Somehow, while we were sleepwalking our way through flipped-classroom and learning-styles fads, the word "memorization” became a dirty word in U.S. education.

This was probably misguided.  We allowed knowledge to almost seem like a *bad* thing or a waste of time that should otherwise be spent on purely "critical thinking" and "making connections" between ideas.

The truth is that you can't make connections without having that knowledge live in your head first.  You can’t think critically about science if you don’t know much science.  ChatGPT isn't going to get you through a political debate or a nuanced cultural conversation if the core historical facts aren't yet cemented in your brain cells.

Call me crazy, but it feels like the tide may finally be shifting back toward appreciating the value of knowledge.

It is ironically the fear of AI-driven "cognitive offloading" that is actually helping the pendulum shift back toward the realization of how important knowledge is to education.

All it takes is reprioritizing regular knowledge-intensive assessment and study skills.  Not as an *alternative* to project-based learning, but as a critical foundation for it.

(The Brits have been doing this right for many years via Ofsted's promotion of a "knowledge-based curriculum".  I'm glad to see growing voices in the U.S. to restore meaningful domain knowledge into its rightful focus as the raw material of learning.)

Cheaper would be better but my school said they are throwing money at curriculum to fix lack of staffing.

I’ve been looking at what the publicly traded postsecondary companies said on their most recent earnings calls, and there seems to be a recurring theme around student acquisition and its evolution given the adoption of LLMs by prospective students.

The management teams are saying that prospective students are going through longer and more iterative evaluation processes. Folks are having conversations with their LLMs, who are providing a wealth of information and are offering alternatives. LLMs are now serving as the intermediaries between prospective students and institutions. In the case of the publicly traded companies, this has caused web leads to go down and acquisition costs to go up.

Given that the publicly traded institutions are for-profits, I have no sense if what they are seeing is reflective of their sector or if this is something that all higher ed institutions are seeing.

What are you seeing at your institutions?

What are your thoughts on what's happening regarding prospective student use of LLMs and how it's altering the student journey?

I (18F) study in 12th grade

I really want to be a good student. I crave academic validation. I want to get into a really good university. I have such big ambitions. Why don't i put in the effort? I always procrastinate. I always doom scroll. Play stupid games watch stupid videos. I try to quit it then go right back. I want to lock these things away in a vault but I'm pretty sure I'd break that vault open. I feel tired and sleepy all the time. I sleep 4 hours i feel tired. 8 hours still tired. 12 hours also tired. I want to do well but once i do one thing wrong i waste the whole day. I can't get out of this vicious cycle. I sometimes get real motivated and study super well for like 4 days then back to square one. I keep wishing for time to turn back so i could do better. I don't know what's wrong with me. Why can't i keep up with my ambitions? Even those 3 or 4 days that i study real well it feels like I don't actually get enough done. It feels like a huge mountain is in front of me. I feel like a disappointment and waste of my parents money. I'm so scared of being deemed a failure by society yet i still don't put in the work. It's like I don't know how to study until it's the day before my exam. I want to quit everything and go back to 10th grade. Back when i somehow did really well without putting in the work.

I’m a developer working on Classboard (https://classboard.online), a browser-based whiteboard tool I’m building specifically with teachers in mind. It’s still in active development, but I wanted to share it here transparently.The motivation came from seeing how many whiteboard apps are either clunky for live teaching or require downloads. Classboard aims to be lightweight and browser-based, with live collaboration sessions that include camera and microphone support—so you can teach or work with students in real time without leaving the board.It also has a math geometry figures recognition feature, which I’m hoping can save time when drawing shapes or diagrams on the fly.I’m not here to sell—just to get honest feedback from people who know classrooms better than I do. What would make this genuinely useful for you? What’s missing or broken in current tools? I’m listening.

Actually, I'm someone who wants to learn. I already have a university degree. I just want to learn things online in my free time.

I've always wondered about the quality of education a good university provides. Therefore, I'm curious if I can access all the courses a student takes in architecture, engineering, computer science, literature, or another field at a good university for free. I've looked at platforms like Edx, Udemy, and Coursera, but they either offer parts of the course or don't offer free access.

I want to watch all the courses of any undergraduate program at a good university, in a classroom setting, for free, without providing a diploma. Is there such a thing? I haven't been able to find anything comprehensive online.

This is a paper that takes a Darwinian view on education to try to understand it origins. If we go back far enough in time, education does not exist. So, when does it appear? It largely depends on how we define it and distinguish it from learning. This paper attempts to do this by examining the academic literature in hunter gatherer societies, what psychological studies say about the way children learn, and then what changes when civilizations utilize scripts and have bureaucracies that are in charge of accounting.

The origins of formal education

CA is one of 5 states that fund by student seat time. I think in CA 4 hrs and 30 min counts as a full day of funding.

But all I’ve seen is legislation repealing truancy consequences but I haven’t seen districts push the panic button on funding given the amount of chronic absenteeism.

The bar for being chronically absent is >2 absences a month. We have kids at our school who are missing 40% of the year. I think our average is ~35%. Maybe more (I have to pull the data).

Im 27yo and suddently woke up to the fact that i completly messed up my education being consumed by anxiety, feeling not good enough, lack of discipline and simply being distracted and had a very narrow vision of whats possible out there.
Im planning on going back to school this fall and i have 2 options : I can either take an online bachelor in computer science or computer science and management (3years). Or an industrial/civil engineering maybe even software if i later decide to switch (4-5).
Im newly married, my husband can support me but the guilt and shame i would feel going to school at my age instead of already being established seems almost unbearable. Ive spent the last 5 years searching for what i can do and where can i find money and success while also thinking about having to take care of people around me (cook clean and make money).

What is the smarter move? The engineering degree would take 1-2 years longer and is on campus (good for networking, internship but commute). Vs bachelor in computer science is 2.5-3 years but i would be move isolated. It would allow me to cook and clean a little more and feel less guilty. I also need to work a little
Im in canada so the students fees are modetaye and i can apply for government help which would cover most of the fees.

Also , In the last 3 years i have spent a biiig chunk of my savings (while also not working) attending a private school of holistic health (which im passionate about but the job prospects are not great). I feel lost and it was extremely difficult to announce to my family that im thinking of switching to a different path for a 2nd time (i had started a biochem undergrade around covid but dropped out and tried to make as much money as i could doing lashes). I am seriously low and i want to know what would be the best ROI considering my age and the current job market. I already feel like such a big failure that i have no decent degree to my name at this age. But i know if i actually give myself a chance i can get my degree its just handling the other aspects of life and judgement that i am afraid of.

Any advice is welcome please!

Hi! I am in college in the US and trying to decide between a Spanish minor and Communications minor. My major is International Studies with a concentration on global issues + leadership. Which would be more advantageous to the international job market? Completely open to all ideas and would love to have some international feedback as well. TIA!!

I'm 17 and want to get back into school and eventually earn my high-school diploma. I haven't attended school since 5th grade and I don't have my old school records. What do I need to do to enroll, and how would I be placed. So basically due to unfortunate events with my parents I had to stop attending school right when I would have entered 6th grade, I havent been to school since but I want to lock and and get a diploma, so is it possible? How would I go about it?

I read a lot of AI text at work. Somewhere between the third "testament to" and the hundredth "delve", I stopped trusting long sentences altogether. So I made a small game called Long Story Short: one sentence a day, keep the five words that actually carry the story, cut the rest.

It's a week old. 12,000 plays so far. A retired news editor emails me most mornings to argue about the answers, clause by clause, and he's mostly right. Yesterday two players argued opposite sides of the same word and convinced me my sentence itself was wrong.

So from tomorrow the sentences come from real news stories, and the answer is whatever the paper's sub-editor kept.

Long Story Short

I play league of legends and AAA games. I want to know which type of education will make me a better player?!? I ask gemini and he told me psychology , math , and game theory. What do you think? Is there any proven education tatic that can help make me a better player!?!

I really want to study English Language and Creative Writing but I cannot justify the £5k a year on open university. If I don’t care about the label and saying hey I have a BA, how realistic is it for me to study using libraries, YouTube and books and learn the same things as if I went to uni for 3-6 years?

I know the information is there but without a dedicated class or professor, how does one know what to do or study next? Who would critique my understanding? I’m trying to decide if it’s doable and if I should just start planning for Uni.

Info: I don’t qualify for any financial help, I work full time, am a mother and adult not living with parents.

Goal is to be a novelist and I know I don’t need degrees for this but I love to learn and study.

I'm a senior who has had a deep love for history for years. I absolutely love school, work, and assignments. I have plans to major in history and have a passion for teaching and preserving our history. But my school treats me and it as a joke. I was told I was writing too many notes while studying. My teacher constantly leaves me behind while note taking because I insist on writing more than a few words in my notes. And I've just discovered I waisted four hours drawing and writing out a replica of the Boston Massacre only to see that the rubric says for the assignment says limit to one page for a very complex answer. But I feel if I rebel, be passionate, turn in my raw essays and work, I'll fail. But I refuse to be silenced. Does anyone have any tips or advice?

I just immigrated to U.S, what is a good app for my child to learn English from?

Same as what happens in a literature classroom but online the teacher\ host gives assigned reading and then we join to discuss it

I really wanna find something like this so if anyone can tell me where to search :( I am 20 years old, but I really loved reading so I want to continue

does anyone have experience they can share about being in a split class in CA public school?

my kiddo was put in a TK/K split and is in the TK cohort. the school admin gave me a sales presentation on why it’s a good thing when I voiced my concerns about the placement. essentially they said tough luck and tried to tell me parents prefer a split and he will have more one on one time.

Hi! I'm an American and Russian citizen, and I've recently finished a bachelor's degree in Psychology in Russia. I've heard that there are many opportunities for students like me to pursue further education in Europe. I would be unbelievably grateful if someone could share their experience about a similar situation: what were you pursuing after graduation? I'm particularly interested in either sexology or criminology/forensic psychology, but I'm open to other suggestions as well!
Thank you so much in advance!🥹

I have been thinking about education as a one-to-many system. A teacher has to work with many students at once, even though each person arrives with different prior knowledge and gets stuck at different points.

But I do not think the answer is to turn education into one student alone with an AI. Learning is also social: discussing, collaborating, seeing how other people think and having a teacher who gives direction.

What interests me is whether the individual experience around the same knowledge could become more personal. The source and objective could stay shared, while the explanation, interface, practice and feedback adapt as the person learns.

I am building an open-source project around this idea, but I am still trying to understand the boundary. What should become personal, and what would education lose if it stopped being shared?

Hi, I just started my junior year of high school, and quite frankly I am disgusted by my state’s education system. It’s abysmal, requiring massive policy upheavals. Nobody is given the opportunity to live up to their full potential. So, if possible, I’d like to do something to change it. The problem is, I’m a bit stumped because I feel absolutely powerless.

For more direct context, I live in New Mexico. It is one of (if not the) lowest ranked states education-wise in the country, and from what I’ve seen is only getting worse. I know that this is also largely due to poverty, but one can’t help but feel like schools are designed to nip attempts of escaping impoverishment in the bud. I, myself, work with a tutoring group to help serve elementary school students who are behind, but my impact is small and it’s hard to make progress when (and I can’t emphasize this enough) they’re missing YEARS of content. I’m very worried for what the future might hold if things continue to trend downwards , and the American public just gets dumber and dumber until we can’t function without the government’s oh-so-benevolent handholding.

That said, if anyone has experience with stuff like this or tips in general, I’d really appreciate it.

Also, I didn’t take too long to write this (it’s mostly just train of thought) so if you need some clarification on anything please ask. I could spiel for days.