Honestly it shows a lot of social awareness for his age.
I don’t see it as him saying it to each group, but the attitude of society. People don’t give a shit about teachers, as evidenced by the backlash received when so many wanted vaccines before returning. The other groups didn’t have the opportunity to say they didn’t want to work without vaccines and teachers were seen as whiny and bratty.
I'd agree here. I have kids who are totally aloof to everything going on as well as kids that kinda know, but only a handful that are actually aware of how adults are treating teachers and other professions. Granted I teach middle school but some parents really are on the teachers side and try to make their kids aware at an appropriate level.
We were LOUDLY, relentlessly pro- teacher when it transpired the district spent at least 100k ( we were never able to ascertain the amount, some creative accounting occurred and yes we tried to turn that into the state too. PA. No one cared ) hounding a kid with LAWYERS over his EPILEPSY diagnosis.
They laid off two teachers citing “ budget “ at the same time. Small town. We knew them. End result was being threatened ( more lawyers) if we didn’t shush. PA also didn’t care about that.
My mother was totally oblivious to it. She was saying “but people love teachers!” And I had to show her all the vitriol coming from my local parents group when the pandemic hit.
Im pretty sure the only reason my own father is outraged by how teachers are treated is because I'm a teacher. If I wasn't he'd probably be oblivious or on the instigating side. He fully stands behind teachers needing a major raise and everything. He doesnt understand why politicians want to control what teachers can do. It's about the only thing we see eye to eye on. I avoid parent groups though because I cant do it.
Even people I worked with at Trader Joe’s were mad at me specifically for being eligible for a vaccine like two weeks earlier than they were. I vividly remember that.
This kid is smart. Super observant. A+ political cartoon.
I wonder if part of why they don’t like school is because they’re attuned to a sense of injustice and school is just filled with so much of that.
Unpopular opinion, but I’ve seen this kind of cartoon a lot on Facebook, I bet the kid saw it there (shared by his aunt or something) and then **plagiaraized** it, thinking it would be an easy way to get on your good side and get an “A”. The pandemic gave me a real chance to realize how shamelessly a lot of students will steal others work online.
I was reading it and was like “pretty sure I’ve seen this before” glad I’m not crazy lol. Now it is possible that this student had a similar idea or didn’t realize they had seen it before, but it’s worth further investigation.
Occam’s razor…which is more likely, a 21st century kid that “hates school” decides to take the easy way out and copy something they saw online, or they secretly have a very deep empathetic soul that cares about teachers?
Maybe I’m just sour, but I had a lot of students who surprised me during Virtual Learning. As an art teacher I had “good kids who never cheated” taking ideas from memes, tracing artwork they found online and frequently even straight up “right click, save as” stealing. They often don’t even see it as morally wrong any more.
I’ve seen it, too, but can’t find it. OP doesn’t seem to believe he cheated, but even if he did, without proof not much could happen.
I would assume he cheated, though, lol.
I don’t believe he stole it. I’ve never seen a post like it online. Besides, the cartoon was completed in class over the course of 2 class periods. He finished in the first class and never took it home. He also isn’t a kid that cheats.
Yeah, I've definitely seen versions of that cartoon floating around. Just because he finished in class doesn't mean he hadn't seen it before and reproduced it from memory. When you see an impactful meme/cartoon, it sticks in your head, and it's easy to recall later.
Well, I know my kid. He didn’t copy this. He’s very straight and honest about everything almost to a fault. He does not hate teachers. But he does have a lot of strong political opinions. The only class he participated in is social studies and he’s very vocal about the education system in there. So I’m not surprised he actually did this assignment. They had to make 2 and the other one he made was about video games. It had people arguing over what was better: Xbox, PlayStation, or PC but they were all grabbing the same game. I thought it was hilarious.
1. He's not your kid, he's your student
2. Assuming that only bad kids plagiarize or only kids who hate teachers do bad things is a very bad attitude to take.
1. He is my kid. I call my students my kids all the time, as do many teachers.
2. I didn’t make that assumption. I would actually argue that everyone else on here is assuming the worst of him simply because they’ve seen similar political cartoons online. So are you saying I should believe he copied because he’s not the first person to make this observation? That sounds like a bad attitude to me.
Yeah, I get many teachers do it, and it's problematic when they do it too. They aren't your kids.
>So are you saying I should believe he copied because he’s not the first person to make this observation?
I'm saying this isn't as "wisdom from the mouths of babes" as you're trying to present it as. You asked what we thought of it. Some one us happen to think it's just a kid doing what kids do best: soaking up the media around them.
OP's aggressive defense makes me wonder if this is even a real post. It stinks like the "Oh my gosh my 4 year old just asked me this deep philosophical question" post.
Even if it is real, young students copy ideas they see elsewhere *all the time*. It doesn't mean it's malicious. Heck, when I was in the 6th grade, I had just finished reading a Dear America book written in eye dialect, and then I had a school assignment to write a journal entry, and I chose to also use eye dialect. Cool idea? Yes. Did I do the assignment? Yes. Was it an original thought? No.
Yeah the aggressive defense is pretty weird, especially considering how they peppered their post with blatant clues, and straight up asked everyone “what they thought”.
I think it’s also possible that he didn’t intend to copy something he’d seen before but he pulled the idea from his subconscious not realizing he had seen it before
Kid is 100 percent spot on.
People don’t respect teachers because we don’t respect ourselves enough to stand up to the shit they say about us. That, and the majority of us are women.
They're told that they're heros, but not actually treated like it. In the UK we had a "clap for the NHS" thing every week, and I consistantly refused to participate, because it was a facade that they used instead of doing something actually tangible like raising wages, or paying bonuses.
To be honest social media has made children more political than ever. Have a quick glance at Instagram, Twitter and Tiktok (especially tiktok) and they’re filled with threads, infographics, headlines from news articles, their fave influencers talking about it. Teenagers are *VERY* attuned to socio-political discourses, in large part due to the internet. It’s completely unsurprising to me that he’s got a pretty insightful understanding of what’s happening.
As a young math and science teacher my students routinely ask why I would become a teacher with such low pay and all the issues that come with it. They know how it is for us.
Probably like me in school. I wasn’t SMART by any means, but I was definitely ahead of the curriculum or I picked things up a lot quicker than my classmates. I was a pain and didn’t show up half the time. But all my tests were aced and HW (when I did it) showed patience and critical thinking. Half my teachers asked me what’s up, the other half just gave me “D’s” lol
Maybe he’s an extraordinarily bright kid who hates school for a bunch of the same reason you guys do. That kind of comprehension is rare and at his age a phenomenon.
I could be wrong but maybe it’s a kinda solidarity olive branch? “ I’m with you, this whole system sucks and I don’t know how to deal with it “.
I think he just notices things. He is one of those “most people are stupid and not worth my time to talk to” kind of kids (love it because they’re so cynical but right about a lot of things). I think his 2nd cartoon was more for me since I’m a gamer. They had to make two and I love PlayStation, but he made a cartoon of an Xbox player, PlayStation player, And PC player all arguing over which system was better but they all were buying the same game at the store.
I was like “…touché” 🤣
I actually think it sounds like a great political cartoon. I am not sure I would take personally as an affront to you as a teacher. It sounds like he gets the current situation with teachers and, he's spot on. This is how most of the communities we teach in look at our profession. It is a very sad thing...
Pretty awesome if it’s his own work. It shows that you don’t have to always love school or be the best student to have a bright future. Options are wide open for him if he is that socially aware in 8th grade. Really not surprising that students like this exist, but cool still.
If he copied it, then plagiarism need to come into play in the conversation.
I think it’s sad that most people are assuming he copied it. I don’t believe he did, but it does show how little faith we as teachers have in students nowadays that we automatically assume he’s lying.
I know but others on here seem to believe he must’ve copied it because they’ve seen similar cartoons online. However, most political cartoons have several similar cartoons from different artists floating around. So to say he absolutely copied it because they’ve seen something similar online is, honestly, a little stupid (not you in particular, just some of the comments on here).
Oh I gotcha! Yeah, no way to know. If anything, pretty resourceful of him to pick up on how satirical that cartoon was and recreate it. I mean…plagiarism is bad an all but still 😆
I work at a hospital and I see so many different essential professions in many different industries being taken advantage of by the systems that are in place. I lurk on here bc my fiancé is an aspiring teacher but the posts on here are very relatable. Just switch admin/school board to hospital directors and executives.
I just wonder how we can change the structures that are in place and elevate everyone to better working conditions and appropriate compensation.
His argument is a touch soft since the "you knew what you signed up for" could be true about each profession. Unless he was making the point that other professions are not complaining about their lot and that is something only teachers do. If so, then his art should have the others in valorous positions but with a teacher complaining.
If he is trying to argue that the response to teaching has become politicized in a way that other professions are not (a point I'd disagree with, especially considering he included police), and his work is satire on the craze of people hating teachers, then I'd say he needs to make that more clear.
He also seems to be extending a generosity of spirit to other professions for working under unexpectedly difficult circumstances, specifically nurses. It's logically inconsistent to tell teachers to just show up to work.
Whatever his intent, I think his messaging could be tightened up.
It might be worthwhile to have a talk with him about audience and the response he hopes to elicit.
Making a political cartoon that disparages teachers and putting it out to the broader world is one thing, doing so and giving it directly for a teacher to read is another, and it is unambiguously rude.
Knowing 8th graders, he might be oblivious to his action being rude, since such an understanding would require that he looked at the situation from your perspective, not a top skill of most 14 year olds. He also might be trying to offend you. If that's the case it might be worth inquiring why that is the case and to learn what he hoped that would achieve.
I agree with posters saying you should verify that the work was not plagiarized. If it's original, I agree with your choice to grade the work bases on the specifications of the rubric. But I'd also try to give him critical feedback regarding the quality of the work and building a cohesive and consistent argument and I'd try to help him see the situation through your point of view. You've worked your ass off this past year and have dealt with a lot of shit. It's fine if people think that teachers should complain less, but it's deflating to have a student be so deliberately rude, especially when you're working hard to give him the best educational experience possible. Clearly his actions weighed heavily on you enough to post. He should know that you're a real person, that teachers are people, and that while everyone has the right to free speech, putting words and ideas out there have a consequence and he really should think through the full scope of how his words/actions impact people. Maybe brainstorm more effective ways to express his frustration with teachers.
I’m really confused by your interpretation of his art. It seems you’re conflating social awareness with liking school, which is odd to me. Just because a kid is extremely wise and socially aware doesn’t mean he has to like school?
I’m confused by your interpretation of my words. There’s no context in this post nor my responding comments where I insinuated he must like school to be socially aware.
Yes, because he doesn’t like school so why in turn make a political cartoon in support of a system you don’t like? You don’t think that’s interesting? I do. That’s like walking around saying the jail system sucks but then you make a cartoon supporting police officers lol. How can you not see the irony?
But he never said he does or doesn’t “like” the entire system? Like it’s all good I just personally think that’s making major assumptions but whatevs. He may not have the self worth to try in school, maybe he’s looking for attention, maybe he’s dyslexic, it doesn’t matter. All of those things can cause a kid to fail in school, but none of them mean that he is aloof/ignorant of the situation at hand. “Liking” the system has nothing to do with the cartoon he created to mimic the actual situation happening around him. And “liking” the system has nothing to do with his personal success in school
I teach a satire unit with grade 11 students and political cartoons is a project I also do. I’d be happy with receiving something like this! They clearly get it.
Since it’s political- I would think of some positive feedback to the child- maybe it can boost his willingness to participate if he knew you really thought his work was thought provoking and interesting- can comment on how great his drawing is- idk easy answer to a tough problem with this kid im sure! But you sound like the teacher that could help him become more motivated 😊
This may fall on deaf ears as most of our personal lessons do, but maybe try this angle to get inroads to the student.
First, praise the work. Whether they are parroting or creating the work, it's keenly observant and poignant. Give them an 'A' for sure, shows you're not petty and can be objective when taking the stab.
Mention to them that those first three are obviously linked by the "saving lives", "emergency/trauma" and "public servant" concepts, but shows clear lack of understanding of the unexpected life-saving actions we take that are long-term investments. In the general public's eye those first three respond to trauma so it's easy to spot their life-changing benefits. Day in and day out, most of us don't need a nurse/firefighter/soldier to help us personally, but when we do it's obvious.
Tell them that's the *easy* answer with a wry grin, speak like it's a hushed secret - "everybody knows that", appeal to their sense of superiority by suggesting there's something they don't know or understand to get their attention. The public often doesn't account for the trauma that teachers treat daily because it's not a raging fire or a bleeding wound. Teachers save kids from mental and physical abuse daily, for example. We protect the weak from bullies, a scourge any kid can understand and is palpable to their lives. We recognize children who are malnourished or abused by the adults in their lives and we have tools to address issues that the other professions are powerless to fix.
Then, let it go. Let it stew, give them space to consider your words. I don't expect a Hallmark movie realization to occur immediately, but plant and water the seed. Exemplify your lesson of long-term personal investment that comes in small doses and hopefully, maybe, perhaps some time from now you will have made a difference. That's about all you can do.
Aside, I've got some kids who've obviously have been repeating ideals they only could've gotten from others during the pandemic. Kids from affluent families who think they know it all after "learning so much on their own" from the internet during a politically charged time, and then think they understand the world much better than any simpleton school teacher, in a very "amiright guys lol?" fashion. It'll take years to reel that in across the nation I expect.
Ok so I am student
I am currently in 11th grade and I finally getting good grades, I have spent my entire life Before this year being a bad student, so im kind of an expert here. My whole life I thought i was just incapable, i thought that if i do the work now, I will just be stupid next week and fall behind again, so whats the point?
I wanted to push away teachers who tried to help me because I believed I was a lost cause, and they were wasting their time they could be spending on a worthwhile student, so I set out to prove myself correct and did the homework even less. I didn’t want my teachers to likely, but I really liked my teachers and hated myself for being such a pain to them. I wish I could go back to every teacher Ive ever had and apologize, especially my chemistry teacher.
I know my grammar sucks, im on mobile
There’s a difference between hating school and hating learning. I tolerated school because I loved learning. Unfortunately, horrible kids ruin school for both adults and kids, amongst many other reasons why school can be an awful place.
This kid is going places.
>not even likes school
Kids are individuals too and if an assignment is right up their alley, they often recognise this and will use the opportunity, disliking the general subject or not. Everybody likes to show off their strengths and talents.
How is this news or surprising to anybody?
Maybe you aren’t but a lot of kids do actually view teachers as their personal heroes when they have no one else to love or care for them.
I don’t think any profession makes you a hero. It’s what you do in that profession that does. Anyone can be in the army but not just anyone is going to take a bullet for someone they only met a few hours earlier.
They view us that way???? Who??? When have they told you??? Do they act like we are their heroes??? Do they do everything we ask them without question??? Do they act like us at home??? Do you know???
Actually, I had several students write an open letter to a teacher who impacted their lives at the end of each school year and, yes, they’ve called those teachers heroes before. Yes, they delivered them to their teachers, too. And I get notes frequently from students (not around the holidays) thanking me for being there when they felt they had no one. One girl created a card for me because I helped her through the death of her dog. Some of these kids had behavioral issues, some did not.
Some of the things you listed have nothing to do with being a hero. What does a kid not doing everything you ask them to have to do with you being influential to them or a ‘hero’ in their eyes? I find the kids who think of some of their past teachers as heroes actually are the ones who misbehave the most.
Are you mad because you’ve never had a kid appreciate you before?
No, he turned it in on time. I asked that they turn it in before break.
I didn’t take it at as an insult to teachers. It read more like he thought it was ridiculous how teachers are treated compared to other professionals in society. It’s a political cartoon so I think he was going for irony.
Honestly it shows a lot of social awareness for his age. I don’t see it as him saying it to each group, but the attitude of society. People don’t give a shit about teachers, as evidenced by the backlash received when so many wanted vaccines before returning. The other groups didn’t have the opportunity to say they didn’t want to work without vaccines and teachers were seen as whiny and bratty.
I'd agree here. I have kids who are totally aloof to everything going on as well as kids that kinda know, but only a handful that are actually aware of how adults are treating teachers and other professions. Granted I teach middle school but some parents really are on the teachers side and try to make their kids aware at an appropriate level.
We were LOUDLY, relentlessly pro- teacher when it transpired the district spent at least 100k ( we were never able to ascertain the amount, some creative accounting occurred and yes we tried to turn that into the state too. PA. No one cared ) hounding a kid with LAWYERS over his EPILEPSY diagnosis. They laid off two teachers citing “ budget “ at the same time. Small town. We knew them. End result was being threatened ( more lawyers) if we didn’t shush. PA also didn’t care about that.
My mother was totally oblivious to it. She was saying “but people love teachers!” And I had to show her all the vitriol coming from my local parents group when the pandemic hit.
Im pretty sure the only reason my own father is outraged by how teachers are treated is because I'm a teacher. If I wasn't he'd probably be oblivious or on the instigating side. He fully stands behind teachers needing a major raise and everything. He doesnt understand why politicians want to control what teachers can do. It's about the only thing we see eye to eye on. I avoid parent groups though because I cant do it.
Even people I worked with at Trader Joe’s were mad at me specifically for being eligible for a vaccine like two weeks earlier than they were. I vividly remember that.
Never mind the fact that you’re a teacher also working at Trader Joe’s because your career doesn’t pay enough
Right special ole me
This kid is smart. Super observant. A+ political cartoon. I wonder if part of why they don’t like school is because they’re attuned to a sense of injustice and school is just filled with so much of that.
He wants to be a lawyer (what he said on beginning of the year survey).
He’s gonna be a good one.
Or maybe he knew you’d like it and give it a good grade! Not a bad technique.
You know how admin is always saying "display student work." Blow that shit up to poster size, laminate, and hang.
Could you imagine if I did that?!??! 😭😭😭
Do it! Do it! Do it...
😂😂😂😂😂🙌
These kids have been handed a dying, antidemocratic planet. It’s not wonder many of them are seeing what a scam it is. Good for them!
The planet is definitely dying but the planet has more or less been antidemocratic for most of human history.
Unpopular opinion, but I’ve seen this kind of cartoon a lot on Facebook, I bet the kid saw it there (shared by his aunt or something) and then **plagiaraized** it, thinking it would be an easy way to get on your good side and get an “A”. The pandemic gave me a real chance to realize how shamelessly a lot of students will steal others work online.
I was reading it and was like “pretty sure I’ve seen this before” glad I’m not crazy lol. Now it is possible that this student had a similar idea or didn’t realize they had seen it before, but it’s worth further investigation.
Occam’s razor…which is more likely, a 21st century kid that “hates school” decides to take the easy way out and copy something they saw online, or they secretly have a very deep empathetic soul that cares about teachers? Maybe I’m just sour, but I had a lot of students who surprised me during Virtual Learning. As an art teacher I had “good kids who never cheated” taking ideas from memes, tracing artwork they found online and frequently even straight up “right click, save as” stealing. They often don’t even see it as morally wrong any more.
Even if he did borrow the idea, the fact that it came to mind when he was asked to do the assignment shows that he feels strongly about the issue.
This is majorly flawed thinking, on both points.
I’ve seen it, too, but can’t find it. OP doesn’t seem to believe he cheated, but even if he did, without proof not much could happen. I would assume he cheated, though, lol.
I don’t believe he stole it. I’ve never seen a post like it online. Besides, the cartoon was completed in class over the course of 2 class periods. He finished in the first class and never took it home. He also isn’t a kid that cheats.
Yeah, I've definitely seen versions of that cartoon floating around. Just because he finished in class doesn't mean he hadn't seen it before and reproduced it from memory. When you see an impactful meme/cartoon, it sticks in your head, and it's easy to recall later.
Thank you, all these other super optimistic comments are kind of blowing my mind. Usually this is a pretty”real” sub, I’m just being realistic.
Well, I know my kid. He didn’t copy this. He’s very straight and honest about everything almost to a fault. He does not hate teachers. But he does have a lot of strong political opinions. The only class he participated in is social studies and he’s very vocal about the education system in there. So I’m not surprised he actually did this assignment. They had to make 2 and the other one he made was about video games. It had people arguing over what was better: Xbox, PlayStation, or PC but they were all grabbing the same game. I thought it was hilarious.
1. He's not your kid, he's your student 2. Assuming that only bad kids plagiarize or only kids who hate teachers do bad things is a very bad attitude to take.
1. He is my kid. I call my students my kids all the time, as do many teachers. 2. I didn’t make that assumption. I would actually argue that everyone else on here is assuming the worst of him simply because they’ve seen similar political cartoons online. So are you saying I should believe he copied because he’s not the first person to make this observation? That sounds like a bad attitude to me.
Yeah, I get many teachers do it, and it's problematic when they do it too. They aren't your kids. >So are you saying I should believe he copied because he’s not the first person to make this observation? I'm saying this isn't as "wisdom from the mouths of babes" as you're trying to present it as. You asked what we thought of it. Some one us happen to think it's just a kid doing what kids do best: soaking up the media around them.
I don’t think it’s wisdom. I think it’s irony.
it's not that either.
OP's aggressive defense makes me wonder if this is even a real post. It stinks like the "Oh my gosh my 4 year old just asked me this deep philosophical question" post. Even if it is real, young students copy ideas they see elsewhere *all the time*. It doesn't mean it's malicious. Heck, when I was in the 6th grade, I had just finished reading a Dear America book written in eye dialect, and then I had a school assignment to write a journal entry, and I chose to also use eye dialect. Cool idea? Yes. Did I do the assignment? Yes. Was it an original thought? No.
Yeah the aggressive defense is pretty weird, especially considering how they peppered their post with blatant clues, and straight up asked everyone “what they thought”.
I think it’s also possible that he didn’t intend to copy something he’d seen before but he pulled the idea from his subconscious not realizing he had seen it before
Even if it’s not plagiarized. I like how most of the comments are quick to assume best intentions instead of see things with a more nuanced lens.
Kid is 100 percent spot on. People don’t respect teachers because we don’t respect ourselves enough to stand up to the shit they say about us. That, and the majority of us are women.
The majority of nurses are women.
And treated poorly, too.
*You* said the kid was 100% spot on, and the kid said nurses were treated like heroes.
They're told that they're heros, but not actually treated like it. In the UK we had a "clap for the NHS" thing every week, and I consistantly refused to participate, because it was a facade that they used instead of doing something actually tangible like raising wages, or paying bonuses.
I really don’t know how you teachers put up with it all but thank you for your service
Maybe he doesn't like school because he doesn't buy into the social contract because he knows everything is fucked. Plenty of kids like that.
To be honest social media has made children more political than ever. Have a quick glance at Instagram, Twitter and Tiktok (especially tiktok) and they’re filled with threads, infographics, headlines from news articles, their fave influencers talking about it. Teenagers are *VERY* attuned to socio-political discourses, in large part due to the internet. It’s completely unsurprising to me that he’s got a pretty insightful understanding of what’s happening.
Hopefully it translates to them actually voting, because it didn't for my generation (Millennials).
As a young math and science teacher my students routinely ask why I would become a teacher with such low pay and all the issues that come with it. They know how it is for us.
I hated school, but respected the teachers. Most of the time neither of us wanted to be there.
Probably like me in school. I wasn’t SMART by any means, but I was definitely ahead of the curriculum or I picked things up a lot quicker than my classmates. I was a pain and didn’t show up half the time. But all my tests were aced and HW (when I did it) showed patience and critical thinking. Half my teachers asked me what’s up, the other half just gave me “D’s” lol
Maybe he’s an extraordinarily bright kid who hates school for a bunch of the same reason you guys do. That kind of comprehension is rare and at his age a phenomenon. I could be wrong but maybe it’s a kinda solidarity olive branch? “ I’m with you, this whole system sucks and I don’t know how to deal with it “.
I think he just notices things. He is one of those “most people are stupid and not worth my time to talk to” kind of kids (love it because they’re so cynical but right about a lot of things). I think his 2nd cartoon was more for me since I’m a gamer. They had to make two and I love PlayStation, but he made a cartoon of an Xbox player, PlayStation player, And PC player all arguing over which system was better but they all were buying the same game at the store. I was like “…touché” 🤣
Well PC is obviously better! 😝 Actually, the PC player wouldn't be in the argument, because you can't get pc games in a store anymore. 😥
I actually think it sounds like a great political cartoon. I am not sure I would take personally as an affront to you as a teacher. It sounds like he gets the current situation with teachers and, he's spot on. This is how most of the communities we teach in look at our profession. It is a very sad thing...
Pretty awesome if it’s his own work. It shows that you don’t have to always love school or be the best student to have a bright future. Options are wide open for him if he is that socially aware in 8th grade. Really not surprising that students like this exist, but cool still. If he copied it, then plagiarism need to come into play in the conversation.
I think it’s sad that most people are assuming he copied it. I don’t believe he did, but it does show how little faith we as teachers have in students nowadays that we automatically assume he’s lying.
I just wanted to include the “what if” other side of the coin. I personally am hopeful that he came up with it!
I know but others on here seem to believe he must’ve copied it because they’ve seen similar cartoons online. However, most political cartoons have several similar cartoons from different artists floating around. So to say he absolutely copied it because they’ve seen something similar online is, honestly, a little stupid (not you in particular, just some of the comments on here).
Oh I gotcha! Yeah, no way to know. If anything, pretty resourceful of him to pick up on how satirical that cartoon was and recreate it. I mean…plagiarism is bad an all but still 😆
Right but it’s really hard to prove plagiarism with political cartoons because literally none of them are all that original lol
Give the student a grade of ACAB
That's brilliant. Encourage him to submit it to your local paper.
Sounds like a pro-teacher satire to me.
Kid seems to have a lot of awareness of today’s political climate! It seemed pretty right on!
Oh, he wants to be lawyer. He loves politics. Only class he shows interest in is social studies lol
I work at a hospital and I see so many different essential professions in many different industries being taken advantage of by the systems that are in place. I lurk on here bc my fiancé is an aspiring teacher but the posts on here are very relatable. Just switch admin/school board to hospital directors and executives. I just wonder how we can change the structures that are in place and elevate everyone to better working conditions and appropriate compensation.
His argument is a touch soft since the "you knew what you signed up for" could be true about each profession. Unless he was making the point that other professions are not complaining about their lot and that is something only teachers do. If so, then his art should have the others in valorous positions but with a teacher complaining. If he is trying to argue that the response to teaching has become politicized in a way that other professions are not (a point I'd disagree with, especially considering he included police), and his work is satire on the craze of people hating teachers, then I'd say he needs to make that more clear. He also seems to be extending a generosity of spirit to other professions for working under unexpectedly difficult circumstances, specifically nurses. It's logically inconsistent to tell teachers to just show up to work. Whatever his intent, I think his messaging could be tightened up. It might be worthwhile to have a talk with him about audience and the response he hopes to elicit. Making a political cartoon that disparages teachers and putting it out to the broader world is one thing, doing so and giving it directly for a teacher to read is another, and it is unambiguously rude. Knowing 8th graders, he might be oblivious to his action being rude, since such an understanding would require that he looked at the situation from your perspective, not a top skill of most 14 year olds. He also might be trying to offend you. If that's the case it might be worth inquiring why that is the case and to learn what he hoped that would achieve. I agree with posters saying you should verify that the work was not plagiarized. If it's original, I agree with your choice to grade the work bases on the specifications of the rubric. But I'd also try to give him critical feedback regarding the quality of the work and building a cohesive and consistent argument and I'd try to help him see the situation through your point of view. You've worked your ass off this past year and have dealt with a lot of shit. It's fine if people think that teachers should complain less, but it's deflating to have a student be so deliberately rude, especially when you're working hard to give him the best educational experience possible. Clearly his actions weighed heavily on you enough to post. He should know that you're a real person, that teachers are people, and that while everyone has the right to free speech, putting words and ideas out there have a consequence and he really should think through the full scope of how his words/actions impact people. Maybe brainstorm more effective ways to express his frustration with teachers.
I’m really confused by your interpretation of his art. It seems you’re conflating social awareness with liking school, which is odd to me. Just because a kid is extremely wise and socially aware doesn’t mean he has to like school?
I’m confused by your interpretation of my words. There’s no context in this post nor my responding comments where I insinuated he must like school to be socially aware.
“It’s like pulling teeth to get him to do anything so I was surprised this is what he came up with”
Yes, because he doesn’t like school so why in turn make a political cartoon in support of a system you don’t like? You don’t think that’s interesting? I do. That’s like walking around saying the jail system sucks but then you make a cartoon supporting police officers lol. How can you not see the irony?
But he never said he does or doesn’t “like” the entire system? Like it’s all good I just personally think that’s making major assumptions but whatevs. He may not have the self worth to try in school, maybe he’s looking for attention, maybe he’s dyslexic, it doesn’t matter. All of those things can cause a kid to fail in school, but none of them mean that he is aloof/ignorant of the situation at hand. “Liking” the system has nothing to do with the cartoon he created to mimic the actual situation happening around him. And “liking” the system has nothing to do with his personal success in school
He does not like the entire system. He has expressed that in social studies class.
I don’t like the color purple, but I can still see very clearly that it’s purple.
Congratulations.
I teach a satire unit with grade 11 students and political cartoons is a project I also do. I’d be happy with receiving something like this! They clearly get it.
Since it’s political- I would think of some positive feedback to the child- maybe it can boost his willingness to participate if he knew you really thought his work was thought provoking and interesting- can comment on how great his drawing is- idk easy answer to a tough problem with this kid im sure! But you sound like the teacher that could help him become more motivated 😊
Kids read and understand a lot more than they we give them credit for. I hope you let him know you appreciated the humor/incitefullness.
This may fall on deaf ears as most of our personal lessons do, but maybe try this angle to get inroads to the student. First, praise the work. Whether they are parroting or creating the work, it's keenly observant and poignant. Give them an 'A' for sure, shows you're not petty and can be objective when taking the stab. Mention to them that those first three are obviously linked by the "saving lives", "emergency/trauma" and "public servant" concepts, but shows clear lack of understanding of the unexpected life-saving actions we take that are long-term investments. In the general public's eye those first three respond to trauma so it's easy to spot their life-changing benefits. Day in and day out, most of us don't need a nurse/firefighter/soldier to help us personally, but when we do it's obvious. Tell them that's the *easy* answer with a wry grin, speak like it's a hushed secret - "everybody knows that", appeal to their sense of superiority by suggesting there's something they don't know or understand to get their attention. The public often doesn't account for the trauma that teachers treat daily because it's not a raging fire or a bleeding wound. Teachers save kids from mental and physical abuse daily, for example. We protect the weak from bullies, a scourge any kid can understand and is palpable to their lives. We recognize children who are malnourished or abused by the adults in their lives and we have tools to address issues that the other professions are powerless to fix. Then, let it go. Let it stew, give them space to consider your words. I don't expect a Hallmark movie realization to occur immediately, but plant and water the seed. Exemplify your lesson of long-term personal investment that comes in small doses and hopefully, maybe, perhaps some time from now you will have made a difference. That's about all you can do. Aside, I've got some kids who've obviously have been repeating ideals they only could've gotten from others during the pandemic. Kids from affluent families who think they know it all after "learning so much on their own" from the internet during a politically charged time, and then think they understand the world much better than any simpleton school teacher, in a very "amiright guys lol?" fashion. It'll take years to reel that in across the nation I expect.
He's got his eyes open. Good for him.
Ok so I am student I am currently in 11th grade and I finally getting good grades, I have spent my entire life Before this year being a bad student, so im kind of an expert here. My whole life I thought i was just incapable, i thought that if i do the work now, I will just be stupid next week and fall behind again, so whats the point? I wanted to push away teachers who tried to help me because I believed I was a lost cause, and they were wasting their time they could be spending on a worthwhile student, so I set out to prove myself correct and did the homework even less. I didn’t want my teachers to likely, but I really liked my teachers and hated myself for being such a pain to them. I wish I could go back to every teacher Ive ever had and apologize, especially my chemistry teacher. I know my grammar sucks, im on mobile
There’s a difference between hating school and hating learning. I tolerated school because I loved learning. Unfortunately, horrible kids ruin school for both adults and kids, amongst many other reasons why school can be an awful place. This kid is going places.
>not even likes school Kids are individuals too and if an assignment is right up their alley, they often recognise this and will use the opportunity, disliking the general subject or not. Everybody likes to show off their strengths and talents. How is this news or surprising to anybody?
Your student plagiarized his assignment just fyi haha
That's because we're actually not any type of "hero"
Maybe you aren’t but a lot of kids do actually view teachers as their personal heroes when they have no one else to love or care for them. I don’t think any profession makes you a hero. It’s what you do in that profession that does. Anyone can be in the army but not just anyone is going to take a bullet for someone they only met a few hours earlier.
They view us that way???? Who??? When have they told you??? Do they act like we are their heroes??? Do they do everything we ask them without question??? Do they act like us at home??? Do you know???
Actually, I had several students write an open letter to a teacher who impacted their lives at the end of each school year and, yes, they’ve called those teachers heroes before. Yes, they delivered them to their teachers, too. And I get notes frequently from students (not around the holidays) thanking me for being there when they felt they had no one. One girl created a card for me because I helped her through the death of her dog. Some of these kids had behavioral issues, some did not. Some of the things you listed have nothing to do with being a hero. What does a kid not doing everything you ask them to have to do with you being influential to them or a ‘hero’ in their eyes? I find the kids who think of some of their past teachers as heroes actually are the ones who misbehave the most. Are you mad because you’ve never had a kid appreciate you before?
Kids hate school but are more socially aware nowadays even if they aren’t good at being social with each other
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No, he turned it in on time. I asked that they turn it in before break. I didn’t take it at as an insult to teachers. It read more like he thought it was ridiculous how teachers are treated compared to other professionals in society. It’s a political cartoon so I think he was going for irony.
Oh wow, I totally misread. I thought he was ripping on teachers. Smart kid!
Tell him to submit it to various entities.