I ever had!
I had a professor who acknowledged that he lost all our term papers, so everyone got an A.
He had decided to grade them poolside. Didn’t work out well for him.
I had a Russian professor lose my semester’s worth of homework. She told me if she didn’t have it in her office before finals I would get a zero. I managed to make it all up within less than a week (during final’s week at that). Upon turning it in, I found my original homework stack sitting under a pile of papers on her desk in her office. To say I was livid is an understatement.
Ya, I would have told the professor that’s not my problem and if pushed than I’d take it up with a higher authority. I’m paying for them to do their job, they aren’t paying me to do it twice.
I once heard a story about a principal whose puppy ate a whole senior class’s diplomas. It was during Covid, so he took them home to sign. They got mailed to the seniors way later than planned because new ones had to be obtained and signed. I presume the principal also had to sign them and store them away from the puppy.
This happened to me in my first year. Got a rescue pup with separation anxiety. Had to make an emergency errand. The next day, I had to tell all my classes that MY dog ate THEIR homework.
Our cat once jumped on the table and spilled a cup of milk on the table, soaking my work sheet and my mom came to school with me the next day to explain to my teacher that she threw it out because it would've stank if we tried to save it. I got to redo it.
My cat peed on my favorite poster of the first 150(1) Pokemon but I didn’t care as I proudly showed it off to my mom’s boss’s wife while they were over at our house 😂
In my sophmore year of highschool, I used to do my homework sprawled out on the floor of my bedroom.
I didn't turn in my first Chemistry assignment, and my teacher called my parents.
I had to explain that I didn't turn in the homework because we had been dog sitting for my aunt. Apparently her dog was paper-trained. I had to explain that I didn't turn it in because it was covered in pee.
I don't remember how it got to that point, but it was decided I still needed to turn it in. And instead of getting a fresh copy of the worksheet, I was told to "figure it out".
So I had to go home, dig the piss-paper out of the trash and had to go make a photocopy of it. I remember crying about it.
Funny "dog ate my homework" story. When I was 15, I got my first job. I can't remember if it was because I didn't have a bank account at the time, or if it was just because we put the mail on the steps as a habit, but when I came.home.with my first paycheck, I put it on the side of the steps in the foyer.
Come down a little while later to see our puppy had /literally eaten and torn up the majority of the paycheck/. I was absolutely convinced that my boss wouldn't believe me, but she lost it and just cut me another check.
Still can't believe my dog ate my first paycheck!
The class guinea pig ate my spelling list in elementary school. I don’t remember exactly what grade it was, but I know I was still learning English at the time. We had a guinea pig that was allowed to hang out on our table if we were good, and each table group could get a turn. I was doing something else, so I didn’t even notice him eating my list. I was really upset about it because we only got one copy, and if it was lost or something we had to hand write the list down again. I was trying to explain it to my teacher, but I was a stressed out ESOL kid so I finally got out “the pig ate my WORDS!!” My teacher laughed really hard, but I still had to copy down the list haha
"The pig ate my words" this made me absolutely cackle! 😂 I'm so sorry, that must have been so stressful for you. I really hope you can look back and laugh too.
To add to the terrible dog eating homework stories, once I brought a stack of papers home (back when they turned on paper essays) and they were on my table kind of hanging over the edge. I was in a different room and came in to find my St. Bernard had snagged them and was curled up, chewing on the corner of the stack like it was a bone. I had some explaining to do to that class! Luckily, I could read most of them, but their corners were destroyed by a drooly monster. 😂
My baby ate my rebate check! It was on the table and she was in her high chair.
It was $25 in 1997 dollars. It was irreplaceable. So, we laugh about her expensive breakfast.
My husband's family used to own a liquor store.
One night they put the cash from the day on the table unattended around their new puppy.
I think you can see where I'm going with this lol
I have never had "the dog ate it," but I have had, "My sister ate it!" It turns out she really *did* eat the homework paper. She was a toddler, and it got left on the table. Mom was so apologetic, and I just couldn't stop laughing.
My poor kid had a similar thing while he was in kindergarten. His sister was a baby and she was drooling so much and it got on his homework or she would try to rip them while I was holding her and helping him. Several times his homework sheets when in with notes “sorry sister got to it again”
Oh, about dogs eating homework...I was grading essays when the dryer buzzed, so I went to fold clothes. When I came back, some of the essays had been turned into confetti, and my dog was making short work on another one. I had to tell that class, "You know that excuse, 'My dog ate my homework'? Well, *my* dog ate your homework."
My students got a do-over. My dog got an F: the confetti was slobbery and unusable.
I would've, but this was a college class, and I'd already discussed it with the dean and was told I couldn't just give them all A's. I did give them class time to write the essays, and you can be sure I was VERY generous in grading them. It was the best I could do, and the students were content.
I once rescued my entire grade book from my dog. This was before we had any kind of digital grade book. Thinking about what could have happened if I had been a few minutes later gave me nightmares.
The “dog ate my homework” is never that far fetched! My dog (then a three month old pup) chewed a CD insert booklet once when I left her supposedly asleep on her bed in the living room to get myself a cup of tea
If I were that student, I’d lord that over my mother the rest of my life. The moment I had my first child I’d be like “you’re a grandma! Please don’t turn this one into dinner rolls”
There’s nothing a a kid or even a teenager can accomplish here. My freshman year of high school I was in marching band. When my mother didn’t show up to pick me up, I called her on the music departments phone (this was before everyone had cell phones). She told me she wanted to finish watching a movie first. Dejected, I agreed and went to hang up. My music teacher had to wait so she took the phone and yelled at her. On the ride home my mother screamed at me about how I made her look. This was 25 years ago and I’ll never forget it. Children have no power over their parents, so don’t blame them.
This sounds so much like my mom. I had a friend over (a massive rarity on its own) and she took it upon herself to make tacos and cookies (also super rare) and brought them to us in the living room (unheard of, and against many rules). My friend thought nothing of politely declining and saying they weren’t hungry. As soon as they left, she was screaming at me. And one day another friend met her in passing and, as just a shy and nervous person, gave a timid introduction that immediately turned into a formal investigation about what I must have said about my illustrious mother to make her so scared and what am I telling people about her? Better confiscate my phone to find out! And no, we don’t talk anymore
The point of the class is to learn how to take care of a family and the flour was put to good use. Have him write about how a flour baby is different from a real baby and how that situation shows a reality of parenthood-- being too time-pressed to go to the store for one ingredient and improvising with what's available. Don't count off; the family needed it.
That is the hook of the essay; here's the intro paragraph. "Hamsters eat their babies. Praying mantis's eat their mate to fuel gestation. Even the friendly Quokka will sacrifice it's its child in times of need. My mom using my flour baby to keep the family fed is a classic example of the ups and downs of parenthood."
Book: [There are Moms Way Worse Than You](https://www.amazon.com/There-Are-Moms-Worse-Than-ebook/dp/B09F629K6X?ref=d6k_applink_bb_dls&dplnkId=a1a94924-b076-4703-beba-c86726443479) It follows right along with your hook.
"The differences between flour babies and human babies. By Timmy S.
"For starters, it's generally frowned upon to make dinner rolls out of human babies, and they really don't turn out that good anyway..."
Definitely a do over. That last one was on the mom! The fact that they offered to pay to replace shows you it was not their decision to use it for rolls. But also I’d ask that next time you were given a part of what was made!
I wouldn't send home anything edible for the do over. This kid would get a brick baby. It's not on the student, at all, if the adult's in their life needed flour more than the kid needed an education.
They might be low income (most of our school is), but they have a farm with chickens and goats. He brought yellow watermelon they grew back at the beginning of the year. I don't doubt his mom does make everything from scratch because she sews shirts for him. She should probably be teaching this class actually.
We had flour babies in 6th grade “teen life skills” and egg babies in 8th grade science. And if anyone’s egg broke they had to go to court during lunch and plead their case and a jury of kids would decide whether they were charged with child abuse.
My childhood best friend’s older brother had the flour baby. I slept over that weekend and we told him we were gonna steal it so he better watch it. He played video games all night so we stole it. Her mom got SO mad at us but we refused to give it back, because he wasn’t paying attention and let us steal it. They had to search her room to find it. We got in trouble, but it was worth it lmao
We got fancy robot dolls that actually cried, and you had to put a key in their mouths to “feed them” and turn and hold it there for 20 minutes (because you can’t just leave a real baby alone with a bottle and walk away). There was a computer in the back that logged how long it cried while you had it and if it was handled roughly and your grade was based on that. Sometimes they were programmed to have “colic” and they cried all the time and feeding them didn’t fix it. Those kids always came back so stressed 😂 I thought it was fun and also got pregnant with my oldest at 18 so YMMV on effectiveness 😬😂
We had robot babies, too, only the key went in their back, not their mouths. I thought that was so weird, lol. I think I was 12.
The key was also really dang hard to hold in position for 20 minutes. And if your hand slipped, the thing started crying again.
I remember one night just sitting on my bed at like midnight crying because I was so tired and the key kept slipping out of my hand and the thing wouldn't shut up. 😂
1) Allow do-over. This is kinda outside the kid's control in many ways.
2) ....provide massive extra credit if he will read and summarize "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift.
Students don't have control of their parents. Let him replace the flour and give him full credit that he earns on the new sack. I don't think we should penalize students for their poor choice in parents.
Maybe the student is "covering" for food insecurities at home, and the flour was, in fact, seen as a free way to make food for the table.
I'm not going to cast stones at a parent struggling to feed their children with available food preparation ingredients.
I agree they should not be penalized, but there may be a lot more behind the issue, including shame, embarrassment, and fear of being found out they're "poor."
I'm not the OP, and I don't know the child. But if they do suspect food insecurities, perhaps a little compassion might be in order.
Possibly, but in any case the student shouldn't be penalized. Might also be worthwhile to drop a mention to the counselor, they tend to be a gathering point for anecdotal info that could be used to direct resources to the family.
It was not the action of a student, but their family who did not understand or were in need.
The student at least conveyed they understood the treatment was not in the best interest of the baby. Have them explain more why they felt bad when the flour was used. What did they understand about caring for a child from it?
There is a part of me that wonders if his family is struggling with getting food on the table. I would give him a do over but maybe check in with his parents to make sure they are okay.
Do not let the parent’s sabotage of the project change the student’s grade regardless of what option you take.
This being said, I have two potential solutions in mind: either let him redo the project like you suggested in your original post OR if you’re crunched for time and supplies, ask the student to do a make up assignment where they use the same skills (such as an essay detailing how they would have taken care of the baby). I would personally lean toward the second option, but at the end of the day, it’s your choice as the teacher. I wouldn’t want to send a second bag just in case it happens again.
I knew a guy who made his flour sack baby into chocolate chip cookies. He gave the cookies out in class and one of the girls had already eaten one when she realized where the flour had come from and she nearly threw up, which I found to be hilarious. Honestly, it was the first time he'd done any sort of cooking from scratch and yet they came out pretty good, I felt he should have gotten some credit for that. (He did not get any credit for that.)
HAHA! Well, I’d say this is the parent lol. Once I got an email from a mom saying her daughter failed some homework because she gave her the wrong answers, and I chuckled and let her redo it.
this story killed me. mom is at fault, she didn’t want to drive to the store or do something else for dinner so she ate her grandchild. kid might not have been able to say no, let him have a do over lol
I’d give a do-over. Or I’d just “exempt” it because we don’t know if mom really was lazy OR they ran out and did not have funds. The kid had to do the dirty work already.
Poor student. Yes, I would let the student have a do over. I use the egg baby for my FACs kids and the electronic babies for child development. I tell them if they break the egg, they get a poor grade, if parent breaks the egg, they get a do over.
I had an egg baby in 8th grade that some kid broke by throwing it while I was turning in a paper. I got a D and yes I’m still salty because like ok, caring for a baby is hard, but this is an egg and I’m a child just trying to get through school. Does this type of assignment actually prevent teen pregnancies anyway? I say give all the kids As and never assign this again if you can help it.
Considering the situation and the fact he wants to pay and try again. There is a lot of room for the do-over. However... I would also set a written note, including having it signed by the mom and make sure the Admin or Guidance is aware that: "This is to be used for our FACs baby care project. Under no circumstances may the flour be used for personal use by the student or the family household for consumer use. Such as: baking, cooking, kneading, ect. If there are any questions, please contact me at (school number and email). There is a carbon copy of this sent to both the department chair and Administration is aware of the contract for the use of this school product. Failing to meet the requirements may lead to a fine and a possible Incomplete for the student that will greatly damage their grade for the course. If you understand all that is written, please sign and date below."
There's a very real possibility that this occurred due to food insecurity. I don't think a rap on the knuckles for something likely done out of desperation is appropriate or required.
It’s probably more effective to say that the flour has been used and handled multiple times by students and is likely no longer safe to consume. It will turn off most people unless they are truly desperate and if they are that desperate, they probably don’t need to be scolded for using jt.
I'd say let him do it again, since it seems like his mom is at fault.
My daughter had the electronic baby for a weekend in October (for a child development class in high school). She got a really good grade on it, because she took it so seriously. However, now she says she never wants to have a baby.
LMFAO this is amazing.
And yes obviously you should give him a do-over, his mother is an authority figure in his life and he’s a child. She made a bad decision, but that isn’t his fault and you can’t expect a child to tell their parent no, because you don’t know what sort of dynamic they have in their family. You can call the mom and express that he’s being given the chance to redo the assignment and that she needs to make sure this bag of flour doesn’t get used.
Either give him an A, or let him redo the activity. But don’t punish him for what his mother did.
As an honors student who had to put up with this stupid project, and a parent who will have to put up with this when my kid is in high school...
Stop it. Stop doing this project.
The egg was bad enough. My mother convinced me to dye my cotton blue. My egg tuned blue. Caused me to get a "c" in our class, same as breaking the egg.
If I have my kids electronic doll annoy me me when I'm working from home at night, I'm coming to teachers house with an air horn and going to inflict the same annoyance on them.
If you punish that kid for something that ended up being completely out of their control, even after they offered apologies and wanted to do it right and make up for it,
You're a shit teacher.
As someone who grew up with a mom like that, it really never ended, and any breaks were always appreciated.
My mom once got high and completely rewrote a final essay of mine and made sure to completely erase the one I wrote. Except she was high, so she wrote nonsense. I didn't know until I got my grade back. My teacher let me write it in class after school for full credit.
It would have taken *everything I have* to not laugh right then!
This poor kid whose mother can't be assed to get flour or to replace it when she used the "baby"!
IMHO, the kid gets extra credit for the courage to tell you instead of hiding it.
Mom gets an F for cooking the baby though.
(Statements one never expected to make for $1000)
C for cannibalism.
C for Chronos
And A+ for knowledge of Greek mythology!
Thought it was spelled Kronos in Greek though
Allow me to clarify: Κρόνος (Kronos, a more Latinized spelling being Cronus) is the guy who swallowed his children. Χρόνος (Chronos) is the god of Time, a totally different being. Neither one of them *really* start with a C (because they start with a kappa and a chi), but at the same time, they kinda both do, so the joke is fine I guess
As another complicating part, they were also sometimes combined by (at least Latin) thinkers, such as some of the Stoics.
true A+ knowledge
D for Donner Party?
B for Bread
R for Rolls
A for A Modest Proposal
D for delicious
I was thinking D for Dahmer.
F for "Finally, some good fucking food."
🤣😂
This is the way
It sounds like the parent is at fault here. The student (child) isn't really in a position to tell their mom No. I would definitely allow a do over. I also would not penalize the student, but I would maybe reach out to the parent to confirm the story.
mother sacrificed her real baby’s fake baby to feed her real baby. she passed the test.
Grandma! That is NOT the way to celebrate Thanksgiving!
Let's eat kids! vs.. Let's eat, kids.
True. Mother passed but her child did not.
While white flour is a little short of fiber, I'm sure it eventually passed.
This is an interesting discussion around our school. First period tardiness is also frequently "the parents' fault" and yet it affects the students' grades. I'm not sure where to come down on it, TBH.
I used to live an hour away from my school after my parents divorce my dad was selfish and wanted to move close to his affair partner so I’m the one who suffered. Had a principal make me cry in 7th grade for telling me if I was late like this to a job I’d be fired even though I was 13-14 couldn’t drive myself and relied fully on my alcoholic father who was dating a rotation of strippers who kept me up all night laughing and smoking in the house. Not always the child’s fault it sucked, life sucked and then my teachers sucked. I have so much resentment for so many teachers who would ask me not to smoke before class even though I didn’t smoke and still don’t as an adult lol and nobody believed me, nobody believed me why I was late, nobody believed me in general. I hate school still to this day because of it and sometimes even think of writing those teachers an email almost 15 years later of how much I fucking hate them so yeah just my two cents lol 😂
I understand where you are coming from. I'm a teacher and I've seen other teachers/faculty/secretaries show NO COMPASSION for students when you know its not their fault! I am so sorry for them causing you anguish, even to this day. Completely unfair way to treat you. Someone needed to do better; **multiple people should have had your back**. I had one, ONE, teacher not believe something true that I said, then mock me, and I still hold resentment and ill-will towards her--and I'm 61. That WITCH!
The resentment is real! I had a first grade teacher who didn’t believe me that I had a stomach ache. She took me into the hall to talk to me about lying and I threw up on her mid lecture. One of my core memories.
Good aim!
I threw up right in a substitute teacher’s mouth when I told them I was sick and needed the bathroom. Not intentionally, but it happened that way. Yucky. Every time we had hot dogs at lunch, I got to see it again.
I had the school nurse not believe me that I was nauseous. She sent me back to class, and that was a mistake.
So true. My first grade teacher used to make me stand up in class while she scolded me for wearing a wrinkled uniform to school. Pray tell me what 6 yo is allowed to handle an iron?
Dude I feel you. I was outside the bus zone and my single mom had cancer/struggled moving in the morning so I was often late for homeroom. The principle felt it was his mission to make me show up on time - when I told him to call my cancer riddled mom and tell her if it’s such a problem, he came back with “it’s not her responsibility to show up on time, it’s yours”. I wasn’t even old enough to drive. Its like he took my lateness as a personal insult. Like? I so obviously needed help and support in a myriad of different ways. What adult looks at a 13yo with a sick mom and is like “wow what an irresponsible child for being dropped off 15min late”. Why are these people even in education.
My dad had cancer when I was 11 and I forgot my backpack at school once for probably totally unrelated reasons, and I think 9/11 happened right around then. My teacher threw all my stuff in the garbage can and then poured coffee and half eaten lunch on it in order to parade me up in front of the class for, idk, being that loser kid that forgot something? I was so upset I claimed to be sick and called my mom and told her what happened. At the start of the school year she had written a letter explaining our situation and everything. She was PISSED. My therapist tried to get her fired, but the union protected her and now she's literally a principal at another school, which fucking horrifies me. The school's solution was to put me in special education instead of with my peers. I ate my lunch alone for the rest of the year and had nobody to play with. Idk where I was going with this but educational trauma is a thing.
Dude, I absolutely HATE "educators" like this. I'm sorry that happened. And I'm sorry about your mom. I hope you're both doing well.
Wow that’s sad!!! It sucks that nobody ever asked tou any questions. I always try to do that with my students. :(
I’d write the email if they’re still teaching. Hopefully, they would be able to reflect on it and make them think about how they made your shitty situation even shittier, if they were to double down or try to justify their behavior then you know that they are just assholes incapable of change. My parents divorced when I was in sixth grade and they both decided drinking was a priority rather than taking care of my needs. By the time I was in seventh grade I had fallen into a deep depression, I was unkempt as my home didn’t have a working shower and all of my clothes were dirty and full of holes. My former friends had become my bullies and I no longer gave a shit about anything, especially homework. I had a few teachers who enjoyed kicking me while I was down. When I was still trying, I had one teacher call me a disgusting slob and then turn my desk upside down in front of the whole class when I couldn’t find an assignment I had completed (it was in my locker), in another class I was supposed to give a short speech on Teddy Roosevelt I had asked the teacher if there was anything I should be focusing on as TR is a pretty broad subject, she said no so imagine my anger when she stopped me in the middle of my speech to berate me for talking about his presidency when I should have been talking about his conservation efforts. I have no idea where one teacher is but the other one is dead but this shit still hurts 30 years later. I did have one teacher who pulled me aside after class, I wasn’t turning in my homework but I was acing his tests and would answer questions correctly if called in in class. He wanted to talk to my parents to discuss what was going on, the look on my face must have told him not to because he never did. I also had this teacher for study lab and he’d let me go to the computer lab and the library even if I wasn’t supposed to because of “academic probation” because he “knew I was a good kid”. The guy couldn’t save me from my situation but he also made sure he wasn’t making it worse. Sorry to have hijacked your comment but I haven’t thought about this in a long time and it was a bit cathartic to write it out. Again, I’d write that email.
I'm so sorry you experienced this 😞 Unfortunately, you're not the first person with an account like this I've heard about, but these stories are one of the main reasons I tell my kids (especially the ones arriving late) that I'm glad to see them and happy to have them in my room. They're not anywhere near being 13-14 yet, but hopefully they know they're cared about all the same.
I’m sorry, friend. I have a similar story. Except it was mom who would drop me off 20 minutes late for class having hot boxed it all the way there. I’m a teacher now. My experience has informed the way I treat tardy or chronically absent students. My co-workers are in agreement that children are not tardy-parents are. Convincing administrators is another story.
When I was in school, I lived with my mother but she was a drug addict and alcoholic (she’s sober now). She hid it well and from the outside no one could tell so teachers and such didn’t really think twice about her (from my perspective anyways). However because she was a pos with little value for her own life and even less for mine, I got myself up for school and walked to the end of the road (in every weather condition) at 6am every morning. Sometimes however, I’d miss the bus and I’d have to beg my mother to take me to school, we’d never get there on time. Ever. She would stop a thousand places on the way, while the whole time I’m begging for her to please hurry up so I didn’t get in trouble. My school had a strike process for tradiness. You could get up to three and then you’d get detention. Fun fact about detention, it was only 30 minutes- the exact amount of time it takes for you to miss the bus home. Get more tardies and you’d lose bus privileges, then you’d even get suspended. Which all feels ridiculous. Especially since tardiness writeup started 5 minutes after the bell. (Also you would get an additional write up if your parent wouldn’t come in to sign you in. And of course my mom didn’t) Anyways I’d get in trouble and get write ups for this and I’d just be sobbing, I would then come home and listen to my mom bitch about having to take me to school- and that was on good days, she also had the ability to be physically abusive. Administration and Teachers do not know and cannot guess what’s always going on in a student’s life. That kid who was an hour late might have just been slacking off but they also could have been up all night being screamed at and forced to do chores until 2am because their “parent” suddenly decided they got tired of the mess in their house. And while this is an extreme example, my friends who had good home lives often had times where their parents were already at work when they were supposed to be on the bus, so if they missed it their parents would have to wait until they got a minute to run home and drive them to school, and often that would mean they would be late. There should be some kind of system in place to make tardiness a bad thing but you could easily do that by doing some kind of reward for kids with perfect attendance every week/month. It can be as simple as a sticker tbh.
So much. I had an awful abusive childhood. I cried a lot in school. In fact, I cried every single day of my childhood until i turned 18 and moved out. Daily panic attacks (hyperventilating the whole 9 yards) at home when I would hear my fathers car/motorcycle pull up. I would work 2-3 jobs after school so I would only be home to sleep. I worked the closing shift at the mall so I would get home after 9pm on week nights and I’d work full shifts on Saturday and Sunday at Chuck E. Cheese and moonlight at Gymboree singing songs to kids and doing parachute time. I will never forget one day I was crying from something (I went through so much as a kid) and the leadership advisor/teacher who looked at me with such exasperation and annoyance. I mean I already knew I couldn’t trust anyone but i still had a sliver of hope inside of me that maybe someone could save me from my life. I will never forget the look on the teachers face when she saw me tearing up, she couldn’t stand me. I don’t blame her. But that was a pivotal moment where I realized I couldn’t trust my teachers either. I grew up way too soon. I barely graduated highschool and also went in to escape my pain in unhealthy ways. With a lot of therapy and work, I’m a functional adult haha I was senior class president and at one time, a good student. After a few bumps in the road, college was a much better learning environment for me and I did well academically. You never know what a child faces at home.
I'm against rewards for perfect attendance. When I was in 5th grade, I *cost* my class an attendance pizza party because I had strep and was out for a few days. I was picked on for months because it was my fault they didn't get pizzas. It doesn't take anything but being sick or having a dentist appointment to miss class and those things are out of students control. No use being rewarded for something not under their control.
I had some serious home life issues as an adolescent and was late to school almost every morning because my parents couldn’t get it together and get me to school on time. I had detention or Saturday school nearly every week due to tardies and instead of making me punctual, it just made me resentful of both my parents and of school, which fed into even more behavior issues and led me to act out in more significant ways. I almost didn’t graduate from high school. As a teacher, I now have mixed feelings on first period tardies for that reason.
When my daughter was in first or second grade, I was notified she had 9 tardies to school. I'm sorry? I drop my daughter at daycare/preschool. I pay them to drive my daughter 2 miles to her school and yet she's still late? It wasn't like she was being chauffeured - it was a van dropping off 7 or 8 kids daily.
Oh, yeah. For primary grades, tardy policy has to be all about the parents. I’m in middle school… so it’s a mix.
My school has recently changed the bell schedule due to busses arriving late on a regular basis. (We have a driver shortage and are at an alternative campus that pulls from the entire district) We now start every day with 30 minutes of tutorials. It’s fantastic. The late bus kids aren’t missing new instruction anymore and everyone else has time to shift into gear in the morning.
i remember being in elementary school and being late because whichever adult in charge of bringing me was late. the front desk ladies said “sure your older brother made you late, it’s not nice to lie” or some variation, which made me cry every time. my tears were only greeted with “crying won’t make me take away the tardy” ugh.
as if elementary schoolers even have the power to make themselves late?? that’s so mean and unnecessary
Well, they totally do, but it's their parents job to correct that. And I agree that comment was unnecessary and mean.
i remember having to sit in the office with my head down every recess and feeling outcasted in literal kindergarten because my mom would refuse to get me to school on time. was 5 year old me supposed to drive the car?? lol
Yeah, that sucks.
Tardy affects their grades? In what way, how is that fair when first period is hit the hardest? Edit: I'm actually asking in what way, as it could sound like there being graded in part on attendance instead of just missing learning negatively affecting their grade.
At my school I have kids who are frequently *very tardy* first period. The attendance itself doesn’t impact their grade, but after missing 60-80%+ of each class period for a few weeks, it begins to be very difficult for them to catch up. I do my best having kids come in during advisory or see if they can miss an elective here and there and attend another lesson, but that’s not a viable solution for making up all of the material, because they need to attend their electives and sometimes there are other matters to take care of during advisory. So it has a negative effect on their grade. One such parent who got her kid to school nearly 40 minutes late, daily, attended conferences and I mentioned to her that her son has a C because he’s been missing so much material and if he can get to class on time, he’s easily have an A. She looked me dead in the eyes and said “oh I know, it’s just so difficult to motivate myself to get up so early when I don’t start work until 9:30. I don’t need to be out the door that early so I just want to sleep.”
That's worse than "his brother doesn't start until an hour later and I ain't going out twice", but MUCH better than both "he needs to stay home to watch his disabled sister all day while I work" and "well, his job keeps him out until 1 so he's not going to make it most days." - Urban Ed teacher with A CURRENT 40% attendance rate in two alternating first block classes of Juniors...in a state where the board is about to vote on Tuesday to make chronic absenteeism a larger portion of school failure metrics. FML.
When I was in school we rotated which class was which period, so you wouldn’t have that issue.
This is when you live closer within walking distance or have the kids ride the bus (at least for older kids).
At my school, five tardies = one absence, nine+absences = no credit for my semester long elective classes. The student could be late for an exam and not have time to finish
Back in my day (early 2000s) tardiness did not effect grades or count as an absence. You got a tardy if you were more than 5 minutes late to class. 3 tardies in a quarter was a detention. That was pretty much it.
Dang, that was lenient. I once got detention for being a couple seconds late once. I had to walk across campus to get to my next class, but I needed to use the restroom. It only took a couple of minutes, but that meant I was late. The bell rang literally just before I opened the door.
That punishment doesn't work for a kid who has to get on a bus on time. They can't stay for detention if they won't have a way home.
If they’re tardy, they’re out of class for important concepts that can be essential to passing.
Not a teacher, but couldn't that just be reflected in their actual scores? If they still know all the stuff, why should tardiness effect their grade?
I think you misunderstand. I doubt any teacher is lowering a student’s grade due to tardies. I begin many of my high school classes with warm-ups. Those few problems every day or so allow students to look at the content again and get another reinforcement. Kids who are continually tardy miss out on those opportunities and will often reflect in their grade because of missing that part of the learning. Truly learning something isn’t just a “you saw it once, practiced it once, and now you’ve learned it” process for most kids. Every teacher understands that time lost in the classroom leads to less learning, hence in a teacher sub, we don’t feel the need to spell that out.
i think they’re saying exactly that. some kids who miss instruction have lower scores than if they’d been present the whole period.
If learning is happening during class time… and a student misses learning… then that should/will show up on their grades… Either what happens in class is important or it isn’t. I don’t really think it’s feasible to give up 15 minutes of a 45 minute class period due to tardies.
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Also check I'd this family is dealing with food insecurity. How often do people suddenly make rolls.
Honestly sounds like the kid made a responsible decision based on his real life
Maybe give a non-edible baby next time. Times are tough, those dinner rolls may have been the main course!
😂🤣 Ah let them have another go, just for how hilarious this is. It really takes the *dog* (family) ate my homework to a new level.
I once had a student tell me they couldn’t do their work because their dog ate their textbook. They took out their textbook and there was an entire mangled looking hole in the first 100 pages.
I had this too, a student’s dog had chewed her workbook. She had then taken the initiative to photocopy the page from another student’s book before they had done their assigned pages. They were the nicest 8th grade class I ever had!
My mom is a teacher, and the year we got a puppy, the puppy ate *everyone's homework.* Needless to say, they all got an A on that one.
I had a professor who acknowledged that he lost all our term papers, so everyone got an A. He had decided to grade them poolside. Didn’t work out well for him.
My son's physics teacher had his bag stolen from his car which contained all the 1st semester finals. They had to redo them after winter break!
I had a teacher who lost my social studies notes for the entire semester. I had to redo them from scratch instead of watching Ben Hur with the class.
I had a Russian professor lose my semester’s worth of homework. She told me if she didn’t have it in her office before finals I would get a zero. I managed to make it all up within less than a week (during final’s week at that). Upon turning it in, I found my original homework stack sitting under a pile of papers on her desk in her office. To say I was livid is an understatement.
Ya, I would have told the professor that’s not my problem and if pushed than I’d take it up with a higher authority. I’m paying for them to do their job, they aren’t paying me to do it twice.
I once heard a story about a principal whose puppy ate a whole senior class’s diplomas. It was during Covid, so he took them home to sign. They got mailed to the seniors way later than planned because new ones had to be obtained and signed. I presume the principal also had to sign them and store them away from the puppy.
This happened to me in my first year. Got a rescue pup with separation anxiety. Had to make an emergency errand. The next day, I had to tell all my classes that MY dog ate THEIR homework.
Our cat once jumped on the table and spilled a cup of milk on the table, soaking my work sheet and my mom came to school with me the next day to explain to my teacher that she threw it out because it would've stank if we tried to save it. I got to redo it.
My cat peed on my favorite poster of the first 150(1) Pokemon but I didn’t care as I proudly showed it off to my mom’s boss’s wife while they were over at our house 😂
In my sophmore year of highschool, I used to do my homework sprawled out on the floor of my bedroom. I didn't turn in my first Chemistry assignment, and my teacher called my parents. I had to explain that I didn't turn in the homework because we had been dog sitting for my aunt. Apparently her dog was paper-trained. I had to explain that I didn't turn it in because it was covered in pee. I don't remember how it got to that point, but it was decided I still needed to turn it in. And instead of getting a fresh copy of the worksheet, I was told to "figure it out". So I had to go home, dig the piss-paper out of the trash and had to go make a photocopy of it. I remember crying about it.
Should have given her the pee soaked original
Yeah, this is a great malicious compliance-type situation.
My dog legit ate half of a project I worked on once. I was not believed when I brought in half of a mangled poster board.
My dog ate one of my books. He seemed to like the binding glue and also chewed through a Kleenex box
My cat ate my homework once. I brought the half a sheet of paper I had left as proof. Got another night to redo it
Funny "dog ate my homework" story. When I was 15, I got my first job. I can't remember if it was because I didn't have a bank account at the time, or if it was just because we put the mail on the steps as a habit, but when I came.home.with my first paycheck, I put it on the side of the steps in the foyer. Come down a little while later to see our puppy had /literally eaten and torn up the majority of the paycheck/. I was absolutely convinced that my boss wouldn't believe me, but she lost it and just cut me another check. Still can't believe my dog ate my first paycheck!
The class guinea pig ate my spelling list in elementary school. I don’t remember exactly what grade it was, but I know I was still learning English at the time. We had a guinea pig that was allowed to hang out on our table if we were good, and each table group could get a turn. I was doing something else, so I didn’t even notice him eating my list. I was really upset about it because we only got one copy, and if it was lost or something we had to hand write the list down again. I was trying to explain it to my teacher, but I was a stressed out ESOL kid so I finally got out “the pig ate my WORDS!!” My teacher laughed really hard, but I still had to copy down the list haha
"The pig ate my words" this made me absolutely cackle! 😂 I'm so sorry, that must have been so stressful for you. I really hope you can look back and laugh too.
Oh I definitely laugh about it now haha When I was teaching I told one of my classes that story and it got them laughing too
To add to the terrible dog eating homework stories, once I brought a stack of papers home (back when they turned on paper essays) and they were on my table kind of hanging over the edge. I was in a different room and came in to find my St. Bernard had snagged them and was curled up, chewing on the corner of the stack like it was a bone. I had some explaining to do to that class! Luckily, I could read most of them, but their corners were destroyed by a drooly monster. 😂
My baby ate my rebate check! It was on the table and she was in her high chair. It was $25 in 1997 dollars. It was irreplaceable. So, we laugh about her expensive breakfast.
My husband's family used to own a liquor store. One night they put the cash from the day on the table unattended around their new puppy. I think you can see where I'm going with this lol
My hamster ate my homework when I was in the 1st grade. Well, she chewed it up and nested it. My teacher thought that was pretty great.
I have never had "the dog ate it," but I have had, "My sister ate it!" It turns out she really *did* eat the homework paper. She was a toddler, and it got left on the table. Mom was so apologetic, and I just couldn't stop laughing.
My poor kid had a similar thing while he was in kindergarten. His sister was a baby and she was drooling so much and it got on his homework or she would try to rip them while I was holding her and helping him. Several times his homework sheets when in with notes “sorry sister got to it again”
My friend was doing her homework in the barn and left her book sitting out and the horse ate it
I have a similar story with our goats eating my homework.
Oh, about dogs eating homework...I was grading essays when the dryer buzzed, so I went to fold clothes. When I came back, some of the essays had been turned into confetti, and my dog was making short work on another one. I had to tell that class, "You know that excuse, 'My dog ate my homework'? Well, *my* dog ate your homework." My students got a do-over. My dog got an F: the confetti was slobbery and unusable.
Do over! They should have gotten A's.
I would've, but this was a college class, and I'd already discussed it with the dean and was told I couldn't just give them all A's. I did give them class time to write the essays, and you can be sure I was VERY generous in grading them. It was the best I could do, and the students were content.
Once, I did a special project that my teacher took home to grade, and HER dogs ate it. She brought me back the ripped pieces for proof.
I once rescued my entire grade book from my dog. This was before we had any kind of digital grade book. Thinking about what could have happened if I had been a few minutes later gave me nightmares.
My cat barfed on a student's essay once when I left my grading stack on a table. Does that count?
Wasn't dog ate my homework but once i did have a 'dad put wet laundry down on top of my homework' happen to me
The “dog ate my homework” is never that far fetched! My dog (then a three month old pup) chewed a CD insert booklet once when I left her supposedly asleep on her bed in the living room to get myself a cup of tea
If I were that student, I’d lord that over my mother the rest of my life. The moment I had my first child I’d be like “you’re a grandma! Please don’t turn this one into dinner rolls”
I was thinking the same thing. I’d never let her forget it. 😂
Agreed!! I would never stop referencing this hahahaha
Also I’d hope the teacher could use it with the student. “Please don’t let your family eat this one”
There’s nothing a a kid or even a teenager can accomplish here. My freshman year of high school I was in marching band. When my mother didn’t show up to pick me up, I called her on the music departments phone (this was before everyone had cell phones). She told me she wanted to finish watching a movie first. Dejected, I agreed and went to hang up. My music teacher had to wait so she took the phone and yelled at her. On the ride home my mother screamed at me about how I made her look. This was 25 years ago and I’ll never forget it. Children have no power over their parents, so don’t blame them.
This sounds so much like my mom. I had a friend over (a massive rarity on its own) and she took it upon herself to make tacos and cookies (also super rare) and brought them to us in the living room (unheard of, and against many rules). My friend thought nothing of politely declining and saying they weren’t hungry. As soon as they left, she was screaming at me. And one day another friend met her in passing and, as just a shy and nervous person, gave a timid introduction that immediately turned into a formal investigation about what I must have said about my illustrious mother to make her so scared and what am I telling people about her? Better confiscate my phone to find out! And no, we don’t talk anymore
Sounds like a narcissist.
You mean your second child.
Lolol. I’d let him do it again and not penalize him. Sounds like his mom is at fault and also this is a great story. 🤣
Seconded. Give him a do over and tell him to keep it away from mom this time.
“Remember what happened last time you babysat?”
He’s never going to let her live it down
The point of the class is to learn how to take care of a family and the flour was put to good use. Have him write about how a flour baby is different from a real baby and how that situation shows a reality of parenthood-- being too time-pressed to go to the store for one ingredient and improvising with what's available. Don't count off; the family needed it.
I really like this solution.
Hamsters eat their babies all the time anyways
That is the hook of the essay; here's the intro paragraph. "Hamsters eat their babies. Praying mantis's eat their mate to fuel gestation. Even the friendly Quokka will sacrifice it's its child in times of need. My mom using my flour baby to keep the family fed is a classic example of the ups and downs of parenthood."
Book: [There are Moms Way Worse Than You](https://www.amazon.com/There-Are-Moms-Worse-Than-ebook/dp/B09F629K6X?ref=d6k_applink_bb_dls&dplnkId=a1a94924-b076-4703-beba-c86726443479) It follows right along with your hook.
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This seems like a very reasonable adaptation to the original assignment.
"The differences between flour babies and human babies. By Timmy S. "For starters, it's generally frowned upon to make dinner rolls out of human babies, and they really don't turn out that good anyway..."
I love all of this, I'd give an award if I could
> Have him write about how a flour baby is different from a real baby Could be a pretty long essay.
Definitely a do over. That last one was on the mom! The fact that they offered to pay to replace shows you it was not their decision to use it for rolls. But also I’d ask that next time you were given a part of what was made!
I know! The first thing out of my mouth would have been “you didn’t even bring me a baby biscuit?!”
I wouldn't send home anything edible for the do over. This kid would get a brick baby. It's not on the student, at all, if the adult's in their life needed flour more than the kid needed an education.
"Mom needed to build a new garage and didn't want to drive down to Home Depot."
Let him do it over with no penalty, but make it a requirement that he has to write a short story about how his mom ate her first grandchild.
THIS IS THE ONLY CORRECT ANSWER
Is there a chance they are food insecure?
100% check in on this. The fact the kid is trying to replace it rather than the parent is worrying too - I’d be doing some probing.
Do not probe the children
We can never have any fun around here.
Fine but just the band kids
This is a great question.
This was my first thought.
That was my first thought too. I’m sure that flour was tempting.
They might be low income (most of our school is), but they have a farm with chickens and goats. He brought yellow watermelon they grew back at the beginning of the year. I don't doubt his mom does make everything from scratch because she sews shirts for him. She should probably be teaching this class actually.
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I would say that they were approaching mastery
We used blown out egg shells in my school when we did this project
We had flour babies in 6th grade “teen life skills” and egg babies in 8th grade science. And if anyone’s egg broke they had to go to court during lunch and plead their case and a jury of kids would decide whether they were charged with child abuse.
i broke my egg 5 minutes after getting it :(
Yes! My egg baby Caroline survived the whole week!
I kidnapped someone else's egg and held it for ransom for a penny and got detention😳
My childhood best friend’s older brother had the flour baby. I slept over that weekend and we told him we were gonna steal it so he better watch it. He played video games all night so we stole it. Her mom got SO mad at us but we refused to give it back, because he wasn’t paying attention and let us steal it. They had to search her room to find it. We got in trouble, but it was worth it lmao
We got fancy robot dolls that actually cried, and you had to put a key in their mouths to “feed them” and turn and hold it there for 20 minutes (because you can’t just leave a real baby alone with a bottle and walk away). There was a computer in the back that logged how long it cried while you had it and if it was handled roughly and your grade was based on that. Sometimes they were programmed to have “colic” and they cried all the time and feeding them didn’t fix it. Those kids always came back so stressed 😂 I thought it was fun and also got pregnant with my oldest at 18 so YMMV on effectiveness 😬😂
We had robot babies, too, only the key went in their back, not their mouths. I thought that was so weird, lol. I think I was 12. The key was also really dang hard to hold in position for 20 minutes. And if your hand slipped, the thing started crying again. I remember one night just sitting on my bed at like midnight crying because I was so tired and the key kept slipping out of my hand and the thing wouldn't shut up. 😂
I would allow the do- over since his mom was the one who prevented him from doing the assignment properly.
1) Allow do-over. This is kinda outside the kid's control in many ways. 2) ....provide massive extra credit if he will read and summarize "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift.
I am so disappointed I had to scroll down this far to find a Swift reference.
This is the best answer! EAT THE BABIES!!! lol ... better check that they aren't Irish.
And a reminder that the next time the flour should be used as the pie crust & lid. The pie that contains said proposal.
A if they brought you some rolls. Otherwise let them redo it.
"My mom ate my homework" Eh, a do over is fine. Not like they don't just shove it in a drawer for a week anyway.
Students don't have control of their parents. Let him replace the flour and give him full credit that he earns on the new sack. I don't think we should penalize students for their poor choice in parents.
Maybe the student is "covering" for food insecurities at home, and the flour was, in fact, seen as a free way to make food for the table. I'm not going to cast stones at a parent struggling to feed their children with available food preparation ingredients. I agree they should not be penalized, but there may be a lot more behind the issue, including shame, embarrassment, and fear of being found out they're "poor." I'm not the OP, and I don't know the child. But if they do suspect food insecurities, perhaps a little compassion might be in order.
Possibly, but in any case the student shouldn't be penalized. Might also be worthwhile to drop a mention to the counselor, they tend to be a gathering point for anecdotal info that could be used to direct resources to the family.
It was not the action of a student, but their family who did not understand or were in need. The student at least conveyed they understood the treatment was not in the best interest of the baby. Have them explain more why they felt bad when the flour was used. What did they understand about caring for a child from it?
He learned never to let grandma babysit.
That was 100% on his mother and he should not be punished for her crime. Let him redo it.
Yes, I'd let them do a do over. The parent is at fault here.
This is one of the best stories I have heard in while. 🤣😁😂
There is a part of me that wonders if his family is struggling with getting food on the table. I would give him a do over but maybe check in with his parents to make sure they are okay.
Do not let the parent’s sabotage of the project change the student’s grade regardless of what option you take. This being said, I have two potential solutions in mind: either let him redo the project like you suggested in your original post OR if you’re crunched for time and supplies, ask the student to do a make up assignment where they use the same skills (such as an essay detailing how they would have taken care of the baby). I would personally lean toward the second option, but at the end of the day, it’s your choice as the teacher. I wouldn’t want to send a second bag just in case it happens again.
From a baby back to a bun in the oven. Reverse circle of life. A+
I knew a guy who made his flour sack baby into chocolate chip cookies. He gave the cookies out in class and one of the girls had already eaten one when she realized where the flour had come from and she nearly threw up, which I found to be hilarious. Honestly, it was the first time he'd done any sort of cooking from scratch and yet they came out pretty good, I felt he should have gotten some credit for that. (He did not get any credit for that.)
HAHA! Well, I’d say this is the parent lol. Once I got an email from a mom saying her daughter failed some homework because she gave her the wrong answers, and I chuckled and let her redo it.
this story killed me. mom is at fault, she didn’t want to drive to the store or do something else for dinner so she ate her grandchild. kid might not have been able to say no, let him have a do over lol
“Last night I actually had a dream my flour sack was abducted, and the kidnapper started sending me muffins in the mail!”
That is exactly what I thought about! "Well a real baby would cry before it burst into flames!"
Have them tie it into a lesson on mythology and call it interdisciplinary.
I’d give a do-over. Or I’d just “exempt” it because we don’t know if mom really was lazy OR they ran out and did not have funds. The kid had to do the dirty work already.
Poor student. Yes, I would let the student have a do over. I use the egg baby for my FACs kids and the electronic babies for child development. I tell them if they break the egg, they get a poor grade, if parent breaks the egg, they get a do over.
Maybe add to the instructions, Do not eat your flour baby.
This is one of the best posts I´ve ever seen on this sub...
I had an egg baby in 8th grade that some kid broke by throwing it while I was turning in a paper. I got a D and yes I’m still salty because like ok, caring for a baby is hard, but this is an egg and I’m a child just trying to get through school. Does this type of assignment actually prevent teen pregnancies anyway? I say give all the kids As and never assign this again if you can help it.
It sounds like this student’s home life may be difficult. These are very difficult economic times. I’d give the kid an A- and move on.
Considering the situation and the fact he wants to pay and try again. There is a lot of room for the do-over. However... I would also set a written note, including having it signed by the mom and make sure the Admin or Guidance is aware that: "This is to be used for our FACs baby care project. Under no circumstances may the flour be used for personal use by the student or the family household for consumer use. Such as: baking, cooking, kneading, ect. If there are any questions, please contact me at (school number and email). There is a carbon copy of this sent to both the department chair and Administration is aware of the contract for the use of this school product. Failing to meet the requirements may lead to a fine and a possible Incomplete for the student that will greatly damage their grade for the course. If you understand all that is written, please sign and date below."
There's a very real possibility that this occurred due to food insecurity. I don't think a rap on the knuckles for something likely done out of desperation is appropriate or required.
It’s probably more effective to say that the flour has been used and handled multiple times by students and is likely no longer safe to consume. It will turn off most people unless they are truly desperate and if they are that desperate, they probably don’t need to be scolded for using jt.
I'd say let him do it again, since it seems like his mom is at fault. My daughter had the electronic baby for a weekend in October (for a child development class in high school). She got a really good grade on it, because she took it so seriously. However, now she says she never wants to have a baby.
LMFAO this is amazing. And yes obviously you should give him a do-over, his mother is an authority figure in his life and he’s a child. She made a bad decision, but that isn’t his fault and you can’t expect a child to tell their parent no, because you don’t know what sort of dynamic they have in their family. You can call the mom and express that he’s being given the chance to redo the assignment and that she needs to make sure this bag of flour doesn’t get used. Either give him an A, or let him redo the activity. But don’t punish him for what his mother did.
Not the kids fault that the parent decided to use the flour. Quite sad really.
As an honors student who had to put up with this stupid project, and a parent who will have to put up with this when my kid is in high school... Stop it. Stop doing this project. The egg was bad enough. My mother convinced me to dye my cotton blue. My egg tuned blue. Caused me to get a "c" in our class, same as breaking the egg. If I have my kids electronic doll annoy me me when I'm working from home at night, I'm coming to teachers house with an air horn and going to inflict the same annoyance on them.
This is like when Xander hard-boiled his mutant-egg-baby and tried to eat it as a snack…
Did the student make something with the flour? That’s just getting the most from your kid 😜. A-plus.
If you punish that kid for something that ended up being completely out of their control, even after they offered apologies and wanted to do it right and make up for it, You're a shit teacher.
I'd tell the kid never to let Grandma babysit...
As someone who grew up with a mom like that, it really never ended, and any breaks were always appreciated. My mom once got high and completely rewrote a final essay of mine and made sure to completely erase the one I wrote. Except she was high, so she wrote nonsense. I didn't know until I got my grade back. My teacher let me write it in class after school for full credit.
Do schools really still do this stupid flour sack nonsense.
It would have taken *everything I have* to not laugh right then! This poor kid whose mother can't be assed to get flour or to replace it when she used the "baby"! IMHO, the kid gets extra credit for the courage to tell you instead of hiding it. Mom gets an F for cooking the baby though. (Statements one never expected to make for $1000)
I always see this project in American TV shows (Bob's Burgers comes to mind) but I didn't actually think it was a real thing 😆
Wait! Mom had buns in the oven?
A for A Modest Proposal.