Homework headache ignites parental fury: ‘Teach your kid that adults can be wrong too’

Homework can often be a source of contention between students, parents, and teachers, especially when there's a disagreement over the answers.

Recently, a seemingly straightforward English assignment has sparked a fiery debate among parents who question the accuracy of a teacher's correction.


The homework was for a year two class, where students were asked to identify the correct synonym for various words.

The word that caused the uproar was 'ideal'. The options given were 'sweet', 'nice', 'perfect', 'identical', and 'interesting'.

The student, believing they understood the task, circled 'perfect' as the synonym for 'ideal'. However, the teacher marked this as incorrect, indicating that 'interesting' was the 'correct' synonym.


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A photo of a young child’s homework was shared online, confusing parents as the seemingly correct answer was marked wrong. Image Source: Reddit / UnbelieverCrow / OllieSDdog

This decision left one parent baffled and asking, ‘Am I crazy?’

They took to social media to share their frustration and seek validation from other parents.

They weren't disappointed, as the online community rallied to their side, expressing their disbelief and anger over the teacher's choice.


One person commented, ‘“Interesting” is not even a synonym to “ideal”. Completely different meanings.’

Another added, ‘“Ideal” does not work with “interesting” as a synonym. I'm mad for you.’

‘At least it's a good opportunity to teach your kid that adults can be wrong too,’ a third user added.

The mother, seeking clarity rather than conflict, emailed the teacher to discuss the matter.

She expressed that she wasn't angry but simply confused by the correction.

How the teacher responded was not revealed.


Another parent shared their confusion over their year one’s ‘unreasonably complicated’ homework.

The worksheet asked the child to identify items from illustrations and write their names down.

The task was made more challenging by stipulating that no words could be longer than four letters.

The first three questions, featuring a tub, the number ‘10’, and a spinning top, were straightforward enough.


But a question on a rabbit stumped both the child and the parent, prompting a plea for help on social media.

The parent shared a photo of the worksheet, which focused on the letter ‘T’ and his son's previous answers.

‘What 3-4 letter word is this?’ he asked.

The post received an outpouring of support and suggestions, highlighting the collective effort of the internet trying to navigate the complexities of this child’s homework.

No clear answer emerged from the post’s comment section, and no update to the post was made.


These stories are just the latest additions to a series of accounts detailing children's homework inaccuracies or assignments deemed ‘overly complicated’.

This year one’s homework has sparked a heated discussion online, with many parents offering different interpretations and justifications for various answers to the assignment. You can read more about the story here.
Key Takeaways
  • A child's English homework answer was mistakenly marked incorrect by the teacher, causing frustration among parents.
  • The homework involved finding the correct synonym for the word 'ideal', with 'perfect' being the choice that was marked wrong.
  • After sharing the incident on social media, other parents and users agreed that ‘perfect’ was the correct synonym for ‘ideal’.
  • Confusion also arose over another child's worksheet, which featured an 'unreasonably complicated' task, sparking discussion among parents online.
Have you or your family members experienced similar homework headaches? How did you handle the situation? Share your stories and advice in the comments below!
 
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Yes teachers can be wrong. We are not all perfect. But what parents need to realise is that marking thirty sets of homework is very time consuming so we do it quite quickly which sometimes means a slip of the pen is possible. Every minute of a teacher’s time spent marking means less time planning lessons and activities for students. Teachers spend so much time planning to make sure every student is catered for that they are usually working 6 or 7 hours on top of class time every day. I know that when I was teaching I would often be working in my classroom well after 8 pm, especially at report time.
 
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Yes teachers can be wrong. We are not all perfect. But what parents need to realise is that marking thirty sets of homework is very time consuming so we do it quite quickly which sometimes means a slip of the pen is possible. Every minute of a teacher’s time spent marking means less time planning lessons and activities for students. Teachers spend so much time planning to make sure every student is catered for that they are usually working 6 or 7 hours on top of class time every day. I know that when I was teaching I would often be working in my classroom well after 8 pm, especially at report time.
I admire teachers but YEAR 2??? Were these kids learning words like this in their cradle?
 
Not the first time I have heard of something like this.
I feel that learning how to teach is not the same as being proficient in the subject yourself. There have been reports in the past of some teachers and/or teachers in training, being proven to be unable to use correct grammar, and unfortunately, not able to spell correctly. I believe that was during a period when some desk jockey thought it a good idea to implement the sight method, where spelling and grammar would become unnecessary.
Seems some of that generation may have fallen through the cracks.
In this situation, the teacher should have been taken to task with this, whilst having a thesaurus on stand by.
 
Oxford Dictionary definition of Ideal -
1. Satisfying one's conception of what is perfect most suitable
'The swimming pool is ideal for a quick dip'.

It is most certainly not interesting. The teacher is wrong.
An ideal problem is one that certainly can be interesting to understand and may be to solve. A Mathematician might understand what I mean. It is a word that has many connotations depending on the context in which it is being used. That teacher is perhaps not thinking broadly.
 
I had a similar experience at a Parent-Teacher night when my sons were in primary school. Whilst waiting to speak to the teacher I was browsing some of their word lists when I noticed a couple of words spelt incorrectly. I glanced at the teacher who immediately blushed, smiled and put her head down. She later admitted that the word lists were pre-laminated and hence she could not correct the words and just hoped no-one would notice...
My suggestion was to just remove the offending cards....
 
That school needed someone like me. I was the one the other teachers used to send notes to me to check their spelling. The one thing I know about spelling is that it has little to do with intelligence. One of the smartest kids I ever knew could not spell to save her life whereas I didn’t even have to think about it. Spelling was just always there for me. It’s not fair really but some people are natural spellers, most can learn to spell and some, no matter how intelligent they are can never conquer it. People who read a lot usually are better spellers than others so encourage the kids to read.
 
That school needed someone like me. I was the one the other teachers used to send notes to me to check their spelling. The one thing I know about spelling is that it has little to do with intelligence. One of the smartest kids I ever knew could not spell to save her life whereas I didn’t even have to think about it. Spelling was just always there for me. It’s not fair really but some people are natural spellers, most can learn to spell and some, no matter how intelligent they are can never conquer it. People who read a lot usually are better spellers than others so encourage the kids to read.
I fully understand Annie. No-one will play Scrabble with me, my favourite game is Bookworm, favourite book is a dictionary (surprising how many don't know what one is) and I get peed off finding spelling mistakes on tv and in magazines and the use of words from Shakespear's day like "woke".
 
That school needed someone like me. I was the one the other teachers used to send notes to me to check their spelling. The one thing I know about spelling is that it has little to do with intelligence. One of the smartest kids I ever knew could not spell to save her life whereas I didn’t even have to think about it. Spelling was just always there for me. It’s not fair really but some people are natural spellers, most can learn to spell and some, no matter how intelligent they are can never conquer it. People who read a lot usually are better spellers than others so encourage the kids to read.
I'm with you, ,my husband calls me the spelling police.
You even see advertising boards, etc with spelling errors which means that not only the person originating it couldn't spell, but
also the printing company or the person who is supposed to
check the spelling before the sign is printed.
Spelling on the bottom of the TV screen to assist the deaf is also atrocious.
I also agree with your comments about reading. I did a lot of reading when I was young, before TV. My son has so many books his home is like library, he's an excellent speller.
 
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What beats me in the polylingual society that is Australia isthat we don't teach our kids two languages from the day they make noise. Especially a tonal Asian language such as Vietnamese, Thai or Chinese (either Cantonese, Taiwanese or Mandarin) .All we need is a parent who speaks their native language fluently to use that language at home when speaking to their children, and the other parent to use nothing but English for the same purpose. And yes, it works! Even if one parent is not fluent in English, it would still work.

As for Primary education in Australia; it is abysmal, but that is now normal across the UK, NZ and the USA. And is not helped by the mobile phone.
 

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