Hitler mom - another parent doing kid's homework

[depechemodefan]

This happened more than a week ago.

I worked a Sunday, and we are only open 4 hours on Sunday. Whole bunch of annoying things happened Sun. but I forgot everything except this.

40 min to closing. Why do people come in to do homework/papers when we are almost closed? There is no time to do it, idiots. Stike one.

Anyway, mom shows up with her whey-faced child. Child has a paper to do on "How did Hitler used propraganda to something something." (And hopefully mom doesn't "google" the phrase and find this...I think I vagued it up enough. and misspelled).

That isn't too hard. People have written about that. So I lead her to the books, mentioning that there are also databases where there should be articles. Mom, though, keeps on saying things, like "I have to find books for..." "I have to find a topic..." "I have to find the focus..." I finally said, "your daughter has to find the topic..." Mom laughs, says, "yes my daughter." I have no idea how the girl sounds like, and she looks like a high schooler. Strike two.

I lead the twosome to the books and the mom is asking me how to do the paper. How to find the topic sentence, how to find the thesis, how to blah blah blha. I was telling her that when her daughter reads the books, the daughter will find facts to back up her thesis. Mom wants me to give her the thesis. I said I can not, that would be cheating.

Of course, mom says, "you don't want to help. I'm going to find someone else to help." Strike three. Fine. As I leave I tell her, "if you want books on just Hitler or just propaganda, she can check the catalog for that." Mom says, "that is what I was asking for." me

I hate parents.

But it doesn't end.

I latter go to the elevator to go to a closed floor. woman and girl gets out of elevator. Woman gives me a superior smile, nods at me as if she caught me. Mom says, with sarcasm at 10, "Thank you so much for your help, God bless you." I tell her not to be sarcastic. She then turns on me and yells (and I practically see her hair fluff up, pins jumping off) "I don't like your attitude!!!What's your name!!!"

So far it's been a week, hopefully the bitch decided to take the upper road and show some class by not letting me get to her and so she isn't going to report me.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

That mother is why the education level in this country is in it current state (well ok, her and "no child left behind" and educators fears of giving ANYONE an F grade on something because "oh my god it will crush little billy's spirits to fail!")

I failed three classes in high school but still graduated with a 3.2 GPA. The failures were absolutely my own fault (didn't put enough effort in or take the work seriously enough). I made two of the three credits up, one in summer school and one at night school.

Doing someone else's work FOR THEM teaches that person ABSOLUTELY nothing and is one of the worst things (if not THE worst thing) you can do when you're trying to get someone to, you know, LEARN something.

I will NEVER be one of those parents. My kids will darned well learned to write their own papers and their own assignments just like I did.

[bhskittykatt]

That girl is going to grow up just like my friend. I love my friend dearly, but she's an idiot.

On a discussion about WWII:
Friend: "I know Hitler was, like, bad and all, but what did he do again?"
Me: Seriously?!?
After a lengthy discussion about the Holocaust,
Friend: "OMG! He did that?!? Why wasn't it on the news?!?!"

In another discussion about a documentary on the survivors of the Japan bombings:
Friend: "What's a Hiroshima?"

My friend is 22 years old, and doesn't know these things. It's very sad, and also a little frightening.

Parents, PLEASE let your kids learn! They'll thank you for it later.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

^^^That reminds me of the twit in one of my college history classes, who suggested that the Americans gave up in the Revolutionary War because "they didn't have enough troops!"

And somehow she was college material.

[mariamousie1]

That girl is going to grow up just like my friend. I love my friend dearly, but she's an idiot.

On a discussion about WWII:
Friend: "I know Hitler was, like, bad and all, but what did he do again?"
Me: Seriously?!?
After a lengthy discussion about the Holocaust,
Friend: "OMG! He did that?!? Why wasn't it on the news?!?!"

In another discussion about a documentary on the survivors of the Japan bombings:
Friend: "What's a Hiroshima?"

My friend is 22 years old, and doesn't know these things. It's very sad, and also a little frightening.

Parents, PLEASE let your kids learn! They'll thank you for it later.

Reminds me of Jillian on Family Guy. "Brian, I just saw a special on tv about this guy called Hitler. Someone should stop him!"

[chainedbarista]

what scares me the most is that some states are considering allowing parents to have a say in the cirriculum and teacher reviews, which sounds like a recipie for disaster.

granted, if there's a teacher that is not up to standards/abusive/etc., then yes, by all means, the parent should have some power to initiate actions against the teacher, but i see this being used as a means to empower parents with less scholastically inclined children to punish the school for their shortcomings.

no child left behind has opened some seriously dangerous doors...

[DGoddessChardonnay]

While I've run across such kids who are total airheads, and parents who coddle their children and do everything for them, let's take the "no child left behind" debate to Fratching - where it belongs.

Otherwise, please feel free to share just how dingy people can be.

[SuperRTL]

I was in a gifted and talented class in elementary school before I got into a school that was actually worth a damn. The teacher didn't know how to deal with gifted students. And only a handful of them actually qualified at "gifted" in the academic sense at all. Mostly, they were problem students from other classes and since they were good at things like graffiti and gym, they were put in the Gifted class. In fact, I was one of the two kids in the class who actually took the test to get in. Fancy that.

Anyway, the two things I remember about the class is how my projects were always great but quite obviously done by me and the others projects . . . weren't. I'm talking a shoebox diarama of a local landmark from me and three dimensional models of said landmark that were bigger than the kids themselves. A drawing of a stuffed teddy bear versus a professional looking portrait of a real bear.

My mom tells me that about half way through the first semester, the other parents were complaining about how many projects were being sent home. The parents were absolutely exhausted by the amount of work the kids did.

[depechemodefan]

I remember when I was in HS, the school got a famour(ish) businessman from the community (he will "SAVE YOU MONEY!!!) to do a speech. He said he would give $50 to the kid who can get on the stage and tell the other students when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. I was too shy but not many kids raised their hands. Or maybe he offered the money after he asked if any one could tell him when PH was bombed.

I can imagine 10 years from now someone asking kids when 9/11 happened, or when the two towers from the World Trade Center were destroyed by planes flying into them and kids don't know.

And really, where are the hard questions? Why not ask to recite the St. Crispen's Day speech from Henry V?

[shankyknitter]

I'm currently in college to be a history teacher for high school students, posts like this make me very sad 'cause I know those are the 'sucky customers' I'm going to be dealing with when I graduate. One of my mentors asked her students why the year 1066 was important and she got answers such as:

It was the year of the Normandy invasion (the Nazi's were really surprised)

It was the year the Vikings conquered Britain (well at least he tried)

It was the year Napoleon conquered Europe and abolished the 10 day week 'cause 7 days worked better with the 7 noble virtues that humans should live up to so we only needed to work on one virtue a day (wait wait wait, didn't Napoleon defeat King Arthur at the battle of Baddan Hill?)

Its enough to make a history teacher weep.

[SuperRTL]

I'm currently in college to be a history teacher for high school students, posts like this make me very sad 'cause I know those are the 'sucky customers' I'm going to be dealing with when I graduate. One of my mentors asked her students why the year 1066 was important and she got answers such as:

My total at a sci-fi/fantasy con bookbooth was $10.66. I chuckled and said "Heh, good year." The booth owner stared at me for a second then just shook his head and said "Only at a sci-fi convention." Do not fear, there are those who do recognize some of the important dates.

[protege]

One of my mentors asked her students why the year 1066 was important and she got answers such as:

I'm surprised nobody thought of a certain Daimler car...nicknamed the Conquest, since it cost all of 1066 pounds

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I wonder how many history students would know the Vikings are something besides Minnesota's football team?

[Estil]

Think all that is bad? Check out these IDIOTS who don't realize that Hawaii is a US state (and has been for over 50 years!!):

http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/?uc_full_date=20090221
http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/?uc_full_date=20090521

[depechemodefan]

Check out these IDIOTS who don't realize that Hawaii is a US state (and has been for over 50 years!!):

Don Ho should be sent to straigthen the out.

The Dear Abby column had one person, when asked where she is from, say she was from NY and she was upset that people thought she meant the city. I have people call and ask for an address in NY, and most of the time they do mean the city. In fact, I'm used to NY meaning the city when dealing with people. So she should be so upset...until people reply they didn't realize there is a state.