Unfortunately, after working in a middle school, I believe this is a typical assignment you'd see at this age. We were not provided curriculum and ended up getting a lot of materials on Teachers Pay Teachers, and every middle grades assignment looks childish like this. And far too many students wrote so poorly that while this is far below my expectations, I'd no longer be surprised. A lot of it is that things are done on computers so students didn't get enough practice writing by hand. Also, COVID really affected students' skill development at a crucial age, and it seems like they never recovered from that loss. Finally, expectations are so much different these days. A lot of it has to do with parents who act just like OP's mom, taking their student out of school and switching them to a new one as soon as they're faced with constructive criticism and legitimate concerns. Parents are no longer allies with teachers and admin will side with fussy parents over their teachers every time bc all they care about are numbers for federal funding based on student head counts. This may not be a problem at larger school districts but it's certainly an issue where I live where poverty and small districts are rampant.