We all want that amazing teacher who inspires us, pushes us to do better. Every day, when the morning bell rings, gives us assignments and work that challenges us, makes us understand the world better, and proves that education is more than just grades and standardized testing.
And then, there's the kind of teachers who give assignments like these ones.
Reddit user, u/myphoneislaggy, wanted to hear:
Students of Reddit, what is the most insane assignment you have been given?
That's Not Quite Grading On A Curve
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I had an... interesting... 6th grade teacher when I was in a Catholic middle school. The assignment wasn't what was truly insane.
After taking a test (I believe the subject was U.S. history), she asked us to turn the paper over and write as many stores as we could name from our local mall on the back of our tests. After we finished, she instructed us to pass our paper to our neighbor for grading. After grading the tests proper, she instructed us to subtract 1 point for each store named.
Joke's on her, even at that age I never left the house. A friend of mine's mom worked at the mall though, and he was able to name 80+ stores. The actual test probably only had 30-50 questions. His score was well into the negatives. Her rationale was that we should be spending less of our free time out having fun and more time studying. I sh-t you not.
Every parent called the school the next day screaming. She eventually was let go, but years later and for an entirely different reason. She had thrown one of those heavy, vintage, metal Swingline staplers right at a kid's face.
That's a story for a different time though.
How Could Any Student Succeed?
My 12th grade English teacher gave us a project of a senior "memory book". Basically 12 chapters, 2 pages per chapter of specific subjects that you could take off of a rubric, three required subjects. Three weeks to complete. Ok, sounds boring and something I don't want to do but fairly easy.
So I finish it 2 days before its due, about the time everyone else does. But then, the teacher decided to just increase the amount of required chapters from 3 to 9 the day before it was due, and she changed the required chapters, which means I had to write 9 chapters in this stupid assignment in the span of 1 day. Everyone failed the assignment and nobody liked her at all.
Face To Face Makes Me Break Out In Hives
Actually got this assignment last monday for an entrepreneur course, i have to carry out 30 FACE TO FACE interviews (25 minutes minimum EACH) with musicians within a week. So that's 15 hours of conversation, which i have to transcribe and code and summarize all within one week.
Delete All The Search Histories!
In connection with reading Madame Butterfly, we were assigned to go to the library computers, log onto the internet, and to search "Asian Women" and "Japanese Wives" among other similar terms for research on stereotypes. Luckily, I had already done extensive research on my own into.... um.... similar topics so I knew better, and was not one of the 15 or so students who got their computer access removed for searching porn on the library computers. It was an honest but hilarious mistake from a teacher that had no idea how the internet worked. This was many years ago.
I'm a student of Life Sciences (Biotechnology) My "Ecology, Diversity and Evolution" Proff gave me the topic which only said, "Carrot"
Like, dude, how can I make a presentation of 15 to 20 minutes on "Carrot"? What can I say about"Carrots"?
In the end, I made a pretty respectful presentation (in my opinion), like, in which year it was first used as a vegetable, how many types are there, it's colors, etc. So the time came of the presentation, the Professor calls me to the podium, asked me my name and registration. I started my presentation, introduced myself to the class, started all the slides, read and explained everything. So, when I was just about to say goodbye, the Professor looked up from his writing pad and told me the start the presentation WHICH I JUST FINISH. It was THE WORST presentation of my life.
Hey! An Actual Good One!
I was in a book making class. I expected to learn about binding and covering and all that. The teacher was your classic kooky artist type and she got all excited and announced dramatically "I want each of you to make a book....out of THIS" and presented us each with a cardboard coffee can. I guess she just had dozens of them saved in her home and figured it could be a stimulating challenge to have us use them.
It did end up being fairly interesting. We had to first agree on the true definition of a "book." We decided that it was any object that presents information in a specific sequence.
I filled my coffee can with cement and then glued foam letters on the outside, so that when you rolled it in ink, and then rolled it across a large piece of butcher paper, it would stamp out the words "Hello! I am a can" over and over. She loved it.
userdeleted
These Actors Were Perfectly Cast In Their Roles | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Sometimes an actor comes along that is able to reach the audience on a deeper level. The actor that immediately comes to mind is Robin Williams. Although it ...Did The Professor Ever Say "Carpe Diem!" Unironically?
I took an experimental poetry track when I was in college. Some of our assignments included:
- Buy a flower and watch it die
- Egg a parking lot and write a description of the eggs without using metaphors or similes
- Leave food out in a public space and see how long it takes for it to get eaten
- Read your poetry out loud on the train without explaining what you are doing
- Infiltrate a group you are not normally a part of and sew dissent
- Bring something from home that represents how you want to die. Trade "deaths" with a peer
It was a pretty crazy class. I loved it.
*pulls collar out to the side to simulate discomfort*
When I was in college, I had to write a 75 page paper and print out ten copies, one for each person in the class. The topic of the paper?
Deforestation.
Woof...That Is...Not Good.
I haven't been a student for almost a decade now, but a recent assignment went somewhat viral here in the UK.
The students were given the task of writing a letter from the perspective of a parent that had a child murdered in the Manchester Arena bombings. In this "letter" they were tasked to write, they had to express sympathy and forgiveness for those that did the bombings.
To make this even more f-cked up, this task was given to children of the Manchester area. So those poor kids had to write a letter, from the perspective of a parent, forgiving and sympathising with the people that murdered their friends and family.
Well, Hey, At Least You Learned? Right?
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My high school science class had a project where we removed the meat from an animal's skull. It was a home project though and we weren't provided with animals - I didn't have any problem with this, but I should imagine not every kid in the class could get their hands on a severed animal head so easily.
I used a coyote, most kids had rabbits or deer but my uncle had just recently shot a coyote so that was pretty cool.
But looking back on it, that was kinda creepy and I think others in the class probably weren't okay with that one.
Either that, or a class in college that gave you three options for a final paper:
- 48 pages in 24 hours
- 96 pages in 48 hours
- 144 pages in 72 hours
On a subject that will be given to you at the end of the lecture, the idea being that you finish at least two pages an hour if you don't eat or sleep or have other classes. I took the first option because it was the shortest, most people did, and it was a freakin disaster. Only thing I learned from that project was that good work takes time.
Were You Supposed To...Cook The Baby?
To make a video on how to breastfeed and buy literally everything you need for a kid plus one of those robot baby's. The thing was atleast $100 dollars and was only a homework grade and no one did it cause it was literally not even a class related to anything on that. It was a cooking class not home ec.
They made us do something similar for eighth grade heath (thanks to the amazing George W. Bush-era sex "ed" "curriculum"). We had to haul around 10 pounds of flour, a doll, or in my case, a Build-a-Bear with a 10 pound dumbbell shoved inside of it. They made us carry it to and from school, through all of our classes, change it every night, and write a report on it at the end of the week.
The point was to scare us out of having kids young (which didn't work), but all it did was throw my bowling game off for a couple months.
The old wives' tales.
They are the stories of legend.
I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.
Where did they originate?
WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!
You don't hear about them as much anymore.
It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.
But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.
Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:
"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"
"Wait an hour to swim after eating."
What a crock!
So many summer hours wasted.
I want revenge for that one.
Say Nothing
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"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."
LonelyMail5115
"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."
I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA
Say Something
"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."
Severe_Airport1426
"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."
crappycurtains
"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."
AlbinoShavedGorilla
Body Temps
"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."
chriseo22
"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."
"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."
apocalypticradish
Arms Down
"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."
Fatmouse84
10 Years Actually
Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine
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"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."
"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."
Gecko-911
I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.
This tale is haunting.
High/Low
Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace
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"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."
LeastFormal9366
"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."
IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI
The Cursed
"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."
"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."
SmoreOfBabylon
Stay In
"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."
"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."
worldbound0514
Dreams and Facts
"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."
"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."
mattshonestreddit
"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."
Darthdemented
Cracked
Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office
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"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."
Choice-Grapefruit-44
"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."
MacyTmcterry
I love my knuckles.
Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
