This teacher had no time for games. Instead, they had to give their student a giant F on their paper. Students have been trying and sometimes succeeding at cheating for millennia. Since the dawn of time, some kid will try to write answers to a quiz on their arm, or scribble answers onto their desk before a test. The popular cheating method in the mid-2000s was getting a Gatorade bottle, ripping off the wrapper, writing the answers down on the inside of the wrapper, and then putting it back toge…

Jobs that are totally worth it but also really not.

Students are not always the primary reason for getting poor grades. Sometimes, it can be stifling extracurricular commitments, overbearing parents, absent parents, a lack of access to proper resources and technology, etc. But sometimes the reason is even simpler. Sometimes, it's just the teacher. This could be the result of a professor doing a subpar job giving lessons or failing to give students a proper understanding of the course material prior to assessing them. In this case, the professor'…

There are so many potential red flags when it comes to work trips. Let's start with expenses. If it's not all-expense paid, there better be a good reason. That doesn't mean the flight and hotels. I'm talking breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, and snacks. That's right, we workers are not playing around anymore. Then there's the issue of the quality of the hotel. Do not settle for your boss getting some janky old room at the nearest motel. The situation needs to be just as convenient and nice for…

Rich kids have it so easy. Anyone who's ever clawed their way through the class system knows that if you ever reached the top, you'd really have to screw things up to fall from graces. With endless opportunities, golden parachutes, and full-time staff members devoted to helping you succeed, rich kids have the world at their fingertips. But it's not so simple for the regular folks down here at the bottom...

Before working from home and outfitting a workstation in my living room, I never realized how expensive desk chairs could be. After being initially shocked by the multitude of chairs online that cost $1,000+ for an 'ergonomic design', it made me question how important it was to be comfortable for 8 hours a day at my desk.

Hey there, Ms. Smith, if you're reading, yes, I one hundred percent was peeking at Sophie's test that time you pulled me aside and gave me a big fat zero with a smiley inside, just to be petty. You stared at me with your beady little eyes and breathed angrily into my face, and I in turn, totally lied and adamantly held my ground that I did not cheat on the test. Today, I'll admit… I was the kid who copied off of other students' tests. I did not take school seriously, and that did not change, ev…

School might be a hub for education engagement and socialization, but it can also be a place where some of the most mildly infuriating scenarios life has to offer can occur. That's because when you walk into a school, you've got a number of power dynamics at play: teachers, administrators, and then, of course, the hierarchical social structure among students. Furthermore, schools of all sizes come with sets of rules to be enforced by faculty and staff. As we have seen with many other kinds of i…

There's really no better thing as a kid than watching an authority figure whom you respect rebelling against the higher power that controls all of your destiny. Now, I've written a few rants on the pages of Fail Blog about standardized tests and the fact that their design and administration really only encourage schools to build their curriculum to pass that specific test—at the cost of actual learning, knowledge, and real-life experiences. The best teachers I've ever had were the ones who were…

We all had a teacher back in the day who claimed something was true that occasionally made you suspicious. As you have gotten older, you have learned that your skepticism was not unwarranted and that you were absolutely right to question some of the nonsense this so-called educator was spewing. Over the years, we have all collected these bizarre “facts” that we have since disproven. They're often fun anecdotes to share at a party. For instance, did you know I was taught that I was taught that I…

We all remember that moment sitting in front of a final exam (usually it was math), and you're just completely stumped. You have absolutely no idea what to do or how to even pretend like you know what you're doing. You either didn't study enough and you start to regret it, or your teacher is being ridiculously unfair by putting this question on the exam and you start to resent them. Still, there's nothing you can do about it at this point. You know you're going to at least get points off on thi…

When you do something wrong, you should feel bad about it and accept there are going to be repercussions. This is called a consequence, and without experiencing that negative stimulus, how on earth are you going to learn not to do it again? Still, the punishment needs to fit the crime, and making a public display when a young child makes a mistake isn't really the way to go about it. Ironically, this teacher hasn't learned her own intended lesson, as evidenced by the fact that she doesn't feel…

Teachers better be careful when enforcing silly rules. As the son of a former teacher, I am sympathetic to the fear that students will just be playing games if laptops are allowed in class. That being said, wouldn't that be their loss when it's time to test them? In my experience, people will always find an excuse to zone out and not pay attention. So even if laptops are forbidden in the classroom, they will always find a way. Now, in defense of students, it is simply far easier to keep up with…

Not to be a rebel here, but some teachers have the most nonsensical rules that are almost begging to be challenged. Sure, there are some understandable classroom policies that make sense, such as rules about phones, laptops, and cheating (the lattermost rule being don't do it). However, when it comes to having to sit around and do nothing just because some teacher told you that you have to, it just feels like a waste of time and energy for everyone involved. It's a waste of the student's time,…

Some points in your career give you a sudden moment of clarity.

Who knew that sometimes being suspended isn't exactly a mandatory order? Personally, I was always too much of a “goodie two shoes” to test the waters, break the rules, and potentially get myself in trouble. As I've grown older, I have become less and less content with the various systems I have found myself trapped inside of, whether that be the system of higher education, the workforce, or the existential social system of what it means to be a human. In hindsight, a little part of me wishes I…