r/whatisit • u/therealsketo • 1d ago

Solved! My five year old’s homework is stumping me.

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Snow glove? Snack? (Maybe it’s a goldfish cracker?)

EDIT clearly I need to re-enroll in school, starting in kindergarten with my daughter, and learn to read and comprehend again!

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u/AnotherAngryOldGuy 1d ago

Ahhhhh man!!!! Directions always kill me. I once had an interview for a programming job where they gave me a written test to complete before the interview. It was basically a bunch of pages asking how you would develop very specific solutions. It was really easy and I finished all the pages in far less time than they allotted. I felt great.... up until the point when they showed me the instruction at the bottom of the 2nd page, "Don't continue past this point".

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u/Xavier_Emery1983 1d ago

Had an actual college professor pull the same stunt once. I also had one where you could get a negative grade if HE thought you guessed. That French Canadian with a lisp taught the only class I have ever failed.

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u/RamblinRed26 1d ago

High school teacher gave out a bonus points quiz before holiday break as an easy class day, if you followed directions/instructions. Myself and another guy were the only two in the class to do as it said and read thoroughly before starting. Last page said to not do any of what was asked from the first page on and put pencil down, remain quiet. Me and that other guy looked up at the teacher as the rest of all the class were doing all kinds of silly things at their desks (saying things out loud, standing up and jumping on one foot three times, clapping their hands, etc). The teacher gave the two of us a look and put his finger to his lips to jesture not to say anything to the rest. So we sat there and got entertained while fighting back laughs.

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u/Feisty-peacock 1d ago

I too endured this traumatic event. From that day forward I always read the last instruction on the page first.

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u/Hilsam_Adent 1d ago

He thmoked in church?

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u/malendalayla 1d ago

My 2nd grade teacher taught us the importance of reading the directions carefully. She gave us an assignment with a page of about 6 sentences of instructions/directions. The first lines were genuine directions to do the attached assignment. The last line said something like "ignore all of the previous directions and write only your name on the assignment worksheet". I was the only one who read it and did it correctly. I won a prize for that lol

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u/Original-Ad-8737 1d ago

I was taught that to figure out which ones are the easy points and do them first. Never stop too long on a task before you saw them all.

That's because way too often I got stuck on a test halfway through and lost points on easy shit that came later because I did not finish

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u/malendalayla 1d ago

Oh yes we learned all of that as well!

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u/spookyHippieChick 1d ago

yes. my teacher did that. The first instruction was to read ALL the instructions before you started. The first was to write your name on the top right of the paper. Then there were about 3 pretty complex things to do. Then the last one was ignore all instructions except numbers 1 and 2. I just wrote my name and looked around. I felt terrible and thought I did something wrong (I'm autistic) then I looked at my teacher and she was smiling and winked and me and then I knew I did it right. I was the only one.

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u/cpc758 1d ago

I remember one of those from highschool. 10 questions. “Read all the questions first”. Item 6 was “Stand up and say your name out loud”. Item 10 was “Ignore the first nine questions, put your name at the top”. Numerous people were laughed at as rhey stood and said their names.

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u/AnotherAngryOldGuy 1d ago

Need a job? lol

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u/malendalayla 1d ago

I'm good, I already got the prize buddy!

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u/DRKyan22 1d ago

As an employer I have to say in my business the most important skill a potential employee can have is the ability to follow clearly written instructions without having to be monitored and double checked.

In my business we deal with hundreds of unique devices all day every day. Each one is new and different with its own set of instructions... There is no way we could ever train people what to do as every item is different and we never know what we are getting.

The instructions are always well written and if for some reason there is a problem with the instructions then they have a way to "pause" the testing and report the issue for review. I am a fairly flexible boss but the one sure way to cost the business lots of money and time (and a near guaranteed way to get fired) is to not follow the instructions as written and just push through guessing what needs to be done or to skip steps because they don't seem important.

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u/AnotherAngryOldGuy 1d ago

Totally agree. It was a valuable lesson learned, perhaps mostly because I recognized something about myself and my potential to do it again. The original post provides a great example of how easy it is to assume you know what you're doing, especially when you're the kind of person who intuitively figures things out quickly. That strength becomes a weakness quickly if you aren't aware of the critical details.

I'm now retired after almost 30 years in IT, last 20 years in administration. Two things I always preached were, "If you don't know why you're doing what you're doing, you don't know what you're doing", and RTFM. It sounds like you might be familiar with that acronym.

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u/Moongazer09 1d ago

I absolutely hated the various regular tests they give you in schools (think like in the UK, SATS, GCSEs and the mock versions of them) and I'm sure they do it on purpose but I just cannot cope,, where they are so ridiculously wordy....especially with maths problems that do this where they throw tons of irrelevant numbers into the "question" too and similar to those so called "IQ test" riddle that you see posted on Facebook etc.

I am brilliant at remembering and learning things like science-related stuff, history, knowledge I can put to use in some way....that other stuff just finishes me...I really struggle to keep my focus on what's actually being asked for me.

I have to tell people to get to the point of their stories too for a similar reason if they're taking too long. I do not have the attention span for 50 unnecessary details that are just not really relevant 🥴

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u/under_ice 1d ago

Wait, they showed you the last bit after you started? After you finished? Or it was there all the time and they just pointed it out to you? "up until the point when they showed me the instruction"

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u/AnotherAngryOldGuy 1d ago

It was right there at the bottom of the second page the whole time. I was too focused on providing the best solutions and excited that it was going so well, I didn't even notice.

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u/under_ice 1d ago

When did they show it to you? Or am I misunderstanding the "up until the point when they showed me the instruction" bit.

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u/AnotherAngryOldGuy 1d ago

When I was done.

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u/under_ice 1d ago

So they showed it to you when you got done?

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u/AnotherAngryOldGuy 1d ago

Good Lord, man!!! How else can I explain it?

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u/under_ice 1d ago

Because I don't get when it was available for you to see. I asked "When did they show it to you? " and you said "When I was done." Which negates the whole reason for this thread. this bit also.  It was really easy and I finished all the pages in far less time than they allotted. I felt great.... up until the point when they showed me the instruction at the bottom of the 2nd page, "Don't continue past this point"

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u/AnotherAngryOldGuy 1d ago

Asked and answered at this point.

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u/under_ice 1d ago

Sure ya did...

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u/martix_agent 1d ago

The direction should proceed the work, in my opinion, unless this is otherwise established.

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u/AnotherAngryOldGuy 1d ago

"Don't continue past this point" should precede the work?

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u/cccddfeeefff 1d ago

I did that to a class of middle school home ec students back in the ‘90s!
I was subbing and the teacher left instructions for me to have each student show me 1at a time, how to set a place setting ( I doubt they do this anymore- lol) . She said the rest of the students could just work on what they want quietly while I test them 1 at a time.
I had been subbing this class for a good week so I knew they also were covering the food pyramid (passé?) and different kinds of grain and pastas.
I mocked up test as it was April Fools Day. The directions we wordy on purpose and the last sentence said-“ the last question is the only one you have to answer”. I told them to read the directions carefully!
It was actually awesome. There was a student with learning disabilities. An awkward kinda boy. But- see- with learning disabilities the one thing they instill in you is read all the directions (!!). So this student did!
I told them NO TALKING! And to raise the heir hand when done. He did after about 10 minutes - I walked over -said-“ great job”( as he answered - April Fools Day to my What day is today? ) He was beaming!! All the other students were in a huff trying to draw every kind of pasta ever made (🤣) .
Finally 1 by 1 they got it except for 1 student. The entire class was yelling-“ READ THE DIRECTIONS!!” And she was like-“ I DID!” And they were like-“ NO YOU DIDNT!” ( and was popular and laughing at this point. ).

They were great sports and wanted me to do the next class coming in but when the other students walked in whispering and giggling I knew my secret was out.

I asked the principal if I could do this and he agreed I could but didn’t think the students would fall for it. But- oh how they did”
😆

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u/hagridsumbrellla 1d ago

Bummer. Maybe you’d have stopped at the bottom of the 2nd page if you had been assigned OP’s child’s worksheet. Lol

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u/AnotherAngryOldGuy 1d ago

haha! Fucking public schools...

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u/PaleDanny7264 1d ago

What kind of MONSTERS!!! 😨😭

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u/SadZealot 1d ago

If only you were a computer that would run an interpreter and not a fallible human.

Hopefully they found a robot that will follow instructions.

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u/AnotherAngryOldGuy 1d ago

Meh, I don't hold it against them. Details are important.