Anonymous wrote:Why complains and not come up with a solution. My left handed kid is not good at cutting and doesn’t draw well at all even though he can print legibly.

When he has to do an art project in and English, science or history class he prints out a picture or illustration then taps it to a window where there is direct sunlight from the back. He holds up a blank piece of paper to outline the illustration.

Then I have bought him quality alcohol based markers. I bought him Copic brand when they go in sale. He watched some YouTube videos his to use them. They really do make any type of drawing you color in look 10 times better than cheap markers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had it added to my son’s IEP that he could fulfill any dumb art projects with digital images or other equivalent. He had had a keyboard accommodation for many years. This new term was after the English teacher made the kids do a handwritten, illustrated Greek mythology alphabet project in which she specifically said in writing “no stick figures - you must do real drawing”. This was in eighth grade. I made the executive decision to let him type out and cut and paste the text into a flip book, and then found some kind of collage. Yours truly did any “coloring in”. It took a project that should have been enjoyable to something where there was a lot of screaming and crying because my kid is afraid of “getting in trouble” if he doesn’t do the teacher’s method, which he really didn’t want to do so he procrastinated until two days before it was due. She did mark it down because of the typing, even though she was supposedly aware of the keyboard accommodation.

It’s nice to let kids do something creative, but let them determine how.

She should have marked it down. No following instructions and having your parent do your work should result in deductions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stickman drawing works perfectly fine for ELA homework. Most kids like this and the point is not about making perfect drawings but about presenting your understanding of the concept.

I'd say let your children communicate with their teacher about whether they can write extra paragraphs to earn the points. For a 9th grader, they should be able to communicate with the teacher instead of just complaining to their parents.

A teacher is not going to listen to a 14 year old complaining. The parent would have to have an IEP or disability hardship excuse.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of you parents who say your kid can't draw well, I hate to break it to you, but they can't write very well either. If your kids got the grades they actually deserved on writing assignments, you'd complain about that as well.

Or my kid who can’t draw well has a disability that impacts their finger dexterity.

So because one kid has a learning disability that affects his reading, we are going to no longer do any reading because god forbid we ignore their disability.

Want your kid to get a 100% "perfect" and individualized education? Home School them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of you parents who say your kid can't draw well, I hate to break it to you, but they can't write very well either. If your kids got the grades they actually deserved on writing assignments, you'd complain about that as well.

Nope. When I was in school every essay was given 2 grades, one for content and the other for mechanics. My teacher was a stickler and there were times I had do many errors that the deductions dropped the mechanics grade to zero. I certainly didn’t like it, but I learned. You can’t improve if you don’t understand what needs improvement. The purpose of school is not to get good grades, but to learn. Grades are merely a rough indicator of how much learning has occurred. If my kids can’t write, I want their teachers to reflect that in their grades, and then teach them how to improve (which will likewise be reflected in higher grades).

Anonymous wrote:Stickman drawing works perfectly fine for ELA homework. Most kids like this and the point is not about making perfect drawings but about presenting your understanding of the concept.

I'd say let your children communicate with their teacher about whether they can write extra paragraphs to earn the points. For a 9th grader, they should be able to communicate with the teacher instead of just complaining to their parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of you parents who say your kid can't draw well, I hate to break it to you, but they can't write very well either. If your kids got the grades they actually deserved on writing assignments, you'd complain about that as well.

Or my kid who can’t draw well has a disability that impacts their finger dexterity.

One of mine does too. It’s not in his 504 because it’s not generally an issue and it’s such a pain to go back and request it be edited to this dumb assignment. He has a no handwriting accommodation but he’s supposed to be able to draw???

My other kid just hates it and is terrible at it. She’s beyond frustrated that they’ve only read one book all semester and would be happy to write an essay instead. Or read another book and write an essay.

Anonymous wrote:I had it added to my son’s IEP that he could fulfill any dumb art projects with digital images or other equivalent. He had had a keyboard accommodation for many years. This new term was after the English teacher made the kids do a handwritten, illustrated Greek mythology alphabet project in which she specifically said in writing “no stick figures - you must do real drawing”. This was in eighth grade. I made the executive decision to let him type out and cut and paste the text into a flip book, and then found some kind of collage. Yours truly did any “coloring in”. It took a project that should have been enjoyable to something where there was a lot of screaming and crying because my kid is afraid of “getting in trouble” if he doesn’t do the teacher’s method, which he really didn’t want to do so he procrastinated until two days before it was due. She did mark it down because of the typing, even though she was supposedly aware of the keyboard accommodation.

It’s nice to let kids do something creative, but let them determine how.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree there should be an alternative assignment option. The art ones used to make my kid miserable. He would agonize over them and endure so much stress, and for what? Even if fun for the majority of kids, why put the others through it when it is not even pedagogically pertinent?

Because regular English assignments make some kids miserable and we force them to work at it and engage in the struggle and do their best and learn and improve even when it’s hard. Those are good experiences for your child to have too. Not everything is easy, and these assignments are valuable precisely because they flip the script on which kids it’s hard for and which kids it’s easy for. Teach your kids there’s value in working hard at something that doesn’t come easily to them and stop complaining that teachers give assignments your kids aren’t naturally good at. Believe it or not, communicating through pictures is also an English class skill - political cartoons, propaganda, marketing, advertising. All different types of relevant English course skills and knowledge.

That’s all fine and good but some people literally cannot become artistic. We can all be taught the basics of grammar and punctuation and structure of writing and improve. But some of us could take 100 art classes and still not be able to draw beyond a stick figure.

Anonymous wrote:All of you parents who say your kid can't draw well, I hate to break it to you, but they can't write very well either. If your kids got the grades they actually deserved on writing assignments, you'd complain about that as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of you parents who say your kid can't draw well, I hate to break it to you, but they can't write very well either. If your kids got the grades they actually deserved on writing assignments, you'd complain about that as well.

Or my kid who can’t draw well has a disability that impacts their finger dexterity.

So because one kid has a learning disability that affects his reading, we are going to no longer do any reading because god forbid we ignore their disability.

Want your kid to get a 100% "perfect" and individualized education? Home School them.

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I'm going to just start putting this stuff up for a vote among the whole class, let kids make their arguments in a well structured debate of ideas, and the majority will decide how the assignment is going to be handled. If 75% of the class wants some sort of art component to the assignment then the other 25% will just have to learn to be more persuasive. That's how the real world is going to work. Might as well teach them now.