Incompetency is not dependent on age, as an adult can sometimes act just as incompetently as a child. That said, just because a person is qualified to teach or manage a school doesn’t mean they can make the silliest of mistakes, even though it is rather funny and ironic when those in education make a fool of themselves. And the staff of a school in Ohio did just that when they told a parent that their daughter was “not quite gifted” enough to be in their program. The joke is on them, though, because they were the ones who made the most obvious of errors.
Posting to r/mildlyinfuriating, the Ohio parent showed a letter from their daughter’s school disqualifying them from enrolling in its gifted program. In the second photo they shared in the post, the girl’s score was clearly marked as 143, “Very Superior,” much higher than the 126 threshold that the letter mentioned. Yet, she was denied for no reason other than that staff claimed she scored lower than 126. Numbers obviously aren’t the issue here, but “I guess gifted numbers work differently than regular numbers,” the parent joked.
“Clearly the people who sent the letter aren’t the gifted ones,” read one of the post’s top-upvoted comments. “Just to be sure, I’d ask your gifted child if 143 is higher than 126. If they say yes, you have your answer,” remarked another. “Looks like an administrative error but still definitely a nuisance since now you’ll have to go to who knows how much hassle to follow up on it,” added a third. Several commenters did feel as though this was just a simple mistake on the school staff’s part that didn’t need to make its way into the ‘mildly infuriating’ subreddit.
However, the parent clarified that the school principal, teachers, and counselor have all agreed that their daughter was developing and learning at an advanced speed, even to the point that they did their best to keep her engaged with their curriculum. Even the coordinator who sent the rejection letter had known the girl for years, yet made this silly mistake. The heart of the problem boils down to carelessness, really.
In the end, the parent claimed they did notify the staff about the error, so hopefully, it won’t be too much of a hassle to fix it. The daughter has worked this hard to enter the program after all; clearly, she deserves it.
