To think our kids today are very soft !

[mountford100]

DD2 (14) has just come home from school crying and calling her English teacher 'MEAN' . This is because her English teacher has just compared a homework essay to what DD1 (17) Yr 12 was producing at (14 ) and is in her opinion not anywhere near the same level !

I can get where the teacher is coming from, DD 2 spent just 20 minutes on it, this obviously was evident when it was marked.
The teacher was trying to highlight with her the needs to spend more time on homework The comparison was with her more conscientious at the time of year 9 elder sister.

The reason i post this i remember being called the 'runt' of the litter by my English teacher. , She also informed the class that i could not possibly be related to X, because X was on her way to Oxford and i would be lucky to achieve a D at GCSE.

That same teacher managed to help me get a B at GCSE and quite miraculously a C at A level despite being Dyslexic/Dyspraxic (undiagnosed).

The point being why do teenagers get so offended when teachers use certain approaches or say things designed to motivate them.

[limitedperiodonly]

At least DD1 was on the case. I'm sure the teacher will apologise to DD2 for spectacularly crap motivational skills and you will think about that too

[NoSquirrels]

I'd be raging if a teacher compared my DC out loud to each other. What one SC can do/did has no bearing on the other. Extremely unprofessional.

[bridgetreilly]

It doesn't really matter whether her older sister was more conscientious, more able, or more anything. The point is that the younger sister should have spent more time on her own homework. Which is a point that any teacher should be able to effectively communicate without making obnoxious comparisons, whether or not they happen to be true. How do you think that being negatively compared to an older sister is going to affect their relationship, for instance?

[Voice0fReason]

The point being why do teenagers get so offended when teachers use certain approaches or say things designed to motivate them.
Because certain approaches might be offensive, lazy and demotivating.

[LittleLionMansMummy]

I think it's potentially very damaging to family dynamics to pit siblings against one another. I'm very surprised you think that's an acceptable approach tbh.