Kindergartner's Mom Calls out Teacher for Assigning 10 Pages of Homework for a One-Day Absence

"School days, school days, teacher’s golden rule days..." it's an old-school song that embodies a more stringent approach to teaching. It also references the "golden rule" which states: Do unto others as you would have done unto you. But one teacher seems to be a glutton for punishment.

TikToker and mom Chrissy (@singingsweety05_ugc) shared a video calling out her young daughter Jillian’s teacher for assigning a crazy amount of work after she missed just one day Kindergarten. The video, sitting at the 284K view mark, is titled, "Guess what grade my daughter is in? She missed one day of school with an earache and now she has like 10 pages to do before she goes back to school tomorrow 🙄 Is this normal? Is it the same for your kids?"

Chrissy shows the camera a piece of paper titled "absent work," with a blank line for students' names— with Jillian’s name filled in. It's abundantly clear from Chrissy's video that this teacher has a habit of handing out these slips for kids who miss school. But the workload itself? This is where things get wild.

In the video, Chrissy films a stack of assignments, saying, "Please complete the classwork and bring it in,” implying a suggestion from the teacher. “She was gone one day,” Chrissy vents, “Look. Look at all that she has to do. This is crazy."

Chrissy continued, "This is like 10 pages. Guess what grade my daughter’s in, you guys, and she has 10 pages of missing work just because she was sick for one day with an earache."

While Chrissy had comments turned off — likely to protect herself and Jillian — the video earned over 8,826 likes, suggesting that the subject must’ve hit home for many parents. Or, at the very least, fomented a discussion on homework workloads for American students.

This situation does speak to current issues with the U.S. education system. Some parents argue teachers are lazy, recalling the days when dusty classrooms had teachers rolling in a TV with a VHS player instead of giving thoughtful lessons. But this is a different issue entirely: a teacher going too hardcore on a Kindergartner?

Is one day of illness really worth assigning 10 sheets of homework? Teachers everywhere, maybe ease up on the grade-schoolers and save "the strict" for high school seniors cutting class to record mirthless TikTok dance videos in the parking lot.

This isn't an isolated incident. Many parents have expressed frustration with teachers– some too lenient, some overly demanding. A study from earlier this year spoke of educational stress: 77 percent admit their job has become more challenging, and 68 percent feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities. It appears in the case of Jillian: Some of that stress gets passed down to their students.

While parents deal with these frustrations, recent political developments in the U.S. could imply that change is indeed on the horizon. 47th president-elect Donald Trump plans to expand school choice options starting in January. And with many mainstream outlets extremely critical of the former and soon-to-be President, there are some, like Yahoo News, that appear to have covered this initiative in a favorable light.

Pending bureaucratic hurdles and promises kept, perhaps this will give families more opportunities to find educational environments that better fit the needs of their families.

What do you think? Is giving a ton of homework, which, presumably was meant to make up for the classwork that Jillian missed for the day she was absent from school, a little too harsh for a kid in elementary school? Or do you agree with her mom and believe it's just too much to give to someone who still watches Paw Patrol?