Teachers Share Dumbest Student Moments We Can’t Believe Are Real

Educators see a lot of funny and ridiculous moments during their time teaching. Read on for some of the funniest student blunders they’ve encountered.

1. Translating Their French Homework to spanish

student tapping brain

One commenter spoke about their sister, a French teacher, who was correcting the students’ homework.

Apparently, one student decided to write the entire piece on the computer and put it through Google Translate.

While it may have seemed like a smart idea at the time, they actually translated it from English to Spanish.

2. Ignorance about Africa

confused student

One economics teacher shared about the time a student in their class penned an essay that began with the statement, “We are all familiar with the country, Africa. Yet at the same time, we know little about them.”

“All we know is that it is hot there, African Americans live there, and they are really poor. This begs the question, why is Africa that poor?”

Apparently, the level of ignorance didn’t stop there, and the teacher gave up grading the paper, instead deciding that was enough grading for one day.

3. Plagiarizing Almost All of Their Work

student hand on head

According to a graduate assistant (GA), one student attempted to cheat on their freshman English assignment, with more than half of the paper being plagiarized from a website.

When confronted, they claimed their mother had written the paper for them.

The teacher explained that this was still considered cheating, but the student still had the nerve to ask if they could get credit for the portion not copied from a website.

3. Plagarizing And Denying It

students talking confused

The same GA spoke about a time the students had to analyze a movie and explain how it used the Hero’s Journey as its plot structure. It was an easy task, considering most modern movies follow this framework.

However, one student copied the Wikipedia summary of Aladdin completely and tried to pass it off as their own work.

When confronted about it, they denied any wrongdoing and argued that the similarities were simply coincidental.

Needless to say, the cheating attempt was unsuccessful!

4. Silly Answers That Make You Giggle

students putting up hands

In the first week of a college anthropology course, the professor asked his class to list some basic differences between modern humans and animals. A student replied that “We have a heartbeat.”

5. Scoring 0% on a True or False Quiz

student

A student once took a true or false quiz and scored a 0/20. The professor was so impressed by this achievement that he framed the paper with their score and hung it up in his home. Talk about an impressive feat!

“Less than one in a million chance of doing that with random answers,” one person said.

“Odds are 1 in 1,048,576. That’s an impressive level of dumb,” another person agreed.

6. Writing a Paper About Leonard Davin Chi

student in deep thought

One art history professor shared the story of a student who wrote an entire paper about Leonard Davin Chi.

Unfortunately, they failed to check their work for any errors and continuously referred to him as Leonard Davin Chi throughout the paper. It’s safe to say it wasn’t their best academic writing!

One commenter hilariously remarked. “A classmate of mine wrote a whole paper about ‘Martian Luther King Jr.'”

7. Not Even Trying to Hide The Cheating

student cheating

A student who was not a regular attendee of the course got caught out trying to cheat on their final exam.

They had taken out their phone in plain sight of everyone and was looking up answers, despite being watched by the professor.

“I was watching her THE WHOLE TIME, and she was completely oblivious to it,” the professor said.

As a result, they received an F for the exam. This student did not have much success in attempting to cheat.

8. Believing Chicken Nuggets Do Not Come From Chicken

student having dumb moment

One teacher said that they once thought students weren’t dumb, explaining that they just needed the right motivation to do well.

“…Until I met RJ. RJ was dumb. RJ didn’t realize that the chicken we ate was the same as the animal. RJ was 21 at the time.”

9. Why Do Meteors Fall in Craters?

student doing work

One student in a journalism class was once puzzled as to why meteors so often seem to land inside craters.

Clearly, this was off-topic and had nothing to do with the discussion of libel laws. It was an amusing yet unexpected moment!

“You can’t expect her to sit on a burning curiosity like that all the way to her 2:45 astronomy class,” joked one person.

10. Couldn’t Tell Their Own Age

student dumb moment

A student once told their teacher they would be 21 when they graduated high school. When asked why, the student explained that they aged two years every year and so would be 21 by the time of graduation.

Nevertheless, the commenter remarked, it was likely that the student would graduate high school at 21 years old, “but not for the reason he mentioned.”

11. not Knowing The Answers so Making Up Your Own Questions

fed up teacher

After taking an exam, a student approached a professor and told them that since they didn’t know the answers to the questions asked on the test, they decided to make up their own questions and answer them.

The professor was amazed by this, remarking that it was “the stupidest thing” they had ever heard.

12. Student Plagiarizes the Professor’s Work and Claims It As Their Own

tired teacher

A student was once given a short essay as a take-home exam. They needed to put it in their own words and cite any sources mentioned.

This student plagiarized the teacher-provided class materials with no added analysis or original input and was not mindful of citing their work.

“She tried to pass off MY WORDS as her own,” the teacher said.

13. Who Won The Civil War?

civil war

In a history class discussing the Civil War, the teacher posed an unexpected question as a joke: “So, who won the Civil War?”

To his surprise, one student raised their hand and said, “the south.” Despite the teacher’s laughter, they continued to defend their answer by saying, “What, we still have slaves, right?” The teacher soon realized that the student had not been joking and was instead misguided on the issue.

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Conclusion

student messing

These are some of the most hilarious and dumbest student moments, according to educators.

From trying to cheat during an exam to making up their own questions, these stories show that there’s no limit to what students can come up with when they haven’t put the work in.

We all make mistakes at times. Can you recall a dumb student moment you have experienced? Share your story in the comments!

This post, called Dumbest Student Moments According to Educators, was syndicated and produced by TPR Teaching. Reddit Source.

I'm an Irish tutor and founder of TPR Teaching. I started teaching in 2016 and have since taught in the UK, Spain, and online.

I love learning new things about the English language and how to teach it better. I'm always trying to improve my knowledge, so I can better meet the needs of others!

I enjoy traveling, nature walks, and soaking up a new culture. Please share the posts if you find them helpful!

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