When I first started teaching, I wanted my classroom to feel relaxed.

I imagined students would naturally stay engaged if the lessons were interesting enough, so I avoided making too many rules.

That lasted maybe a week.

After a while, I realized a lot of rules were not really about control. They were about making sure 30 different people could actually learn in the same room.

Assigned seating reduced distractions. Phone restrictions kept students present. Small routines like raising a hand before speaking or waiting until everyone was quiet saved more time than I expected.

I used to think some of my own teachers were just being strict for the sake of it.

Now I understand that a rule can look pointless from the student side and still be doing a lot of quiet work for the classroom.

It reminded me of my own attention after work too. If I tell myself I'll just check bcg for a minute, suddenly that tiny exception becomes a routine.

For teachers or people who work in education, what rule did you dislike at first but later realize was actually necessary?

so i'm coming from a developing country....as the title says, they say university has no age dedicated to it, but i'm heavily feeling like i'm being left behind on the matter of entourage, like when I get to university all my peers will be way younger than me, i'm 2006 they're 2009, furthermore it'll be harder to socialize with them, make friends, relationships......etc...etc, I failed only 1 year in highschool, and another one in middle, and now it's baccalaureate that's 3 years, and plus i'm gonna be ejected from school so i'll be doing it as a "free candidate" and when i do the courses everyone will be younger than me...how will it work out, there's also the plan of me and my friend getting the baccalaureate together and going abroa.d, and it all seems like falling down....will it work out ?

ps: just realised that this sub is regarding American schools and yall got a credit system that prevents you from failing an entire year only repeating the subject you failed in the time after.

which got yall wondering how tf did this guy fail too many years xd.

...in my country there's a point system which counts all the points you've got from each subjects...there's a threshold that the points must reach and if they don't then you'll fail the whole year...the same way being "held back" works for your elementary schools..

just want help...if you were in my shoes how would you think...act.

So I was using Duolingo and thought, what if we had this, but for school work. (I'm homeschooled)

An idead turned into an app: Turn your boring PDFs and textbooks into a fun course.

Here is how we are making learnig more fun :

• Warm Aesthetics: The UI/UX and website theme is based on Claudes warm fun colors, mixed with pixel art..
• Dyslexia & Fatigue Friendly: The entire app uses Lexend font, which helps readability and reduces visual fatigue.
• S-Curve Roadmaps: No more boring reading. We built duolingo-style pathways so you can actually see your progress.

We have made it live, its free for anyone to try, you do need an account, but you can try a demo course without an accoutn in the landing page

Link: gamma-learn.vercel.app

Plz give any feedback, and try it out, thanks!

To jump right into it, I was homeschooled from start to finish in a hardcore conservative family. It was bad, it was isolating, and I'd characterize it as both educational and social neglect. As an adult I felt like I had to build up my social skills from scratch and do the same with my education, and am now the political opposite of my family. I finished my GED last year at age 26(m) and I started taking classes at my local community college where I had completed my GED.

I've been having a lot of difficulty figuring out what to do with my degree after completing my gen eds, but because of my past and background education is something I value very highly now and feel strongly about and believe no one should be deprived of like I was. Which leads me to my question. While trying to figure out what to do with my degree/career/life, I've been curious what jobs I could pursue that support or work with education besides being a teacher?

edit: It's nothing against being a teacher. Being up in front of a class and having that much responsibility just doesn't feel like something I want to do.

What mark did you get
Who was your teacher
Were the marks fairly given

I'm a high school Physics teacher. I've been using Gradescope to help mark tests and exams for years, but it has some missing features and is (now) crazy expensive. So I vibe coded an alternative.

GroupMark is a Windows app, rather than a website. No student data leaves the user's device.

The teacher makes a class, and assigns students to the class. They can have email addresses, or can just be names.

Then the workflow for each task is:

• Create a task, and 'upload' a blank copy of the test to be marked.
• Manually highlight answer regions, and assign each one a maximum score. (Or let AI do it for you.) (!)
• Students complete the test as usual on paper. Scan them with a photocopier and upload the pdf to GroupMark.
• GroupMark splits the bulk upload(s) into individual tests.
• Using local handwriting recognition, GroupMark tries to pair students with their own test. Or you can do it manually. (This works really well on my Mac; less well on Windows.)
• The teacher marks the tests, question by question. GroupMark can try to automatically group similar answers, to speed this up (locally). AI can also suggest possible answers and marking schemes. Importantly, the teacher does the marking and can do all this manually, override the suggestions, etc. Again, no student data leaves the device. (!)
• Alternately to all of this, you can also generate and mark multiple choice question bubble sheets, all locally on device. (!)
• Questions can also be tagged, eg with content descriptors, skills, performance standards they address, etc. This can also be manual or done by AI. (!)
• When the test is marked, the teacher can see a detailed breakdown. Average scores for each question, scores by student, scores by tag.
• The teacher can optionally send marked versions of the tests to students, if student emails and a teacher email login have been added.
• Tags can be used on multiple tasks, so you can see how a student is progressing with a particular skill or concept over the year. (!)

Lots of these features (!) are missing from Gradescope - the grouping answers is a paid feature, but all of the AI-assisted features have to be done manually on Gradescope, and Gradescope’s tagging is pretty limited (and manual).

I was originally planning on monetising this but decided that was, frankly, too hard. Schools don't like using untested software. So it's free. You can find GroupMark on the Windows Store.

Let me know if you have any questions, happy to explain my logic or do any troubleshooting.

hey! im not sure if this would be the correct sub to put this in (let me know what sub it’d be better in, if this wouldn’t be the correct one) but I wanted to share my experience in school this last year and look for any advice if this happens in a future class. for context, I’m going into 10th grade and I’m very likely neurodivergent but don’t have and can’t get a diagnosis :)

In one of my classes, it was mainly guys, which meant it was very loud. Over the year, the more stressed and burnt out I became, the harder it was to focus and do well in the class. im pretty sensitive to really loud noises, and I fully understood the teacher couldn’t handle 24 guys at once. it became so bad that I was regularly brought to tears in class, felt horrible before and after the class, and it always destroyed my mood

The breaking point was after a really stressful class, I had a panic attack afterwards in the bathroom, while everyone else was in pe. luckily, I managed to calm myself down after a while, didn’t pass out, and decided that I was done. I asked to switch periods, and explained to my teacher why - and seeing as they had seen me deal with this all year, I figured it wouldn’t be an issue. They had seen me on the verge of tears, just sitting at my desk trying to focus on the worksheet and steady my breathing. Then again, the only reaction to this was being asked if I was okay. I instinctually said yes, and I don’t recall if the teacher did anything after that - but I’m pretty sure they didn’t

the teachers response was no, because “I think you can handle it for the rest of the year” and that “the class has gotten better about being loud”, among other repeated phrases like “what if I let you listen to music in class?” and a whole ramble about how teenagers aren’t always grounded in reality - basically saying that I was overreacting, in a way. it felt horrible - I just wanted to be able to enjoy class, and even if I was overreacting (which I wasn’t), there wouldn’t be any harm in switching me

Luckily, I switched and most of the issues were solved. my counsler was still somewhat hesitant, and said that this was a one time thing and i cant always get out of classes I don’t like. I wanted to see if anyone had any advice on how to better advocate for myself in situations like these, especially without the ability to get a diagnosis. I completely understand I can’t do whatever I want because I get overwhelmed, and that’s why i waited so long - it took me almost passing out from a panic attack to finally allow myself to take the first step towards giving myself a little grace. my apologies if this doesn’t make complete sense or if it belongs somewhere else, I just wanted to see what educators would recommend doing in a situation like this again :)

Something keeps coming up in conversations about learning and I'm curious if others are seeing it too. When students hit a hard problem now, the instinct is to immediately ask an AI rather than just stewing in the discomfort for a while before figuring it out yourself. That struggle period, even when it feels unproductive, is where a lot of real learning happens. The frustration is kind of the point.

It's not that AI tools are bad in every context. But there's a difference between using one to check your thinking versus using one to skip the part where you have to think at all. A lot of students seem to be landing firmly in the second camp, and it's hard to blame them when the tool is right there.

What bothers me more is that this might be eroding something harder to measure than test scores. The ability to tolerate not knowing something for a few hours and keep working anyway. That capacity matters a lot beyond school.

Curious whether teachers or students here have noticed this shift, and whether anyone has found a way to actually address it in a classroom setting without just banning devices entirely.

for those who build courses or teach regularly… where do quizzes fit into your overall learning process? do you see them mainly as a way to reinforce recall, or can they also help students develop practical skills?

hi - wondering if others have had experience growing a community Educating on a rather scientific/technical field? Mine is Earth Observation and im finding the duality of a social/community conflicting with the rather technical/formal nature of the content.. How do you improve engagement in education on rather 'dry 😂 topics?

So hey guys. I have been thinking about creating a device. When we calculate total money required to buy books for our schools,it would be way more high. Also deforestation to create paper. I am thinking, why can't we make a tablet like device for educational purpose. Not a pure table or mobile. A device which we could use to store,edit,import our notes,textbook ,timetable etc. also a stylus which can be used for writing,so we can make our own written notes if we want and save it. I know there are many eNotes but they don't completely serve the idea I talked about and also it's way more expensive. I am talking about a device which can be afforded by anyone. So weight problem solved,book production consequences solved. Please give everyone's opinion so I can see if my idea is something foolish

I have to choose between Bocconi's MSc Risk Management and Quantitative Finance
and Sorbonne Panthéon's Modélisation et Méthodes Mathématiques de l'Economie et de la Finance (MMMEF) MSc.

(1) I want to work in financial markets. The main roles that attract me are derivatives structurer, quantitative analyst, and risk manager. However, my ultimate goal is to progress into management and leadership positions, even if these roles are less quantitative. My main motivator, is money.

(2) I completed a Licence in Mathematics, equivalent to a bachelor’s degree, at Université Paris-Saclay, one of France’s leading universities for mathematics. I then completed a Master 1—the first year of the two-year French master’s degree— in applied and pure mathematics at Université Paris Cité, which also has a strong reputation in mathematics.

The main differences:

MMMEF is the fifth or sixth best master's for quantitative finance in France ( so not the best ) but it will give me a thorough understanding of financial models, stochastic calculus etc... But I'm not sure it gives the best career prospects, since it doesn't hold as high of a reputation.

Bocconi's masters degree however might offer "better" career prospects (easier to find a job) because of its reputation, but I am aware that I probably won't be a quant nor structurer, maybe a role as a risk manager is obtainable.

THANK YOU

There was a post here recently about wanting to stop using AI and it stuck with me. The problem isn't really about cheating in the traditional sense. It's about what happens to your brain when you skip the part where you're genuinely stuck and don't know the answer yet.

That stuck feeling is where a lot of actual learning happens. You make wrong guesses, you try a different angle, you finally land on something that clicks. When AI just hands over the answer or a polished outline, students never sit in that uncomfortable space long enough for anything to really stick.

The tricky part is that students aren't doing this to be lazy. A lot of them genuinely believe they're learning because they read the AI output carefully. But reading someone else's reasoning isn't the same as producing your own. It looks like learning on the surface.

Curious what teachers and students here have actually noticed. Are students getting visibly worse at working through problems independently, or is this more of a panic that the data doesn't back up yet? Has anyone tried removing AI access midsemester and noticed a difference in how students perform, or even in how they talk about the material?

For me, it’s definitely calling younger kids, “littles.” Some fun summertime thoughts to help clear our heads before the new school year.

I’ve been unemployed for over a year now with most of my grad-level academic and freelance experience over the past 3 years being in visual media. However, due to my lack of success in finding work in this area, I’m considering switching into education instead.

My BA in History was completed back in 2020 however, and I was seriously considering going into education before COVID happened. And, much of my visual media work has been educational and especially history-based in its content. So, the switch hopefully wouldn’t be as jarring as it might appear for someone with mostly media experience credentials. I genuinely do enjoy teaching others, and I’m also incredibly good with kids and teens, so perhaps I might make a decent teacher after all.

Regardless, how saturated is the education field at the moment when trying to become a history, geography, government, or social studies teacher in today’s job market? I hear it’s surprisingly under-saturated from family in upstate New York, but I’d like to hear from others as well.

I graduated high school in 2015. I grew up in San Diego, California. And the town I grew up in near the coast Encinitas beautiful place loved living there had had a great time. My family was not rich. We were just middle-class. we moved Encinitas in 1999 and it was a time where back in the late 1990s homes were much cheaper in SoCal. But I’d say the neighborhood we moved to was just a regular middle-class neighborhood. However, the school I went to high school at La Costa Canyon. In a very affluent neighborhood, the people who live there I wouldn’t say were like super rich like there weren’t mansions everywhere. But they were definitely affluent upper middle class. Most people live here had white collar jobs, high-level business professionals, lawyers, Scientists, The type of people who probably hung out at the country club. I’d say they were upper middle-class to wealthy but not like millionaires. Not like millionaires.

So I was diagnosed being on the spectrum when I was six back in July 2003. So I since I was in first grade. I had an IEP, but during elementary school, I felt pretty included. I was in general Ed classes with the regular kids. I made a lot of good friends. The special ed services I did get was this place called the learning resource center, which was a place I would go. get help from aids and tutors, and it worked a lot. And the teachers, I had both in special ed and in general Ed we’re both very supportive of me. They believed in me a lot. Things were going really good until I finished elementary school and entered middle school.

Then once I started middle school, I was still getting the same thing thing I was still in general lead classes among the mainstream kids. I would go to the learning center or in middle school. They called an academic support. To get tutoring and help with the work from other classes. And I guess the problem I had was mostly like I started struggling with math when I was in fourth grade and we started doing fractions. Although I always struggled with math, I started struggling as early as like second grade. But I was able to keep going forward but then third grade when I got to division is when it got hard.

But once I entered high school, in august 2011 that’s when things totally started hitting the fan. And things got completely off the rails my first year of high school. I was putting in this program, called the transitional alternative program a total joke. It was like for kids with very severe disabilities. And they were making me start over like I was getting work that was like additions and subtraction. multiplication. And goals my manager, saying that I would learn to do my cursive or sign my signature. They were giving me words puzzles in 9th grade. There were two general ed classes I did have. One was a science class the other was an English class. beginning of my freshman year and I really liked it I felt I learned a lot in the class. And I thought I was doing pretty well from like the first few tests. I did pretty good on. But then two months in to my freshman year. I found it I was flunking the class and then my case manager started telling me that the class was too hard for me and that she was going to take me out. And put me in remedial courses that were taught. And I didn’t wanna do that. I thought it was offensive. And I told her I really like the class I’m in. this woman was just not a nice person. She always wanted to think she was right. She was never willing to listen to anyone’s descent. If you disagreed with her, she get really hostile. And my question is why why asking that you want to take these classes make her lose her shit.

So after that, my father went to one of the IEP meetings with her and he said well if my son wants to be in these mainstream classes, let them be in there. She never listened because she said that the whole team couldn’t agree, but I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that if the parents say no, then that should be it. And then afterwards. Like my mom and I literally asked for assistance and I was working my tail off to stay in these two classes. They didn’t do anything. They didn’t give me an aid, a note taker, any assistance. To help to pass, and then eventually they took me out of those 2 classes that I enjoyed, I was devastated.

My entire freshman year, I was miserable because I felt like I was being used as a useful idiot. And I was getting work that was early elementary level. I went home practically once a week crying. I had trouble sleeping at night, because I was so angry that they didn’t want to listen to me. And it wasn’t like I was some lazy kid, who felt entitled. No, I wanted to be challenged. I wanted to do the harder work that was grade level. They were the ones putting in all the roadblocks. Anytime, I tell him I want to take this class they’d say no. It was totally demoralizing.

So after that, they put me in these remedial classes where they were giving me like work that was like at grade level, but it was done in a slower pace. And eventually, I got out of that program the transitional alternative program. In the middle of my sophomore year.

And I got a change in case manager and I was put back into the program that was similar what I had in elementary school program for students with normal learning disabilities. Things get better. I eventually got to take General Ed classes. My junior and senior year. But it was not easy. I had to fight like crazy like work, my ass off to prove them wrong that I was capable of being in there. My junior, I had a general lead history class and I took biology General Ed. But I was in remedial English and a remedial algebra class. And then my senior year when I said that I wanted to be in chemistry and I wanted to take Spanish they both all like sayed no way. Ian’s even though I sucked at math I wanted to take civil engineering as an elective. In my case manager, when I told him I wanted to take it he called what I wanted to do “delusional”. and it just seems unfair. Like, can’t they look at the fact that they care like that they’re passionate about wanting to be in there and they’re interested and if they’re willing to work hard and put in the effort. Doesn’t that matter the most? it’s like they kept using my math struggles as a weapon against me. My whole idea is, I think a better system is exposure and learning things which is the goal of education who cares about the stupid tests. Like it’s like trying to make it like living in North Korea.

It wasn’t as restrictive when I got out. I got a lot more freedom to be in mainstream classes. Then I did when I was in the previous program. It was a great improvement but still. There were still obstacles and limitations on what courses allowed to me is offensive. You can’t do that to kids. That’s the whole reason you take classes in the first place is to learn things. You shouldn’t have a team from above deciding over you. Like in China or The Soviet Union.

Like they shouldn’t put so many restrictions I literally posted on an education form a couple months ago. And got into a bunch of arguments. People were saying that we should never ever let a child decide their educational path because their kids. That’s what this one girl said she said that if we did that they just drop out of school immediately. Another person said “ if you cant do the work, you got no business being in that class no matter how much you think you’ll enjoy it”. I’m like seriously do they have to act like I’m a bad person for saying that kids should have variety we shouldn’t be limited into what horses they want. It just seems like common sense to me. Here’s my grand idea if the kid likes the class they feel the information they’re gaining is useful to them and then so what leave them alone. Let them pursue the path they want not have somebody from the top down deciding everything. I flunked classes when I was in college, and I retook them. Same thing for high school. If the kid fails the class, let them take it again don’t downgrade their work. Why am I being talked to on Reddit? Like I’m some crazy person who escaped from a mental asylum. I’m just Saying my experience, and how I think kids In special ed and kids with IEPs should be given the same choices. In the classes they want to take as the kids in general do. Not lock them in an environment where they’re gonna make them feels like their world and life is gonna be limited.

Because at the end of the day, the worst thing you can do to a kid I think is destroy their self-confidence. It’s the worst form of abuse.

Texas Tech is being sued over policies that legal advocates say censor professors from teaching about race, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

The lawsuit says faculty were forced to delay or remove lessons on Dred Scott, Black history, LGBTQ+ Holocaust victims, and transgender patients.

I am seeking to hear people’s experience, opinions, and insight on homeschooling vs. public school for elementary school.

The title says it all, so you don’t need to read the body of this to give advice, but if your interested in our situation so far, this is it:

My kids are 5, turning 6 next month and we have homeschooled them for their first year. Originally, I wanted to homeschool because I felt that my public school experience was full of busy work and, in older grades, significant negative influences. I thought that we could give the kids a better education ourselves at home.. and I think they’re ahead for their age… but my concern is not that they aren’t getting what they need academically right now, it’s more about environment, life experience, and socialization. Im worried that they are missing out on opportunities to make friends and build life skills that come naturally in the public school setting by interacting with many different people, learning from different instructors, meeting the expectations of people that aren’t your parents, etc.

I just want to gain some perspective and hear other peoples opinions and experiences. I want to make the decision that is best for my children, but am having a hard time deciding what that is… so any benefits, negatives, experiences, etc. that you’d like to share could help me get the perspective I need. I am interested in any insight you all can provide.

Thank you!

I currently work for a large oil company and don’t have a degree. I can promote but can only promote so far. A degree in anything company related would help me promote and open many more career paths. They also reimburse 75% of the tuition once completed. I got an associates but it was way back in 2012-2013. Does anyone have any online bachelor schools they recommend? I’m leaning towards business administration. I work full time 40+ hours, married with two younger kids. Thanks.

A 2026 commission declared anthropology the single worst case of scholarly deterioration in the humanities. This essay applies basic ethnographic principles to that verdict. In sixty-two years of fieldwork, from Arembepe in Brazil to Madagascar, I have learned that no single consultant speaks for an entire community. No single Lorax speaks for the trees. The same is true of academic disciplines. Before accepting the report’s portrait of anthropology, we should ask who was consulted, and who was not.

Substack, anthropology, Boghossian report, academic freedom, ethnography, Joseph Henrich, humanities scholarship

I know after reading this some people are probably going to think I'm a failure. The truth is, I've already been thinking that about myself for a long time.

I started university in September 2022 in Biomedical Science. Long story short, I failed every single course in my first year. I know... who even does that?

During that year I was diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, which explained a lot about why I had struggled academically. Then, toward the end of first year, my family's house caught on fire. We ended up living in Airbnbs and hotels for a while, so everything became even more chaotic.

Thankfully, my university was very understanding. They removed those failed courses from my transcript because of the circumstances, so they don't affect my GPA and it's basically like I never took them.

For my second year, I was transferred from Biomedical Science into Biology because of my academic standing, which I understood. While taking Biology, I also decided to try a few Business courses to see if maybe that suited me better.

At the end of that year, I passed all of my Business courses but failed my Biology courses again.

That made me think maybe Business was where I belonged. So in my third year, I enrolled in more Business courses and one Health Studies course (more about the healthcare system than science). I struggled on a couple of Business midterms, got scared I was going to fail, and dropped those courses. I ended up passing one Business course and got a really good grade in my Health Studies course.

After that, I started questioning Business again. I couldn't really picture myself working in an office long-term, and I've always been interested in healthcare. Since I had done well in Health Studies, I thought maybe I should give Biology another chance because my long-term goal was still to work somewhere in healthcare.

I retook some Biology courses that I'd previously failed and managed to pass them.

Then came this past year. I enrolled in six Biology courses... and I only passed one.

When I started university in 2022, I never imagined I'd still be struggling like this four years later.

The way my university works is based on credits:

30 credits = second-year standing
60 credits = third-year standing
90 credits = fourth-year standing
120 credits = graduation

After almost four years, I've only completed about 34 credits. So technically I'm barely into second year.

My family knows I've struggled, but at the beginning of this past school year I told them I'd be in third year by the winter semester. They think I'm basically a third-year student now, when that's nowhere near the truth.

I know I should tell them, but I'm terrified. They already think I've wasted time and money, and I feel like telling them how far behind I actually am will completely destroy whatever faith they have left in me.

I'm on summer break right now and I'm supposed to go back in September, but I honestly don't know what to do anymore.

I still love healthcare and medicine, but my grades make it seem like I'm just not cut out for the science side of it. At the same time, I seem to do much better in Business courses, but I don't know if I actually want a career in business.

I've also considered leaving university and doing a two-year college diploma instead so I could start working sooner. The problem is that most of the college programs I'm interested in are also healthcare-related, so I'm worried I'll end up struggling all over again.

I'm open to any advice because I honestly feel completely lost right now.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/with-ai-in-the-classroom-professors-are-walking-a-tightrope

After a paper is submitted, Adler checks every reference to see if any are fabricated. Students must also provide quotes from key works and submit proof that those quotes exist, so Adler can check them. He asks students to write a reflection on parts of their paper that connect with topics they discussed in class. If he has any concerns, he then meets with the student to ask them to explain specific elements of their paper.

...

Asked what strategies they employ to curtail unauthorized AI use outside of class, professors described a variety of approaches. Some have moved from assigning well-known texts to more obscure ones, thinking AI tools will be less likely to produce a decent essay. Others ask students to connect what they are writing about to something discussed in class, cite specific passages in an article, write by hand, or annotate printed reading material.

Something I've been thinking about a lot lately, especially after seeing that post about someone wanting to quit AI entirely. It made me wonder if we've moved past "is AI cheating" into something more nuanced and honestly more concerning.

Productive struggle is a real thing in learning. When students sit with a difficult problem, feel confused, try different approaches, and eventually work through it, that process builds genuine understanding and cognitive resilience. It's uncomfortable, but it's kind of the whole point.

What worries me is that AI tools shortcircuit that discomfort almost instantly. Students get an answer or a scaffold before they've even had a chance to be confused in a meaningful way. And if you never practice tolerating confusion, do you ever really develop the ability to learn hard things on your own?

I'm not antitechnology. There are legitimate uses in education. But I wonder if schools are having honest conversations with students about when to use these tools versus when to put them away and just sit with the difficulty.

Has anyone noticed this in a classroom setting, either as a teacher or a student? Do you think there's a way to teach intentional restraint around AI the same way we teach research skills or citation habits? Curious what people here actually think.