Why I chose teaching Elementary students....

So my story for the day is not actually something that has happened to me, it is currently happening to my sister. My sister teaches high school (10th and 11th grade English). Students are nearing college so the pressure from parents is quite high...even though the kids do not care at all.

Anyways, my sister has a student who is ADHD (along with 80% of the population). She had this student last year and has him again this year. We will call him John. Two weeks ago my sister assigned a paper to the students. All they had to do was take a paper they had previously written and edit/revise and turn it back in. Easy enough, right? It does not require any thought really....just revise and rewrite.

John decided he did not like this assignment I guess. Instead he wrote a research paper about ADHD. A research paper as in a lengthy typed paper with citations, quotes, research, etc. Jill decided to be nice and accept the paper (even though this was NOT the assignment given). Well in high school when a research paper is completed what does any good teacher do? Google the paper to see if it is found online anywhere. Well guess what? Little Johny copied an ENTIRE paragraph, word for word, sentence for sentence, from a paper online. My sister gave him a 0 and wrote up the form for plagiarism (simply following school protocol). In doing so, John's class average significantly decrease and he is unable to be a member of National Honor Society (which wasn't going to happen anyway).

Well, John's mother is livid. How dare my sister hold her son back from being successful?! The mother wrote my sister an email attacking my sister as a horrible person who knows nothing about teaching and how to help children with ADHD. In fact, that is why John wrote the paper in the first place, in hopes of educating my sister on ADHD. The mother continues on to say that she knows for a fact that her son did not cheat while writing his paper because SHE HELPED HIM WRITE IT!

Ok, so let's wrap our heads around this. She is attacking my sister for accusing her son of cheating when she is openly admitting to cheating in her email. Helping your son complete an assignment is cheating lady! Also, how do you help your son write a paper...did you copy and paste from the online source for him?

Needless to say my sister is laughing at this point...but it gets better. My sister is being sued by this mother for "defaming her son's character."