
When you're a young student, a lot of the stuff that teachers do is confusing. You're forced to go along with the lessons they teach, the assignments they give, and the things they say.
And why do you go along with it? Because you're so young you don't have any true knowledge or understanding of the world. So you're forced to trust that they know the write way to teach and instruct.
But when the years pass and you become an adult yourself, there's an opportunity to look back and reflect. You remember some of those confusing assignments and, lo and behold, they're still confusing.
Only now that you're older, you don't have to take the teacher's word for it. You can call it for what it truly was: bizarre and ridiculous.
polly1nyara asked, "What was the weirdest school assignment you were ever given?"
Flipping a Frog
"We had to dissect a frog, then clean it down to the bones, then glue the bones together to make the body, then make a creative scene for the body to be in" -- MarsupialRage
"Serial Killer 103?" -- JeremyTheMVP
"I would hate this assignment but only because frog bones are So. Small. And easily breakable."
"It would just be an exercise in frustration trying to glue it back together, especially without all the equipment they use for articulating skeletons." -- CoyoteWee
A Classic Assignment
"In college psychology we were told to devise a (safe and legal) social experiment of our choosing and note how the people around us acted."
"For example, dressing as a baby and walking around public, sitting down in an elevator with arms wrapped around your knees rocking back and forth not talking to anyone, etc."
"I can't remember what I chose to do anymore since it was so many years ago but it was a fun class."
-- Aerionne
A Surefire Way to Create Empathy
"We picked colored papers at random at the beginning of the week and each color would be our social class for the rest of the week (I.e. yellow paper = king, blue paper=soldier etc.)"
"I remember getting the second best card and I got a lot of privileges, so it was fun for me."
"Can't say the same for the kids who got lower cards, like peasant or prisoner."
Wut.
"My fourth grade teacher went to Disney World, came back, told us all about it, and then made us write a five paragraph essay on her trip." -- armadillollidamra
"Haha what an a**hole!" -- Poor_University_Kid
Bit of a Reach
"I took an accounting class in college. It was about credits/debits, accounts billable/payable, FIFO/LIFO, etc. The term project was to go to two fast food restaurants of your choice, eat there, and then write a report comparing the service."
"At the time I didn't even question it but in hindsight I have no idea what the deal was."
"I did McDonald's and Chick-Fil-A"
Logistically Unsound
"I'm an art student and our first big project was to go to B&Q (diy shop for people who don't know) and paint an aisle."
"The worst part was we had to literally sit down in an aisle and draw while people were shopping around us it was SO awkward and everyone hated the experience with a passion."
-- Nookaalex
In Cahoots With the Publisher?
"My whole PE class in college, we needed a textbook, homework was to read the chapters."
"Student: is there a quiz on this? Teacher: no this is a PE class well test you in the field and in the gym and see how you improve. Student: is the book mandatory? Teacher: yes it's required for this class."
"We literally had boatloads of reading every week from an overpriced textbook that no one bought and we never got quizzed on it."
-- skraatatta
Class Bonding
"For a psychology project, we were assigned to exercise in our clothes till they're drenched in sweat. After that, we had to place them in ziplock bags."
"The next day we had to blindfold ourselves and guess which person owned which clothes based on the scent of the sweat." -- SarcandIron
"How is that related to Psychology at all?" -- Mrchikkin
Dr. B Sounds Like a Rad Dude
"My favorite and weirdest assignment was from Dr. B in high-school. He gave us the assignment of planning out and writing how we would kidnap him without killing him or anyone seeing."
"I had a very detailed plan that included using his relationship with other teachers to coerce him out of his classroom unsuspectingly, creating clorophorm in the science lab (which I had access to and confirmed we had the ingredients needed)..."
"...storage of him under the stage in the band room (had my own keys as head of drumline), and picking him up after hours and taking him out the side exit which had no cameras and was accessible by a road through an orchard (again, no cameras)."
"Taking him to the band room to be chloroformed, gaged, tied up,, and stored under the stage would all be achieved during my TA period (where I usually just wandered class to class cause my teach didn't care)."
"When he handed back assignments I didn't get mine back. Instead I just got a sheet of paper that said 'see me after class.'"
"Shi**ing my pants I stayed, and he told me 'I don't think I've ever had a student whose plan would actually work..... you terrify me.'"
"We both laughed, I got my paper back, and I left the room with 'well... let's just hope I never fail a test.'"
"Weirdest and most fun assignment I had in high school. His point was to engage students in their writing with their mischievous side."
RIP
My high school creative writing teacher asked us to write our own obituaries. Sounds morbid, but it was actually a lot of fun to write/share. Some classmates took a serious approach and wrote about what they hoped their life had been like (fulfilling career, lots of kids, etc.). Some went in a darkly comedic direction and described hilarious accidents that culminated in their death.
Birthday candle fire
We did something similar for an introductory French class on Halloween - we paired off, then each had to draw a gravestone for our partner, with their birth and death dates plus cause of death. My partner said I died on Halloween, killed by a falling jack-o-lantern. I accidentally used my partner's birth date as their death date as well, so I said they died in a "birthday candle fire."
Probably not even the weirdest assignment we had to do. Our French teacher was good at her job.
Lettuce not ask questions
A 300 word essay about if we would choose cabbage seeds or cabbages
Happy feet
Draw a tap-dancing penguin with a monocle. My 5th-grade teacher loved art and so sometimes she would give us random topics to draw once we finished our work.
Rumpelstiltskin
Middle school science teacher told us to draw a machine that turns straw into gold. Yes, the assignment was total BS but that was what she asked us to do. She deemed my elaborate matter conversion device "not detailed enough" and gave me a C.
To this day I have no clue what she was trying to accomplish other than making her students hate her.
Ice ice baby
In my child psychopathology class last semester my prof had us put ice cubes in all of our food that had some form of liquid (so like soup, yogurt, pasta sauce, etc), as well as our drinks for two weeks. The assignment was to get us addicted to the presence of ice cubes in our food and drinks and to really make a habit out of finding ice cubes and planning our day around it like an addict.
I had to bring an ice cube wrapped in tin foil in a plastic bag to work so I could put it in my fruit cup later that day. There were some foods that I outright avoided so that I wouldn't ruin it with the ice cubes for those two weeks. Very weird assignment to say the least, but effective nonetheless.
Historical lessons
That sociology class where they made some of us wear marks and show papers for a week like we were Jews in Nazi Germany was pretty crazy.
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Have you ever heard of a certain job that people call a career and thought... "PEOPLE PAY YOU FOR THAT?!?!"
All hard, honest work is good work.
And then there is just trash work.
And I don't mean garbage collection, that is honest work.
I don't know how some people live with themselves.
Redditor MrTuxedo1 wanted to discuss the careers they don't believe people should chase. They asked:
"What job do you have no respect for?"
Ticket scalpers. How do you the audacity to say that's a job?
Actual burglars have more empathy.
Disrespectful
"There are debt collectors who call relatives of the deceased to pay off their debts when they are not legally obligated to."
Top_Gun_2021
Shady. Shady.
"Australian Real Estate Agents. Laws don't seem to apply to them. Just as dodgy in sales and rentals alike. Never seen anything like it overseas."
snave_
"I'm in the US, it can vary state by state but my state is pretty strict on realtor laws. Some states require attorney review and there are definitely penalties for being reported for shady sh*t. It does require consumer reporting though."
ilostmytaco
Etransfer
"Where I live, tax info was leaked and now scammers are targeting low income individuals/families (people earning under 30,000 per year) with etransfer scams. I got one the other day that was an etransfer warning that 240$ 'a family member sent me' was about to expire."
SnowyInuk
"That’s disgusting. The scammers know what they’re doing, they know the harm they cause people and yet they don’t care."
surelysandwitch
Should be illegal...
"MLM managers. Not the low level idiots that get suckered into it, they suck too for trying to bring new people into that sh*tshow, but the people who create them know exactly what they are doing and are pretty much the only ones who profit off of it. Should be illegal. Pyramid schemes are illegal. None of them ever get the just desserts except occasionally by vigilantes I assume."
Wereno
I hate debt collectors. Yeah, you calling me one hundred times a week is going to miraculously make money appear.
Animals
"Paparazzi."
VictorBlimpmuscle
"I met Jack Gleeson (King Joffrey from Game of Thrones) at a bus stop in Dublin. Really nice guy but he said he quit acting due to people being nasty online and constant hounding from paparrazi. He's happier now but it sucks that he was pushed away from a career he was quite good at."
goobi94
Scumbags
"The pastors at mega churches whom ask their followers for money for private jets. Absolute scum to abuse others faith for your own greed."
ichancho
"Brian Tamaki is a greedy freaking pig, he takes advantage of so many people who are already struggling. Every time he’s in the local news (which btw is often) I get more and more pissed off at him and his wife. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Tamaki "
surelysandwitch
it’s a thing???
“'Dating Expert.' Sadly it’s a thing. It’s basically a self appointed title that requires no training or qualifications. What’s worse, is that I have a female friend who uses one. It’s very much a blind leading the blind situation."
Mean_Manufacturer_61
"Most of the self proclaimed “dating coaches” I know are women in their late 30s or early 40s who have never been married or had a longer relationship."
ipozgaj
EVIL
"Poachers. Especially big game poachers who purposefully hunt nearly extinct animals from species they know they are on the brink."
"I know there are poachers that come from rural villages who are trying to just put food on the table, which has my sympathy but poachers who come from money and hunt down animals minding their business in most shelters or restricted areas just to put a head on their wall as a trophy are absolutely heinous."
GetterdoneObiwan
I See It All
"Psychic Mediums. Specifically those who prey on the grieving."
JamesDeadite
"I've always found it interesting how many magicians go after people like this. I think it's because they know what it takes to trick people for the art. The slight of hand and mentalism. And they abhor people who use these tactics for such sh*tty purposes."
34HoldOn
I want so bad to believe in psychics and mediums. What say we on that topic?
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The nose is constantly being attacked by odors of the world.
Going through one day without having to hold my breath during a certain point, is a miracle.
Of course, I'm a New Yorker, so I maybe exaggerating for people in the countryside.
What's funnier is odors that are pleasant, that shouldn't be.
Have you ever looked and something and thought... "yuck."
But then you smelled it and it was like... "oh lovely,"
Redditor HappQueue wanted to know what aromas are arousing to the senses that may come as a surprise to many. They asked:
"What smells good but shouldn't?"
For some odd reason I love the things burning. Anything, food, pots, pans. You name it. Weird.
Blow
"Matches/candles on a birthday cake. I remember lighting matches as a kid purely to blow them out and inhale that sweet match-y smell."
semispooked
"guilty good"
"I work at a Chemical plant. We make a highly acidic product that is dark blue, viscus, highly corrosive, and smells exactly like Fruit Loops. It is incredibly disturbing."
Turin082
"Organic chemistry has many 'guilty good' smells. Thiophosgene (sulfur derivative of a chemical weapon used extensively in WW1) apparently smells like meat. Phosgene is used to make polycarbonate, thiophosgene is used to make some sulfur-containing molecules which eventually end up in therapeutic drugs."
HammerTh_1701
I can't huff it...
"Paint, specifically house paint. I love the smell. But anytime I hear that anyone is painting a room or their house, I volunteer. I just love sitting on the floor in a room that's been freshly painted, closing my eyes and just inhaling that slightly chemically, slightly creamy aroma."
Neowza
A Hint of French...
"A fish and chips shop burnt down as couple blocks from work a few years ago. The whole neighborhood smelled amazing for days. Just the slight hint of French fries. Nothing overpowering. It was so awesome. Until I found out someone was trapped in the fire and died."
stevey_frac
Drag
"Race fuel. Instantly puts me in a good mood as it reminds me of going to the drag races with my dad when I was young."
garfnodie
Fuel and matches get me too. And they sort of go together. Interesting.
Just like the Movie...
"The water from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Mmm, bromine."
Stalkerslovemy
"This is one of my favorite scents of all time, and Disney is very aware that people enjoy it. Evidently it’s a lot harder to recreate than just adding bromine to water."
cash4panties
"black widow".
"There's a chicken wing restaurant near my house that has a challenge sauce called "black widow." The owner claims it to be around 500,000 scovilles. A few years back some buddies and I decided to try them, the sauce was a dark molasses color and smelled almost like a BBQ sauce, no hint of the danger that lurked at all. We each grabbed one wing and it went terribly. I don't know how something so spicy could smell so innocent."
Final-Chapter
Endless Weekend
"Hotel/rented rooms whenever you go on vacation. There's this particular smell that just says 'you are on vacation,' especially on a beach/swimming trips/out-of-the-town vacays."
Yummy_Llama
"Bath and Body Works has a plug-in scent called Endless Weekend that replicates that scent (to my humble nose)."
Exxcentrica
"oh no..."
"Someone you are attracted to's body odors. Anyone else who is slightly unhygienic smells repulsive."
Mini_gunslinger
"I remember back in high school a girl leaned over, sniffed me, told me that I smelled really good, and asked me what cologne I was wearing. I asked if she was joking, and she's like, no, you smell really good. When I told her I had just gotten done with gym class, she gets a small 'oh no...' look on her face and turns away. I think we both had a revelation that day."
user deleted
That Smell
"The smell inflatable things give off. I have no idea how to describe it, but it’s… nostalgic? to me."
crestfxllen
I do love the smell of plastics and inflatables. Ahh....
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At one point in time, we've misplaced things that we've considered priceless possessions.
It's hard to imagine how to go on without the lost object–whatever it may be–but over time, it becomes a distant memory and we move on.
That is until we magically find ourselves presented with this opportunity proposed by Redditor mikehotel288, who asked:
"You find yourself in a room with everything you’ve ever lost in your life. What do you look for first?"
There are necessities people cannot do without.
No More Dry Lips Ever Again
"Gonna be a lot of chapstick in that room."
– camefromxbox
There are things that bring us comfort and are irreplaceable.
Safety Blanket
"My baby blanket. It became tattered over the years—to the point where I couldn’t reasonably wash it anymore—so I had to throw it away a little while back."
"I have heavily regretted that decision. I was really attached to it (hence it being in tatters), but I really wish that I kept what was left of it instead of throwing it away. Just knowing that I’d still have it would be a huge comfort to me."
– Uearie
Sentimental Heirloom
"The pendant my dad had made for me with my grandmother’s engagement diamond. It was 2 carats. It disappeared from a Las Vegas hotel room 20 years ago. It was hidden deep in a suitcase where it would not have been easy to find. It was just GONE. Cops didn’t do anything. Didn’t even come to take my statement. Cleaning lady said she thought she saw an elderly man enter my room. The guy I was with was not sympathetic in the least. Entire situation was f**ked. I’m still so upset about it."
– MaritimeDisaster
Lone Shark
"My plastic shark toy I lost when I was 10. Ain't no f'king way it just VANISHED."
– Guilty_As_Charged__
Not everything lost is tangible.
Tick Tock
"The time I wasted."
– shinyfennec
It Holds Value
"My private key with 6 BTC in it."
– Significant_Mirror19
"I didn't lose one, but I'll check my room for yours just in case."
– Smodphan
Finding Purpose
"The reason I walked into the room."
– Lloyd_lyle
Lost Opportunity
"That one girl i spoke to on omegle lol"
– h-amishh
If only we get to reunite with those we've lost.
The Loved Family Member
"My grandpa."
– Splatty_boi_420
Grieving Parent
"My daughter. She’ll be in my brother’s arms. So I’ll find both things I care to look for."
– SeeTheFence
Missing Mom
"My mom. She died of cancer in 2017. She never got to meet my daughter. I miss the hell out of her and wish she was still part of my family’s life."
– X-Arkturis-X
The Animals That Come Into Our Lives
"My pets that have passed: especially my horse, Blue. It's been 4 years, but it feels like just yesterday."
– Baciandrio
While many of these scenarios are unlikely, the thread gave people an opportunity to reflect on the things that made a strong impression on their lives.
Sometimes, the memories of the things we've lost–whether they are random objects or sources of love–is all we have.
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What's worse than returning home from a night out or a workday and discovering your home was broken into? Being home when the break-in happens.
Home invasions are a common trope portrayed in horror films like The Strangers and Funny Games, and they're absolutely terrifying because they are based on real-life incidents.
Redditor silentagent47 asked strangers to consider this horrifying hypothetical.
"You have 5 minutes to prepare before a guy breaks into your house with the intention to kill you. You can not exit your house. What is your strategy to survive?"
The hunter becomes the hunted, inspired by TV and movies.
Duplicating A Scene
"There was an episode of Burn Notice where Michael puts aerosol cans in the microwave with kitchen utensils and hits popcorn button. I really want to know if this works or not."
– JohnSterlingSanchez
Epic Burglar Trap
"Speed-watch Home Alone."
– pluribusduim
It's about the choice of weapon.
Jump Scare
"I get the vacuum cleaner ready in a certain room, I turn it on as hes about to enter to create a distraction, then I jump out when he's inspecting the noise and bonk the f'ker on the head with the piece of 2 inch steel tube I keep as a weapon."
– BustedBastard
Beware of Dog
"Unleash the Hounds"
– myassonreddit
Make A Weapon
"Duct tape a bunch of knives to the end of one of those tall lamps to make a spear of blinding and then proceed to go sicko mode."
– DubTheeBustocles
Preparing For A Thwack
"Turn shower on, for some reason I have a shovel behind my wardrobe?? So grab that. Wait for him to check shower, whack with shovel. Boom."
– hypersp00p
It's Just A Game
"Corner camp with a shotgun."
– Arrow3619
A Warm Welcome
"Hairspray and a lighter to his face."
– WorkingClassSheep
The effectiveness of these tactics are questionable, but points for creativity are warranted.
Stand Still
"Put a lamp shade on my head and stand in the corner of the room."
– Cannabis_Sir
Make It Erotic
"I turn on all the lights, take off all my clothes, rub butter all over myself, and start a fake conversation on the phone. As soon as he breaks in I say into the phone: 'I’ve gotta go, my next appointment is finally here…”
– FrankieTheAlchemist
Forget The Stairs
"Go to the LIVING ROOM."
– on-oath-never-again
Removing The Element Of Fun
"Draw an X on my forehead and grab a beer."
– Candycoatedmuffin3
And that's why I would opt for living in a commune or apartment complex.
People who own houses are just asking for forced entry.
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