It's inevitable that the day comes when you get a phone call from your child's school that they're in trouble. Most kids push the limits a little, so it only makes sense they'll get themselves into a little snafu at some point of their academic career.
These situations get more complicated when, as a parent, you don't agree with why your child got in trouble. One parent found themselves in that tough spot and took to Reddit to ask for some advice.
They found out their child was in trouble for correcting a teacher. However, the correction wasn't disrespectfully put. It was offered as a sincere contribution to the conversation, but the teacher didn't see it that way.
A parent found themselves in a sticky situation after they got a call from their child's school about him getting in trouble. The situation became more complicated because the parent didn't agree with the reason why their child got in trouble, as they explained in a Reddit post.
"My 10-year-old son had to watch some Snoopy cartoon in class during which Woodstock eats a roast turkey," the original poster (OP) began.
"The teacher told the class that this is fictional, and that birds don't eat other birds," OP explained.
However, OP's son had an example of that not being the case:
"My son corrected her and said something along the lines of 'my uncle trains falcons to hunt other birds at the airport to protect the airplanes.'"
The teacher didn't take well to being corrected.
"The teacher got upset said he was 'disrespectful' and 'talking back' and sent him to the principal's office," OP revealed.
"I got called and they explained the situation, that he corrected the teacher. I said, 'well was he right?'"
"The principal said 'It doesn't matter, this was rude and you need to teach your son show some respect to authority,'" OP continued.
"I told the principal 'I'm not going to punish my son or make him apologize if he was right, maybe your teacher should be better educated.'"
"The principal looked a bit shocked and just told me to leave. Fine by me. Really reconsidering this school," OP concluded. They wanted to know if they handled the situation badly, all things considered.
A few people wanted to know more. It wouldn't be unheard of for a 10-year-old to wield a little attitude. They felt if that was the case, OP's child might owe his teacher an apology.
Most parents were on OP's side, however. One commenter lamented how the idea of respecting authority has changed over time.
"I saw someone online say before: sometimes people use 'respect' to mean 'treating someone like a person' and sometimes they use 'respect' to mean 'treating someone like an authority,'" they wrote.
"And sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say 'if you won't respect me I won't respect you' and they mean 'if you won't treat me like an authority I won't treat you like a person' and they think they're being fair but they aren't, and it's not okay."
Many parents also agreed that OP wasn't wrong in considering pulling their child from the school.
"Yep, from now on the school administration is going to watch OP's kid like hawks," a commenter noted.
"Birds of a feather flock together. OP ought to check their nest egg to see if they can afford to migrate to a better school."
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