Teachers love educating children, which is why they get into the field in the first place.

They do not love all of the hassles that come along with dealing with administration, red tape, or parents.

OP’s principal requested that teachers submit detailed lesson plans every week.

Once upon a time in the quaint town of Academia, a new middle school assistant principal was placed at our school.

One day, trying to impress the school principal, our assistant, Mr. Sternsworth, as we will call him, decided to crack down on the teachers’ lesson planning process.

Mr. Sternsworth, a stern man with a penchant for punctuality, issued a decree that all teachers must submit their lesson plans, detailed, on the form he provided, that took way longer due to formatting and other demands, and wanted them promptly every Monday at 8 AM for the upcoming week.

No one appreciated the extra hoops to jump through.

The teachers grumbled and complained as this takes a lot of time we could be prepping for the lesson, but we had little choice but to comply with the Sternsworth’s wishes.

So, OP decided to prove a point about the pointlessness of it all.

I, however, saw an opportunity for a little mischief. Determined to make a point, I not only submitted the lesson plans diligently every Monday at the specified time but took it a step further.

Along with each lesson plan, I attached a friendly email, politely requesting feedback on the plans and any suggestions for improvement.

“Dear Mr. Sternsworth,

I hope this email finds you well. Attached are my lesson plans for the upcoming week. I would greatly appreciate any feedback or suggestions you might have. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, AMLT1983”

At first, Mr. Sternsworth was pleased to see such diligence from me. However, as the weeks went by, the inbox of the assistant principal began to overflow with my meticulously detailed lesson plans and polite follow-up emails.

It seemed that every lesson plan submission was accompanied by a prompt for feedback.

At first, Mr. Sternsworth tried to keep up. He skimmed through a few lesson plans, offering generic feedback like “Looks good” or “Keep it up.” But I was persistent. I pushed for MORE feedback.

The flood of emails requesting feedback became overwhelming, and Mr. Sternsworth found himself spending more time responding to me than actually performing his administrative duties.

In the end, it worked!

Frustrated and desperate to put an end to the constant barrage of emails, Mr. Sternsworth called me into his office.

“AMLT1983,” he said with a weary sigh, “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I simply don’t have the time to provide detailed feedback on every lesson plan. Can’t you just submit them without all the extra emails?”

Smirking, I replied, “Sorry sir, I’m just a guy who wants to get better. I’m trying to make lesson plans that are really engaging, I really need the feedback. I’d hate to get docked on my end of year evaluation for being anything but the best.”

After a heavy sigh, Mr. Sternsworth said, “AMLT1983, if you stop e-mailing me about them, I won’t make you turn anymore in. It is obvious you are a good teacher, and I need to focus on other things.”

That was 12 years ago, and I haven’t turned in a lesson plan since.

Reddit has to be chuckling along.

Someone needed to teach the guy a lesson of his own.

This all tracks with the system we currently use.

It was really beautiful compliance.

But he was just giving him what he asked for!

All you have to do is prove they’re not reading them.

Score one for the teachers!

They could definitely use a few more wins.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.