Dad disputes teacher's marking after son 'thinks outside the box' on homework

A dad sparked a debate after disputing a teacher's marking - as he claims his child should have been awarded full marks for 'thinking outside of the box' in a homework question

A dad ignited a fiery debate after questioning a teacher's grading, arguing his child deserved top marks for "thinking outside the box".

He detailed how his child was given the task to create 'the smallest even numbers possible' with given digits on a worksheet. The youngster scored 4 out of 8 for the activity. The numbers provided were 210, and the child responded with 012; and when faced with 650, the answer penned was 058.

However, both were deemed incorrect by the teacher, who stated that 102 and 506 were the rightful solutions. Taking to Reddit, the father questioned: "Anyone else disagree with my kid's teacher?" A respondent, a former maths educator, remarked: "I'd slow clap, say Bravo, give the kid a few bonus points on a future assignment, and either change the instructions next time or leave it and see how many other kids think about this loophole."

Continuing, they said: "As a dad, I wouldn't raise too much of a stink about it, but I'd definitely take my kid out for ice cream and say 'You know what kid? Welcome to the system... it's you against the world sometimes. And you're not going to win because eventually the house always wins, but the wisdom is learning to only fight battles that you know you're going to win that are worth it. You just learned a lot about your teacher here'."

Another teacher weighed in, saying: "I'm a teacher. If I assign something that leads to answers I didn't expect/target but isn't wrong, I wouldn't take off marks (my fault for not making clear enough instructions), but I'd explain what I expected vs. the answers given."

Meanwhile, one user contended: "Yeah, seems like the teacher expected them to make a three-digit number but didn't explicitly say that in the instructions. Seems like a clarification with the teacher would be good." And another added their perspective: "It's a bad question or at the very least poorly written. Your kid is technically correct, which we all know is the best kind of correct."

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