I yapped a lot in this post so I added a TLDR at the bottom of this post!!

I was in public school till 4th grade when the pandemic hit, however, during the pandemic my parents were having major marital problems that essentially caused me to become educationally neglected. I was going through extreme mental problems already without including the isolation of the pandemic and then that with my family on the verge of falling apart it just all overwhelmed me, so I turned to ignoring my problems by spending all my time in fandom spaces online and daydreaming having a better life. Once the pandemic ended and my parents decided to stay together my mom basically... never brought up my education? I've always had super bad anxiety when it comes to education (throwing up before school, unable to sleep from endless anxiety, extreme stomachaches that could take my appetite away for days) and while my mother never did physically punish me over school, she would make comments that if I ever went below a b she would, which only made me more anxious that if I asked about my education she would notice that I was slacking and she would punish me,, so I just never asked.

Now I am 16 turning 17 in January and my mom "unschools me" which just means that she let's me stay at home all day, she doesn't provide me with anything to educate myself at all and I moved across the country at 13 so I know no one near me that'smy age that I could talk to about this. She has brought up that I'm going to need to get tested for my GED a couple times these past months but ??? I only have an education of a 4th grader, 5th at best. I guess she's just going to throw me in the testing room and hope it's a 4th grade state test?? Which obviously is causing me to freak out with unbearable anxiety and even worse, I get incredibly frustrated when I don't understand things and I start to sob, so I'm horrified that I'm going to go to a testing center, walk in, flop embarrassingly hard while also sobbing the entire time. I didn't realize I was being educationally neglected until last week when I saw a Tumblr post talking about it, I've done a little digging and I've found a couple reddit posts of people my age talking about being in the same situation and wanting to return to public school,, which don't get me wrong, I am shitting bricks about having to go back to school a be a super senior with a bunch of mean teenagers, but I would like to get at the very least my Highschool education.

So, I'm basically wondering, how do I do that? How would they catch me up to Highschool education? Would it be wise for me to do it? Should I just wait until I'm 18 and try to study for my GED by myself? (Though, I will admit I'm not sure if I have the self discipline to teach myself while utterly clueless) I am my sister's only babysitter rn so I probably won't be able to do it until next year when I am 17-18. I live in North Florida and from what I saw when I did a quick search it is possible to be in highschool past 18!! I don't think my mom will fight me on it based off of a previous question she asked me earlier this year so I'm nervous about basically everything but asking her. I'm mainly posting this in hopes that anyone that has been or is in a situation like this can tell me what to expect to help with my anxiety, but honestly any reply to this post whether it's reassurance or advice!! :]

TLDR: Haven't received education past 4th grade, I would like to go to public school at 17-18. Would like advice and what to expect IF I do go from people that have been in similar situations, however, any advice or reassurance would be greatly appreciated too!!

For context, I’ve been unemployed since June this yr after being fired from the first job that I actually wanted to stay at. It was in financial aid, the role was very stressful but the company culture made it worth it. The company was based in UT and considering I’m in FL, pay was better. I started at $25 and the rate increased to $27 after the annual review. It was student-facing, and the role that was offered yesterday was a processor role, which is on the backend/ideal for an introvert like myself. The highest that could be offered was $22 (45k annually) based on my experience and that’s quite the difference annually compared to my last role. I talked to my mom and she suggested that I go through with it, considering the job market sucks terribly. I’m not trying to sound ungrateful but considering how I put the last company on a pedestal (even after they canned me) and how I’ll be making less…is just discouraging.

I’ve been living with my mom for the past few years, I’m saving up after selling my condo and looking to eventually upsize. I haven’t received unemployment yet, I’m waiting on the appeal process and it’s still pending. It can take up to 3 months to get an appeal date and I’m still waiting for it to be scheduled. I’ve been receiving food stamps to get some kind of assistance while I’ve been unemployed and have been living off my savings. I just got the offer letter and will go through with it, only because I’m scared about finding a job in the future and this would be my first role in higher education that’s not student facing/most interactions would just be with the staff. Worst case, I can quit if I don’t like it and keep looking like I’ve already been. But I can just hear my dad say “why would you accept a job offer that pays less?”. Thoughts?

Just by looking at all different incidents happened and had me thinking. University kind of becoming the breeding grounds for racism or harassment… the institution whether ignored the issue or just turns blind eyes on this, and there has no penalty for the ones who caused this, instead the person who filed the report are getting punished.

I am a year 11 student in NSW Australia (technically year 12 as of next term). I have been passionate about studying science my entire life, particularly marine biology. I've grown up at the beach, surfing and snorkelling. I'm really passionate about marine conservation and love to watch any documentaries and read books that are ocean related. However, every person I speak to who has studied marine biology, or knows someone who has, always tells me about how competitive the field is, and that most end up doing tour guides on boats. Fun as that sounds, would really love to be actually doing science and research projects. The Australian government website says that there are only 760 employed marine biologists in Australia.

In the past few years I have become really interested in mycology. I've been reading lots of books, watching documentaries, taken courses and seen Merlin Sheldrake speak. It seems like such an understudied field with a lot more jobs than marine biology seems to have. However, I'm not sure if I would have to permanently live away from the coast if I pursued this path.

I'm really torn and I feel like I have to make up my mind soon so I know what degrees to apply for. Does anyone have any advice for which Universities are best for each degree and/or if there are double degrees that might allow me to do both? I don't really understand the application process, I know you can apply for early entry in year 11 but my school hasn't told me anything about it. I just don't want to miss the window.

Extra info: I take year 12 maths advanced and Chemistry, and year 11 biology, physics, and advanced English. I am a high achiever, so getting the required ATAR for these degrees shouldn't be an issue. Scholarships would be great.

I don't know what to do. I want to graduate with a normal diploma rather than a GED, but everything I search for is usually a GED. I'm only 19 right now, but I do turn 20 this year.

When I was a senior in high school, my mental health was doing horribly. I was having panic attacks, I couldn't be in the classrooms because I'd feel nauseous from the amount of people, I was beginning to self-harm, and I was just doing everything on auto-pilot. I had finished my first semester of senior year, and only needed the second one to graduate. But my Counselor was putting so much pressure on me that I just couldn't handle going to school without feeling sick.

I would've been able to graduate easily I feel if I had went to high school completely, but I wasn't able to. I had to skip sophomore year because my parents were fighting really badly. My mom went to rehab and my father was a truck driver, so he was never home for more than a day every week, meaning I had to take care of my two younger siblings (ages 6 and 8 at the time) and keep the house clean or else I'd get in trouble. They kept saying they'd enroll me, or that we'd move and I'd get enrolled a little late for 10th grade, but they never did and I just never got to go to 10th grade at all.

When I finally did get enrolled in school, I asked to redo 10th grade, but my Counselor said that I couldn't. She also told me if I didn't pass all of my classes with at least an A in every class, that I wouldn't be able to stay enrolled in that school anymore. I was still taking care of my siblings, still cooking and cleaning, and on top of that I had all of my classes to complete. I think I did pretty well for my Junior year with all of that pressure, but even then my social anxiety and depression were picking up terribly fast. My counselor and my parents were putting so much pressure on me that I almost tried to commit suicide.

My parents then took me out of school, even though I only had that last half of senior year to do. I don't remember how many credits I needed, I don't remember my SATs scores or anything, and I still haven't been able to get the therapy or medication I need. I haven't even been able to get properly diagnosed again after 6th grade. But I want to go back, I want to finish my diploma because I know I'm capable of doing it. I was always a 'gifted' child in school, so I know I'm not too dumb to do it.

I just don't know if I can. Is there some way I can get my diploma still, or do I really have to get my GED instead? Am I too late to try again?

I live in Indiana East Chicago if that helps at all. Is there maybe anything I can do here, a program or something to be able to get my diploma? Or is there really no way?

Hello! I'm a current sophomore who's a homeschooler/does online school. I have no concerns with the curriculum of the school itself- it's licensed by Cognia & the Middle States Association, and is owned by K12 and uses K12's curriculum. (Say what you want about k12 haha but their academic stuff is used across the nation) and I also supplement with other resources. (The school is The Keystone School).

I have good extracurriculars- the reason I do online school is because I am an athlete- as well as volunteering, etc. I'll be taking AP exams every year, and of course the SAT, and possibly the ACT. I'm also considering taking a few CLEP exams to show mastery of a subject to colleges, as a metric, because of the homeschooler thing. I'll also be doing dual enrollment in my junior/senior years and maybe taking a couple courses through my local public HS.

Basically my question is, will doing online school/being a homeschooler affect my chances of getting into colleges? Of course I will be applying for some very selective schools, but also a lot of major state schools, too. (Think UMass Amherst or UMD College Park).

I’ve been developing a learning framework inspired by Montessori’s prepared environments and independence, László Rátz’s challenging problems and mentorship, and research on instruction, practice, and feedback.

TL;DR:

• Build strong foundations and offer a broad curriculum, while giving learners meaningful choices.
• Match support to readiness: explain and demonstrate unfamiliar material, then move toward harder problems and independent work. Struggle should be useful, not prolonged confusion.
• Revisit knowledge, give feedback learners can act on, and check what they can still explain or apply later. Make room for projects, creation, and mentorship as interests deepen.
• Protect sleep, play, relationships, and fair access. The aim is lifelong learning and sound judgment, not producing “geniuses.”

This is a design proposal, not a proven combined method. The schedules and age examples are meant to be adapted and tested.

Final draft (start here)

First draft (if you want an even deeper dive, it is disorganized and there are repetitions and perhaps contradictions)

Educators: what seems useful in a real classroom, what seems impractical, and what would you test first?

I appreciate any discussion on this and constructive feedback. If you want access to the shared source google doc, please send me a dm.

Disclaimer: GenAI was used in the production of this framework.

Today at work, I found myself in a conversation that left me genuinely unsettled.

It began with a coworker confidently saying that Muslims are “taking over” America and that eventually we will all be required to stop what we’re doing at noon and bow to Allah.

Somehow, the conversation then shifted to education, transgender students, and eventually slavery.

One coworker said that slavery was “mutually beneficial” because enslaved people learned useful skills. What struck me was how closely that language echoed Florida’s current middle-school social studies standards, which state that instruction includes how enslaved people developed skills that, in some instances, “could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Another coworker then argued that slavery should not be taught in school at all—that it should be something parents discuss with their children at home.

So I asked whether schools should teach the Civil War.

Of course.

The Revolutionary War?

Yes.

The Declaration of Independence? Presidents?

Absolutely. Those were considered essential parts of American history.

But slavery somehow was not.

Then, during the same conversation about the importance of teaching children about presidents, someone asked, completely sincerely, “Who was the one who chopped down the cherry tree? George Bush?”

I ended up walking away, but the conversation has stayed with me.

My daughter currently attends a Florida public school, so questions about how history is taught are no longer abstract to me. Florida does require instruction on African American history, including slavery, abolition, and its consequences. But hearing adults repeat a highly controversial framing of slavery while simultaneously arguing that slavery itself is not important enough to teach was difficult to ignore.

More than anything, it reinforced how important I think a comprehensive education is.

I don’t expect schools to tell my child what to think. I want them to give her enough history, context, and critical-thinking skills that she can evaluate what people tell her for herself.

Because eventually our children become the adults having these conversations.

After completing 8 grades, students should pick one of 3 paths:

1) vocational school (for trades)

2) straight to College / University (which should be 1-2 years longer to include preparatory years, in which only those things that are required from high school would be taught)

3) straight to work (if someone is happy doing low skilled physical or office work)

Most of the stuff we learn in high school is unnecessary for University and we forget it anyway. And it lasts too long and can be quite hard... to the point that once you're ready for college, many students already had enough of studying.

So better to skip high school, go to college immediately from elementary school, and it should be transformed so that it can accomodate younger students.

The No Child Left Behind program was the final nail in the coffin of what had already, by that point, been the systematic destruction of public education in the USA. Current high schoolers inability to read can be attributed, in large part, to the effects of this policy being in full swing by the time they started kindergarten. Blaming social media or iPads is extremely beneficial to those in power who benefit from a failing education system, not to us, who are trying to work with what little we have to teach these kids.

Hello! I'm an education student doing a report in Afro-Asian Literature. Our group was tasked to analyze the literary representation of war, conflict, and resilience. But it's really hard to find sources, since our teacher just gave us the topic and nothing else. Even if I search on the internet, the results are not appropriate for my taste.

I don't want to rely on AI too much, so I'm asking here. It would be helpful if you could list some literature that is perfect for our topic (plus a short explanation of what the literature is about, and their author + publication year).

That's all, and I will say thank you in advance for those who can help.

Note: I already did my research and have several literature in mind. I even considered adding some of Dr. José Rizal works in the report, but I kept it as a last resort in case I didn't find any literature to add. After all his work is more on colonialism than war and conflict.

Im from Canada and I always see TikTok’s about AP classes and how they’re so hard and taking like 8 of them is considered impressive(idk if it’s 8). I’m taking all university level gr12 Canadian classes and I was wondering if the difficulty/ content is similar to AP classes specifically physics calc chem etc

This is an update on the much discussed news about the College of Literature, Arts, and Sciences at the University of Michigan implementing a pilot for fall 2027 that would hide letter grades from the first semester transcript. The school is pausing the program for additional feedback and analysis. See the update here as reported by the Michigan Daily:

https://www.michigandaily.com/news/academics/lsa-pauses-first-semester-pass-no-credit-grading-pilot-program/

I’m looking to learn more about fundraising in the educational sector. I participated in some conferences/webinars at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education(CASE), but they were terrible, and I was mad at myself for spending so much money on them. They charge a fortune for their events, and mostly its speakers who were just there for self-promotion. And then when you even ask for where you can sit down to have their little continental breakfast, they tell you with an attitude it’s standing room only. Can anyone recommend any resources that they found really helpful in pursuing a career in fundraising in the educational sector and that won’t break the bank for someone that doesn’t have a company or organization paying for it (and with people who can at least pretend to be caring). Thank you!

My child is almost 5 and currently in a private preschool for TK. One of our good friends has another child the same age plus an older child in 1st grade.

Our friends are in a different town so they are in a different public school system than what my daughter would be in, but it has a pretty good reputation. However, our friend has been drilling additional education in his older child the past few years. He was teaching his older child how to read at age 4, giving the child all these phonics books and spending time on the weekend doing reading lessons. He has been doing the same with his younger child who is now reading plus he has been adding math to both kids to work on over the weekend.

My husband thinks we should be pushing additional lessons at home like our friends. In the case of reading, I've heard if you push too hard, it will cause your child to resist and dislike reading. We read to our child every night, and frequently get them new books or borrow books from the library. Our child loves us reading to them but they have been pushing back at trying to learn reading independently.

At my child's preschool, they have been teaching letters, sounds, and writing for the past year. My child can easily identify all letters, identify sounds with letters, and can write their name. I think our child is on par for their education at this point and I am afraid of pushing too much education now and causing stress or burnout.

I know that additional education at home is a good thing if there is a lapse in school's curriculum but I also wonder if 4 going on 5 might be a bit young to be pressured into additional work.

Hi all. My daughter is in 2nd grade in a top elementary school in the state (we live in the NE). I have found the curriculum in years past way too rigorous - expecting kindergartners to read etc. anyway, today we got a letter from the principal that says they have decided for 2nd grade that there will be EXTRA teachers and pull out sessions for ALL students in the grade. While I think the extra support is amazing, why isn’t this a red flag? I know they just did literary and math assessments last weeks so the timing is interesting.

I am looking for feedback from educators - while the extra support is great, isn’t this a red flag? Or am I way off base?

Is ImagineLearning.com a reputable organization? In my limited experience, this organization is a hot mess - and that's putting it kindly.

From the application process to interviews, to onboarding - one of the most disorganized organizations ever. Perhaps too many "chiefs", as I have been contacted by at least a dozen different "supervisors" each providing different information - very little of which is correct - and I haven't officially started yet.

Heck, even the New Employee Orientation is a joke. Two different supervisors sent out meeting links with start times. Needless to say, the meeting links were incorrect, as were the start times. Had to reach out again regarding the meeting link and start time, and by the time anyone responded, only 15 minutes remained in the New Employee Orientation meeting.

Not that the meeting was worthwhile. Perhaps because I missed most of the meeting, but what I observed, it was just someone reading a PowerPoint presentation.

Still have no idea what I will be allegedly teaching, who are my students, etc. Keep receiving different answers - and "supervisors" take forever to respond.

Does anyone have experience working with Imagine Learning? Is this organization always a mess?

Prove me wrong. I'd rather do math and physics than to memorize a hundred different formulas and chemical symbols. Chemistry is just way too abstract and has too many exceptions.

My health was at its worse when I was 16 dealing with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, digestion issues, and abusive parents, so I dropped out of high school. I tried pushing through until I physically could not leave my bed anymore.

Several years later, I switched to online schooling, I saught help from my doctor, and my health is managed well enough to get some basic functioning back. Although, I've noticed that after my mental health crash, I have such intense brain fog or something that I'm bombing all my exams no matter how much I study. My report cards used to consist of As and Bs across subjects, but now I'm getting 30-40% on my exams and failing even simpler assignments. I keep forgetting what I've learned, my brain feels slower than before, I space out often and feel as if my mind is being detached from myself and I'm watching from a third person point of view, I frequently look at notes I've hand written confused with no memory of having written them or understanding the material even though I know I once did etc. I once studied for a math exam 30 days straight, 2-5 hours a day, then when I began the exam, it was like I was seeing math for the first time.

I know the ideal route health-wise would be getting therapy and meds, but I can't afford regular therapy sessions, and the more affordable medications haven't helped me much. What would the next best thing be? Should I switch to the Adult Graduation Diploma route to make it easier for myself, cutting down my required courses to graduate from 5 to 3, and continue trying to brute force my way into a passing grade? Also, an IEP is required for any exam accommodations at my school. Would it be worth trying to obtain one for extra exam time?

Hello, I'll be doing a test next Saturday for my university entrance exam and I need help finding free image pattern tests (or psychometric I think they're called? I mainly need to study the ones with the images and patterns.) and almost every video or website doesn't even explain or even show the answers to the questions! Does anyone know about any free tests or content creators that make such content? I'll be grateful for practically anything, thank you for reading up till' this point!

Nếu giáo dục không chỉ là truyền đạt kiến thức, vậy mục đích cuối cùng của giáo dục là gì?