It’s really tough being a teacher, even without someone breathing down your neck. You work long hours, the pay usually isn’t stellar, and you have to manage the emotions and expectations of an entire classroom of future adults. With all the stress, it can sometimes feel like you’re never appreciated enough as an educator. And when someone tries to interfere with the grades you give out… well, hang on to your hats because that’s overstepping the line by a wide margin. There’s no space for corruption in the classroom.

Redditor u/yarntags, a new high school teacher at a rural school, went viral on r/MaliciousCompliance after sharing just how subjective and unfair things can be there. They explained how a student who barely put any effort into her work and was constantly late kept getting top marks in all her classes just because her parents worked in the school district.

Well, u/yarntags likes to be fair. That’s why they graded the lazy student’s work objectively. However, her parents and the principal called them in to complain and tried to pressure them into changing the mark. The OP complied to the letter, finding a creative way to let their feelings on the situation be known.

Scroll down for the full story, Pandas. When you’re done reading, share your thoughts on what happened in the comments. Meanwhile, tell us about the most (un)fair teachers you’ve come across. Have you ever run into any Minerva McGonagalls or Dolores Umbridges?

It’s unfair that well-connected students get better grades than they should. Alas! It really does happen

Image credits: Max Fischer (not the actual photo)

A high school teacher shared what they did when the principal pressured them to change an underperforming student’s grade

Image credits: Yan Krukov (not the actual photo)

Image credits: yarntags

Redditor u/yarntags post on r/MaliciousCompliance got 24k upvotes and started up a fiery discussion about objectivity when it comes to grades, student behavior, and parents who can’t deal with the fact that their precious little angel might not be so precious after all.

We definitely think that educators ought to be paid more if this is the type of work-related drama that they have to deal with. Something that the OP mentioned really caught our attention. They said that they totally got why the principal went along with the underperforming student’s parents’ demands—it was a small community and replacing two staff members would have been very difficult.

However, the principal got the message loud and clear after the redditor changed every single student’s grade to a 100, regardless of whether or not they actually turned in the assignment. No special treatment, right?

Moreover, the redditor shared how difficult it actually was to control the lazy student, who literally kept making out with her boyfriend in class. But after the whole grade change drama, they both got transferred out of OP’s class.

Recently, Bored Panda spoke about the interactions between parents and their kids’ teachers with blogger Samantha Scroggin from Walking Outside in Slippers. She said that it’s vital to build trust with one’s children so that we can get a broader picture of how they’re actually doing at school.

“I always try to maintain an open dialogue with my kids, but it doesn’t always work as well as I’d hoped. I think we can’t expect our kids to open up to us on our timeline and our terms. They have to share when and if they want to, and us parents showing a genuine interest in what’s going on in our kids’ lives sets the groundwork for when they’re ready to open up. Sometimes this can mean listening to them drone on about Pokemon and their friend drama at school,” she told us.

“I feel like it’s just as important for parents to have an open dialogue with our kids’ teachers at school to see how they’re doing. We can’t always rely on our kids for the full picture, but it’s important to take our kids’ perspective on school situations into perspective,” the parenting blogger told Bored Panda.

“I actually recently had an issue with my daughter’s first-grade teacher. She is an older teacher who is not very responsive via the school’s email system. Because communicating with her was so difficult, I told the principal at the end of the school year about my struggles with the teacher. I then requested a teacher for next year who I know to be very responsive. But I don’t think there is any right way to deal with school or teacher issues. I would defer to the parents to decide what is best for their child and situation,” she said.

A while back, Lisa McLendon, from the University of Kansas, told Bored Panda that it’s always nice for educators to see when their students flourish.

“I keep a folder of the handwritten notes I’ve received from students, telling me how they value what they learned from me or just thanks for being their teacher, and I read a couple when I have a bad day, to remind myself why I do this job,” the professor shared with us.

“Relating concepts and skills to real-world activities can help many students understand not just what they’re doing but why. Explaining the purpose of big-picture things like a whole course as well as small things like individual assignments can help students understand why what they’re doing is relevant. Also, putting concepts and skills into the larger field can help students contextualize what they’re doing and see how it relates to things they’ve done before and things they’ll be doing at the next level,” she shared how educators can help students learn better.

The OP shared some more of their thoughts in the comments of their post

Meanwhile, here’s how other internet users reacted to the story

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