'They need to earn it’: School teacher demands fellow educators discipline students and stop giving them grades they don't deserve, internet reacts

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Mar 16, 2024 6:00 PM EDT

Kids these days… That's a sentence I hear often. 'They're always on their phones, they're not paying attention, they're not putting in the work'. Not all kids. But a lot. And I understand how frustrating it is for teachers and parents to discipline them. There are so many factors involved. One teacher was fed up with the current status and turned to Reddit to complain about what was happening in their school, and most likely in many more. They said that teachers were making things 'too easy' for the students, that they weren't failing them when needed, and that the kids were getting marks they didn't deserve. This teacher went on to give specific examples, and in the end, fellow teachers and the rest of the internet had a lot to say.

Back when I was in school, I got zeroes alright… With a smiley in them. To this day, I don't know if that was to be mean, or nice. After reading this story, check out these hilarious legal loopholes that may help you win a buck, or two.

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  • 01
    "Late assignments should be zeroes. Stop making it easy.' "
    via Canva
  • 02
    Can we PLEASE collectively agree that babying them isn't helping and we need to hold their feet to the fire to address whatever is going on?
    via u/yonicsymbol
  • 03
    Sooo many teachers saying “I even make it SO easy for them, and they still fail". At least at my school, that's due in big part to the fact that no one ever makes them do anything. The problem is 30% them being slower with less foundational knowledge than we're used to, and 70% that they have no reason to give a | (again, this is MY school, I know not everyone will relate but I also know my situation is common). They need to feel some pressure again.
    via u/yonicsymbol
  • 04
    Like, late assignments should be zeroes and stay zeroes unless they have a family emergency. Tests should only sometimes have study guides and shouldn't be open note every time. Assignments that don't show competence do not earn passing grades (I know a lot of people have their hands tied with this one but those of us who can fail nonparticipants should). Students should have work to take home sometimes because all the in-class work time is spent doing fk-all so we might as well teach more skill
    via u/yonicsymbol
  • 05
    challenging and designed with the students who DO try in mind, not the ones who don't. Focus on the ones who care, because this focus on the ones who don't is giving them control, and hurting the education of the ones who try. If they're going to make up the 15% of competent adults in society, shouldn't they at least be well-educated? Kids have always just stooped below whatever bar is set. Why are we setting the bar an inch off the floor?
    via u/yonicsymbol
  • 06
    PLEASE can we stop fighting this situation by making everything easy. It's hurting them more. And us. Edit: obviously if your admin will fire you for failing kids then this isn't about you. Obviously, if there are other extenuating circumstances where you absolutely cannot, then this isn't about you. I am talking about teachers who are making an autonomous choice to treat post Capathy with easy work. Do not say this isn't a widespread problem.
    via u/yonicsymbol
  • 07
    Latter_Leopard8439. 6 hr. ago Teachers do agree. Preaching to the Choir here. Admin controls the non-renewals. They set the priorities.
    via u/Latter_Leopard8439
  • 08
    Imperial_TIE_Pilot . 4 hr. ago The state, not the site admin or even the district admin create these policies. Someone at the state level says it would be more equitable if students get suspended less or don't get F's, then sł rolls down hill and consequences go away because schools are graded by their suspensions, and the bar hits the floor because everyone must succeed and it's the schools fault in all cases, not the community or the family.
    via u/Imperial_TIE_Pilot
  • 09
    stillbleedinggreen. 6 hr. ago Completely agree with you. But society doesn't want that. Parents will just bulldoze right over you. Can't make our precious babies earn anything. Side note: I just got blamed for a kids poor mental health because I gave him a 50% on each of his late assignments. He feels bad about himself because I gave him a bad grade, not because he does little to nothing in class.
    via u/stillbleedinggreen
  • 10
    UniqueUsername82D · 6 hr. ago HS ELA Rural South I was blamed by a dad for sending a student to d school. She never went therapy during online C to a Zoom meeting, didn't respond to my supportive "Don't forget to turn in X" emails or had any kind of contact with me. What put her in therapy? Me putting in O's for her not turning in work.
    via u/UniqueUsername82D
  • 11
    Recommendation Brief9 5 hr. ago If my kids aren't doing the work and aren't participating, fail them. Please, fail them. Passing them does me and them zero favors. I'm seeing I'm in the minority of parents, but earned always feels better than given. I also need to know what they aren't understanding. I tell my kids if you really tried, did the work, and still failed then we have a comprehension issue and I can't be mad about that. If you messed around, didn't do your work, and failed, we have a
    via u/RecommendationBrief9
  • 12
    Southern_GBF. 6 hr. ago We are not allowed to give a zero at all in our district. 50% is the lowest grade we can give, even if they turn in nothing we cannot give less than 50%. I have taught from adults to now pk-3rd so I have a wide range of experience. My adult students were reading at a 9th grade level. My high school students were an average of 6th grade reading level. Now we are trying everything to get our littles reading on level. I'm so tired of the "Pa. mic learning loss" excuse. Most
    via u/Southern_GBF
  • 13
    the parent hung up on me.) Middle school was the worst, but that was during the pa. mic. Our state opened schools way too early so they lost one semester. One semester and Louisiana is using the p mic excuse for a system that has been riddled with good old boys that have no business in management of any kind, much less the important jobs that decide what teachers can do. 90 Reply Share
    via u/Southern_GBF
  • 14
    MuslimVeganArtistIA · 5 hr. ago When you wait for the slowest runner to catch up, everyone else figures out pretty quickly that they don't have to run, either. 48 Reply Share gandalf_the_cat2018 · 4 hr. ago The problem is that the slowest runner isn't even trying to run. They didn't even show up to the race and we all still need to wait for them.
    via u/MuslimVeganArtistIA, u/gandalf_the_cat2018
  • 15
    yellowydaffodil · 3 hr. ago High School Science Fun fact: I actually coach track and we have a kid like this on our team. I'm not actually sure why he's still on the team, but he walks during training, cuts corners, and once even had his parents pick him up in the middle of a road run without telling anyone. He's been a bad influence on a few of the new kids, but most quickly figured it out and just ignore him. We all always wait for the slowest runner, but not for him (except for safety reasons
    via u/yellowydaffodil
  • 16
    In the classroom, I've actually found this is true, too. Most of my on-level kids are really dismissive towards peers who do no work and put their heads down. I just wish more of them had that attitude.
    via u/yellowydaffodil
  • 17
    thecooliestone · 6 hr. ago My admin will tank your evals if you have more than 15% fail rate. They say that you can't be teaching well if so many kids are failing. So the standard is lower. And then the kids fail to meet it. So it's lowered. And so on and so on. There's no actual failing at my school, so my students often don't even know what's considered an F. I had a kid on the last report card ask "Is a 48 bad?" because they'd had a 40 something in math last year and still moved up. They just
    via u/thecooliestone
  • 18
    We just got a new ELA teacher who is...gasp...taking off points for things like egregious spelling errors and refusal to put quotations in quotation marks. They all hate her for it because we aren't really allowed to, so none of the other teachers do.
    via u/thecooliestone
  • 19
    UniqueUsername82D · 6 hr. ago HS ELA Rural South TBF (and I hate defending admin) to do this, current admins and super's heads would be on the chopping block. "Class of 2027 has 54% pass rate, down from 96%" headlines will ruin all their careers.
    via u/UniqueUsername82D
  • 20
    yellowydaffodil · 6 hr. ago High School Science Yeah, no can do. If they fail my class, they just go into credit recovery where they learn nothing, cheat, and go into the world unprepared and uneducated. I have been more proactive about immediate social consequences (checking work and grading it in front of them as they complete it), giving zeroes for copy/paste and for missing work, but some supports have to be put in place because I'd much rather have a kid pass my class and learn some life sk
    via u/yellowydaffodil
  • 21
    Intrepid Interest421 6 hr. ago We only have control over our respective classrooms. We have NO CONTROL over parents and whether or not we receive appropriate levels of support from our building administration. I personally think that our schools were sadly diminished through the adoption of state standardized testing because teaching to the test is oriented towards minimum levels of performance. School administrators also need to uphold district policy and/or state school law pertaining to chron
    via u/IntrepidInterest421
  • 22
    In an ideal world, we would have intervention teachers who could pull students to address academic deficiencies before small problems become larger ones. Since so much of what we teach builds upon prior learning, it's critical that students stay current with what's being learned. For example, we cannot teach compound multiplication to students who don't know their multiplication facts.
    via u/u/IntrepidInterest421
  • 23
    Paperwhite418.5 hr. ago I mean, yes, we can agree on that all day long. Their parents won't though. I can't get their parents to pull all the way through the car line. They all want to stop right in front of the door, so that their precious baby angel doesn't have to walk an extra 150 feet. You think they are going to let me hold those kids feet to the fire? Gtfooh.
    via u/Paperwhite418
  • 24
    PattyIceNY 6 hr. ago I'm not allowed to fail a kid because of absences....a student can go to Mexico on vacation for a month, do 2 assignments before he goes, and still get a B.....I'm only allowed to grade a student for work he does when he's here....they literally do not have to make up missed work if they are out. It's madness.
    via u/PattyIceNY

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school teacher students kids teaching tests good grades teachers school students parenting grades assignments educators high school education discipline parents babying
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