Teacher asked to pay $400 for students' trip comes up with the perfect response
School trips are one of the most memorable parts of a child's school life. However, the hard work of teachers who organize the trips often goes unnoticed by their pupils. As it turns out, sometimes, teachers are often left unfunded with little to no support while organizing the memorable trips. A Reddit user, u/Unfundedteacher took to the forum r/MaliciousCompliance to share how she got back at the school for leaving her unfunded.
Here's how the teacher schooled her school
In the now-deleted Reddit post, the teacher wrote, "Want me to pay out-of-pocket to take students to the zoo? Okay, but you'll miss out on a killer photo shoot," in the title. The user then explained the backstory behind the title saying that it all transpired back in 2017, as per a Good Is report.
The teacher wrote that they were put in charge of a class of 18 kids and due to a change in curriculum at the end of the year, their class had to take a field trip to the zoo. However, the teacher was informed by the school admin that since the budget was created at the beginning of the year, the school won't be able to pay for the entry tickets. The admin further told the teacher that they would have to pay for the entrance out of their own pockets.
"I love my students but I love my savings too, not as much as my students but still. I couldn't justify spending over €360 (around $400 USD) on a single, non-tangible thing," the teacher wrote in the post as per the report. So instead of taking the students to a zoo, she took them to a local farm, called Pete's Farm. All Pete asked was a 5 euro (~$5.46) donation per person.
Thus the teacher gave Pete €50 (approximately $54 at the time) and all the kids got to see and pet the domesticated animals on the farms. The teacher mentioned that the school also told the teacher to take photos of the kids during the trip so that they could share them on their Facebook page. She gladly emailed the pictures of the kids at the farm.
All she got for her malicious compliance was a comment that "her conduct was not exemplary". She added that she got no reprimand, no write-up, or warning. However, no photos were shared with the school admin as well. "The kids enjoyed it though," the teacher wrote at the end.
While the original post was deleted, users lauded the teacher for her creative problem solving. "Creative and smart, Weird how you had to pay for the whole trip," commented user, u/AmbitiousPirate5159/.
However, several users thought that she shouldn't have complied and suggested better ways to get back at the school. "Would've just told them I couldn't afford photos, but the kids had a great time," suggested user u/foul_ol_ron. Meanwhile another user, u/AndyTiger added that the teacher should've have replied, "My conduct exactly matched the exemplary-ness-itude of your budget."
For more such interesting posts, follow r/MaliciousCompliance on Reddit.
