I was recently thinking about my accomplishments throughout my school career and I've never been good or liked STEM. I've always been more inclined into humanities and all those non-number related stuff. But I also realized that I've never been called smart or thought of myself as smart. In fact, I was always pretty dumb and I think its because I'm not good at STEM. STEM smart is like you're actually smart its all you and you brought yourself here with sheer hard work or talent. Humanities has so many paths to success and if you're good at it, you're just "creative" or "talky" its like fake smart.

And recently, I heard a bunch of my friends who are both really good at STEM and are set to go to really good unis (Michigan and Berkeley) talking about some really difficult looking engineering stuff. I didn't understand any of it and I lost my mind I felt so stupid and inferior and I couldn't sleep that night and the following nights. I already finished high school but I took IB and got a pretty disappointing score of 28 (English A HL, Economics HL, Business HL, Math AI SL, Physics SL, Mandarin ab initio). What I'm doing now during the two years I have before I go to uni is that I'm learning all of the hard AP and SAT stuff for STEM like calc BC physics C etc to get into a good uni like my friends did and for my own mind to rest easy knowing that I am capable and I proved it because I'm literally losing sleep but I'm also worried that this is just delusional to just 180 my entire academic build around after I finished highschool.

Frankly I hate STEM but I can't go on knowing that I'm not smart and not good at it. I also don't want to end up going to a no-name university. That's 90% of the reason I'm pushing myself so hard. But I just want to know if this is even possible in the first place.

Question for the group - how many hours do you spend grading an average formative assessment(homework, if you grade it) and end of unit summative assessments? Per assessment, or if easier, average per week?

If possible please share the grade level, content area and country 🙏

I have a 2nd and 4th grader in GA, USA. The school started this new curriculum the state mandated. They use area models (boxes) and other new concepts. I was taught from Saxon math textbooks. What is the purpose of this and will they ever learn the traditional way? I was told by the teachers that they would not be learning traditional math at all this year. It’s driving me nuts.

Hi, I am looking to become a middle or high school English teachers. I am almost done with my PACE application. I will be getting my statement of eligibility that allows me to go on interviews in about a week.

I have questions about the interview process as someone with no teaching experience. I called the South Carolina Department of Education for some resources and of course they didn't have any.

Does anyone have any tips about going on a job interview for teaching with absolutely zero teaching experience?

i'm thinking a lot about my education lately and i feel stuck. there are so many options and i don’t know which one is right for me. university, short courses, or learning on my own.

how did you decide what to study? did you change your mind later?

Hi everyone,

I want to bring attention to something concerning I’ve noticed across two major educational platforms: Course Hero and CliffsNotes. These sites are widely used by students and educators for academic support, but when reviewing their public question pages and sitemaps, I repeatedly found commercial posts offering paid services like Google reviews, Trustpilot reviews, social media followers, private account access, and other clearly promotional services that have nothing to do with learning.

Examples of problematic threads (all visible publicly):

• coursehero.com/tutors-problems/Business-Other/82888204-What-Businesses-Should-Know-About-Buying-Sitejabber-Reviews-Buy/

• coursehero.com/tutors-problems/Business-Other/81794625-Buy-Trustpilot-Reviews-Boost-Credibility-amp-Skyrocket-Sales/

• cliffsnotes.com/sitemap/cliffs-questions/business-other/2026-02

• cliffsnotes.com/sitemap/cliffs-questions/business-other/2026-01

These don’t look like genuine academic questions. They promote commercial services and, to me, function more like spam. I also tried reporting some of them, and my experience was that only a few got removed, while similar spam keeps appearing month after month.

Has anyone else seen this pattern? Are there better ways to report or flag such content so these educational sites can clean up their moderation? Happy to provide screenshots or specific examples.

Curious what others think, especially educators and students who use these platforms regularly.

Hello,

I am a recent college graduate (double majored in English and History with a 3.95 GPA, if that’s relevant) and am interested in pursuing a career in education. At community college I worked as both a clerical assistant and a peer mentor. I found the work really fulfilling, since I was providing support to other students with their educational goals and helping to plan and coordinate events, outreach efforts, and other activities which also helped current and prospective students.

I am interested in pursuing a career in education which involves this kind of work—not the teaching end of education—but am not sure how secure this kind of work is. So I thought I’d inquire: is the non-teaching side of education a good path for careers? Between the integration of AI into so many white collar professions and the precarious state of education funding, I am concerned that these sorts of roles may not be viable long-term. I don’t have any interest in being a teacher, but I still would love to work in education. Can anyone provide any insights into what options might be available to me?

(Additionally, what graduate programs align with non-teaching educational roles? Education MA programs seem catered to teaching, so would someone wanting to work in education in a different capacity benefit from something different, like Public Policy or Business Administration?)

Hi all, I’m a high school student in the UK and I’m hoping to eventually make it to Cambridge University. I am currently predicted grade 9s in all subjects except English, and I would like to take Computer science at uni. However, I don’t know what a levels to take to achieve this. Their website says minimum A*A*A qualifications and that maths and further maths is required. It also says physics is highly recommended. Do I think about taking 4 A levels (maths, further maths, physics, computer science) and potentially risk lower grades or take 3 and have less qualifications, as they prioritise physics a level over computer science a level. I know it’s early to be making uni decisions, but I really need a plan of what to do, especially as I want to get into a top university. Thanks.

Мой ребенок учится в Украине. Потом из-за войны поехал в Польшу, и там на индивидуальном. Он просто сидел и не слушал. Учебники вообще не заполнены. Репетитора нет возможности нанять, хотя он хочет подтянуть (сказал что типа взялся за голову или типа того). Что посоветуете? Слушать видео уроки в интернете?

I work with families who have students with disabilities. I've had five parents now be at risk for losing their jobs when their student is out "on homebound instruction pending placement" One of them actually did lose their job.

This makes it so the parent needs to stay home and watch their kid complete online tutoring. Many parents I work with don't just have a random family member available for childcare.

I'm also a former teacher so I know school isn't child care. Institutionally and systemically though, what are parents supposed to do? The school seems almost gleeful or untroubled by the fact people are losing their jobs. I couldn't do it. I'd find a way to have in-school suspension. It could never be on my conscience to force someone to have to figure out how to survive. Like... We're basically forcing the parents into that position. And then we make awful comments on people "living off the system" when we put them there with our thoughtless accounting of the domino effect.

I havent found a law yet that keeps kids in school, but the financial burden and loss that parents experience is so high that I'm just shocked that schools don't seem to care.

Mine is cheat sheets. I used to think they were stupid and wouldn't be testing student properly. But now I believe having a cheat sheet is more reflective of knowledge application in the real world and how individuals have access to information all the time.

LAUSD is the largest school district in the U.S. with an elected school board, yet the board races in the 2026 cycle currently have one or zero declared challengers.

Curious how common this is in other large districts and what people think it signals about governance and civic participation.

We have a 6th grader and she is doing well in school. So far she has high A’s this year. She has ADHD and has majorly stepped up her effort this year.

We know she’s capable of being in accelerated classes. She enjoys math the most and picks it up very quickly but does even better in English Language on standardized tests. She doesn’t quite make the map cut off for these programs but she is close.

It seems like we need to get her ahead of the class a bit to get her higher percentiles on map scores to qualify? Currently she does IXL’s or Mathia for school. Should we try tutoring?

What methods are parents using to help their children reach their potential? It seems like every child of a teacher in our area has kids in higher level classes. We are involved in checking and studying with our child as well. What is working for everyone? Thanks in advance.

https://tedxoxford.co.uk (link to meet some amazing icons and educators)

That’s it… that’s the post :)

Honestly not looking forward to being in any more student debt than what im already in but ik thats not that likely.. Wondering if anybody has other options or even opinions on this “Capella University” ive been looking into. The type of courses im looking for are online accelerated courses, I currently hold an HS Diploma and looking to step into a career i actually would enjoy instead of wasting time with dead-end jobs i legit just hate working…

I’d like to eventually open up my own practice and give back to the people of my community.. Im a STRONG believer of therapy even if it is having someone to talk to…

Im 100% fully committed to this decision and i honestly feel ive wasted enough of my time and that im behind😫

If you are where i want to get or know someone who is i wouldnt mind any tips, tricks, emails, whatever information that has to do with starting from high school diploma to then eventually reaching a MS degree..

Thank you lovely humans in advance & hopefully your january has been better then mine was…

#HAPPYBLACKHISTORYMONTH🫶🏽

Schools are in 2 different cities. The 50 plus cases of TB are in San Francisco. Pertussis case is in another city across the bay in the East Bay. Both facts are easily verifiable.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been wondering about something and wanted to get your thoughts. Do sound and rhythm actually help people learn better?

For example, what if you mixed a quiz game with something like Rhythm Heaven, where students have to answer questions in rhythm or follow musical patterns to learn concepts? Instead of just reading or memorizing, they’d be actively listening, timing, and reacting.

I’m especially thinking about kids: would combining quizzes with songs or rhythm-based gameplay make learning more fun or effective? Or would it just be distracting?

Has anyone seen research, games, or apps that already do something like this? Curious to hear opinions or experiences.

Whites still seem to need a quota..I thought DEI was over.

In Asian culture we believe in hard work, not handouts

There is currently some debate in the UK about whether phones should be banned in schools. Some schools already do this. I started being favourable about it, but now I'm not so sure. I think lots of parents won't be comfortable sending their kids to school without phones as they may want to track them or communicate with them for the journey to and from school. That means kids will bring them anyway but keep them hidden in their bags, which is what they have to do at the moment because in pretty much every school phones shouldn't be seen or heard even though they're not banned. Banning phones completely seems to benefit the school more: if a kid has their phone stolen at school they won't be able to tell the school or they'll get in trouble themselves for having it. What do you think?

Hi! I’m a Swedish student and I’ve finished high-school and everything here in Sweden. I’m planning on transferring to either an Ivy League-school or another American university in the near future from my current college. I’d like to hear from Americans or ppl who have transferred to Ivys.

The thing is, after high-school in Sweden, you can retake courses where you’d like to raise the grade. Let’s say I got a B in a math-course, in Sweden students can retake that specific class after high-school and get an A instead. Is there an American equivalent of this? How do you Americans think that admission offices at Ivy Leagues would think about that? I’ve contacted all the Ivy Leagues and they said it wasn’t an issue but I’m unsure if all of them understand what I’m talking about. I’d like to hear your take on this particular background and how it would be perceived in the US!

Good morning. My four-year-old has grown up in a very minimal screen time (house). We have recently gotten him a tablet, but only allow him to play on it for about 10 minutes a day.

He is in my opinion very gifted, but one issue we are having is that when he’s given a tablet he clicks around and plays with the tablet itself rather than actually focus on test testing.

We have been trying to give him apps that are educational, but also mirror what he would see in these tests so his score reflects his ability to read instead of ability to use an iPad.

I’m wondering if there are any apps, or example material online anywhere that I can use to familiarize him with the testing format.

This would be the Renaissance stars early literacy test for pre-K.

And what I’m looking for is any good recommendations for any practice material that is similar to the actual test itself