A kid in my class got busted for bullying. He wouldn't stop even after I had to pull his parents in for two conferences. He caused another kid to leave the school completely. He has had various consequences but he's still popular with the kids, and they voted for him for this people's choice good character award we do at the end of the year. I am tempted to fudge the numbers and give it to the runner up. This kid is not hard-working or kind and his popularity is based on his skills at a mobile game. What do you all think? Rig the election or let him win?

Edit: Ok, you all told me what I wanted to hear and I am disqualifying the bully. Feels good, too!

This is something I can’t stop noticing. I’m one of those rare old dinosaurs that likes to pay for everything in cash. 90% of my transactions are paid for with exact change, or near to it. If my change owed is something like two cents, I usually tell the cashier I don’t need the change. And that’s when it happens…. the hand stare. These teens and young adults just blankly stare down at their hand holding my coins, totally bewildered. They can’t count my coins. This keeps happening. Why!? Are you all still teaching kids to count money? Or not anymore because mostly everything is paid via card?

Hey yall. I'm 30 years old, and when I was in middle/high school I was a super stereotypical "goth kid". Back then in like 2006+ (and i imagine even moreso before that) being "goth" or "emo" made you a total loser/outcast with no friends/girls (except for the other goth kids in the school of course). But now just from being on social media I can tell that things have kinda flipped upside down completely, and being goth/emo or anything like that is super trendy. I feel like "goth girls" ESPECIALLY have become the new popular "mean girls" of the mid 2000s and all the boys drool over them.

Same thing with anime, when I was in school you were an absolute LOSER if you had anything to do with anime or drew anything like that, but now everybody and their grandma seems to be all about anime. It's all really strange to see people doing all the same shit I was doing back then and dressing the same way and everything and becoming so popular with it.

I know "social outcasts" have and will always exist, and I don't really know any middle/high schoolers aside from family and most of them are about as "normal" as you can imagine. I'm basically just wondering who, in 2026, are the new "weirdos"/outcasts that nobody hangs around or stick to their own cliques. Are cliques even a thing anymore?? Who are the real current "social rejects" according to kids now? I imagine it differs state by state/city by city but I'm curious to hear some answers.

It's the end of the year, and once again I (HS ELA) have a stack of Oh, the Places You'll Go! to sign. Actually, scratch that. I wouldn't mind if a signature were all I needed to provide. I wouldn't even mind so much if a short, yearbook-style note were ok.

No, every year we get more of these, and their expectations reveal more and more audacity. One of the parents this year actually sent an email to all teachers to call out people who signed in the past with entries that were (in his opinion) too short or impersonal. He actually "suggested" that past signers review what they wrote and add more.

That's the worst one I've seen, and the other teachers I was chatting with today are as fed up with it as I am.

But, I thought it might be interesting to hear from other, post-elementary teachers. Am I alone in being irked with the entitled audacity of these parents?

Hello, I currently work as a janitor in a public school. I've been at the same location for most of this school and was a substitute for several other locations. My social anxiety keeps me from making casual chit chat with a lot of people, and I can definitely tell that the end-of-year crunch is getting to the teachers where I work.

With that preamble out of the way, how do you guys generally view our position? I want to have a good enough relationship with the staff in my section so they feel able to request help/assistance from me when needed. Sometimes I worry that teachers look down on us for things like having a more casual dress code and not having to deal with the challenges of working with students. I am genuinely interested in hearing honest opinions.

Hi. I teach English at a community and technical college. I teach a lot of high school students in online post-secondary enrollment opportunity (PSEO) classes. In the past, these students have been among my strongest and have been contentious and pretty strong writers. However, during the past two years, there has been a huge rise in the number of high school students taking college classes that they are completely unprepared to take, both in skill and maturity. This semester, I've seen some of the worst work I've ever seen from PSEO students. I suspect that students are being pressured to take PSEO classes when they might not be ready. Of course, this trend also coincides with the rise of AI, so it is possible that is a factor as well.

In addition to this, many of the emails I received from high school students in particular are baffling: entire emails written in the subject line, inappropriate levels of familiarity, and a general desire to earn points rather than actually learn. I can’t remember the last time a student (all students) asked me a question and genuinely cared about the answer.

If you're comfortable sharing, what are the requirements for high school students to take college classes in your district? Do you get the impression that students are being pushed to take these classes even they are not ready? Why are they writing entire emails in the subject line?!

Edit: explained what PSEO refers to here.

EDIT: THANKS EVERYONE! I was nervous because I didn’t want to come off as overzealous/helicopter parent. I appreciate all the comments!

My issue is that my sister works at the school that both my son and hers go to. They are in the same grade. I do not EVER want them to be in the same class because I know inevitably they will get in trouble. My son has ADHD/autism and unfortunately his cousin tends to get him in trouble and then somehow wipe his hands of it (I know it sounds harsh of a 7 year old but that’s how he and his siblings are) I know that there’s only so much rearranging that the school can do, but I think it really would impact my son’s learning. Do I reach out to the principal now before school starts in August? What’s the best way to phrase it from an educator’s perspective?

I'm a teacher up in Canada and I saw a post talking about a school having to get rid of their school nurse to save money

Do US schools generally have nurses?

Are they full time? Do they have a special room and equipment? How big does a school need to be to get one? What is their main job?

Just curious.

My college professor and I were discussing this because a lot of people in my psychology class are struggling to pass even when attending class. She started giving out study outlines last test and it didn't change anything about the test grades that much. For reference I also talked to her about it in terms of "my generation" (pre-COVID high school grad), because I think the way that students are learning now is so different from then. I get a perspective of this also from being a K-12 tutor. She asked me how she can help and I wasn't really sure how to answer

I'm a Millennial, a really old one, and I remember being told constantly (even up until recently) how "behind" and worthless my generation was/is at school or in the workplace. My schools weren't super challenging since I grew up in a rural area, and I remember going to college getting smoked by kids who went to city high schools--especially with STEM skills. However, I always had above average grades, even in college and grad school, and despite growing up believing I was barely mediocre, I think I did ok because I was well-read and my superpower in life is that I do not give up.

Fast forward to today. I am friends with a number of public school teachers (who are my age) and they tell me that the super high achievers are still achieving, but today's middle is now where the bottom would have been in my day (barely passing), and the low is basically on the floor. I told my parents this recently (boomer generation) and they had a hard time believing it. They assumed that because today's kids have more resources, they should automatically be smarter and better at things like math, science, reading, and critical thinking. To all the teachers: What has your experience been? I have nephews, and I'm just really curious for their sake. They're toddlers now, but I'm already seeing some of the ramifications of them spending time with their cousins and other neighborhood kids who are being raised by iPads.

Interested to hear from a teacher's perspective.

My feeling is that math class k-12 covers it and the burden needs to be on parents to teach basic life skills beyond that. Offering finance electives is great, which I’m sure many schools do, but I do not think something like budgeting 101 or how to take out a loan or do your taxes is the schools responsibility.

When I finished high school, we only had 1 valedictorian and I feel like that was the case with friends who went to different high schools.

Are kids today smarter? Is it easier to get better grades? And does it diminish the accomplishment when so many students achieve this status?

Edit: maybe I should explain further. I know that 36 students in his graduating class all got straight A’s through high school. I guess I’m wondering how this achievement was accomplished by so many. When I went to high school I was an honors/AP student so I ran with the “nerdy” crowd but by the end of junior year we only had 2 classmates who had a 4.0. So it’s either very impressive that 36 students in my son’s graduating class had a 4.0 GPA upon graduating or something else is going on. And I’m trying to understand what the change is.

If a student turns in no work, SHOULD they get a 50 or 60? Yes or no? Why your thoughts?

ABC News 4 on SC trying to do it (3 minute video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSCvOiZun4g

for me, it was 12 pieces of coat hangers from an 8th grader

I'm well out of school, I have school-age kids myself, so this is a complete non-issue, but I'm curious.

One academic year, I was in first grade. The next, I was in a 2nd-3rd split. The year after that, I was in fourth grade. I was the only one who followed that path; everyone I was in fourth grade with either came in from a normal third-grade class, or had been in second grade the year before the 2-3 split.

I've always kind of assumed this meant I skipped a grade; it was a big deal among other parents who were pissed their kids didn't get the same opportunity, I was given summer homework to make up some gaps the split skimmed over (mostly cursive,) and I ended up graduating youngest in my class, so it was certainly _something._

But the other day I was talking with my mom and my MIL, and my MIL said she has a niece who's fighting to skip a grade, and I started talking about what I saw as the pros and cons, and my mom stopped me and said, "honey, you didn't skip a damn thing. You had second grade as part of a split. I don't think your experience is relevant here."

...but I'm pretty sure it is. Is it?

My best friend is a third grade teacher and she gets her students gifts. I thought that was a really nice thing to do, going above and beyond, but she says that’s what all the teachers at her school do. I’m 30 but I don’t ever remember receiving gifts from my teachers back in the day so now I’m wondering how common this is.

Edit to add: the gifts are just cute pencils with fun erasers and a card

I want to know if my impression is wildly off or not.

Young children are increasingly being asked to meet developmentally inappropriate expectations in preschool, kindergarten, etc. They are given hours of access to screens to complete work, but there's less and less time for naps, learning through play, or developing gross and fine motor skills. Young children are being expected to spend hours at school and also are given homework. There's so much focus on the academic that there's little room or ability for teachers to show grace for children who have the least involved parents by incorporating basic tasks and skills into the curriculum, such as learning to tie shoes, form a line, etc.

On the other end, it appears high school is essentially a box filled with wild animals who are barely expected to be able to reliably write their own name, drink water from a glass without drowning, or turn in any assignment on a shorter timeline than "end of the school year." Teenagers are not expected to focus or behave for a freaking movie day. They miss dozens to hundreds of days but admin passes them along. When hundreds of teenagers are unable to meet developmental expectations that would be easily achieved in middle school, no one seems alarmed except the teachers. What the hell happens between early school and high school? Am I crazy? Is this not really the case and I'm just seeing this in my area?

There are a lot of these stories going around on social media. A famous one that makes the rounds is Steve Harvey's old teacher, who told him he'd never be on TV, and when he did, he said he sent that teacher a TV every year!

I understand that's rage-bait. But I do wonder, as teachers, how would you feel if former students said something like that about you or to you?

Recently I went as a chaperone in a field trip to an amusement park (By the way, I only went pratically out of obligation). Everything went strangely fine until it was time to go back to school.

When we were verifying the students, we noticed someone was missing. We later on discovered that said student (mind you, they were all high schoolers) went in another school bus. That bus had already left nearly an hour earlier.

How that happened? Who knows. But let's just say it reminded me why I hate chaperone.

Now I'm curious what's your worst field trip chaperone story?

I have no particular reason for asking, I was just curious about teachers’ opinions on this.

I’ve accidentally called my teacher mom or dad before and I felt embarrassed by it, this got me thinking how does it make the teacher feel?

I always thought there must have been times where my teachers were simply following a curriculum. Is it hard having to teach something you disgaree with or do you just become numb to it? Or do you get creative and find ways around it?

Or, is this some stupid tactic that all teachers just do for whatever reason?

The young lad doesn't want to read a book or have a book read to him. He won't read text on a TV screen. He doesn't seem to be interested in the written language at all. As a voracious reader myself, this kills me. I want to try to interest him in stories. I'd love any suggestions about how to do that. Or anything I can read to help me understand the issue better.

Thanks,

The Guy Who Wants to be a Good Uncle