r/SchoolSystemBroke

I was using my school ipad and then my teacher called me over with 2 of my friends and asked why a made a group chat on docs, and my real gmail was on it so then I got my school ipad taken away for 3 weeks! Like, it is there fault! They did not setup a system that does not allow outside sharing! School is so cooked!

I have seen some of the best performers in life to be rebels to unexamined societal norms. Got a notice for my neice from her school in North west delhi- rohini

Can someone help? This feels illegal. My granddaughter had a difficult 1st grade. The majority of the class was disruptive. Very little parent participation. My daughter was the room "mom" and witnessed first hand, little learning was being done. They thought it was just bad luck their daughter ended up in such a "bad" class. My granddaughter is now almost finished with 2nd grade. She struggled with keeping up after not getting the fundamentals to build upon but she is a B-C student. The school called for a meeting with my daughter and son-in-law to go over my granddaughter's evaluation. Long story short. My daughter was told by an administrator that her daughter was "picked" by the principal (now gone) to be in a class for lower scoring students during 1st grade due to her scoring from kindergarten. (At 5 she mixed up b and d) The admin were pushing the parents to put their child into Special Resource. We are all very upset. The child has been able to learn 2 grades in 1 year and maintain a B-C average. She is struggling because of being "placed" in a classroom with troubled and behavioral issues without parental consent or knowledge. If the child had any learning disabilities which would assist her, that would be different. When the parents refused to say their daughter's struggles are due to learning disabilities and not the year without learning anything, the admins cut off the meeting with nothing more to say. They are angry, which I don't blame them. This seems outrageous!!!

I was a School Counselor/Guidance Counselor/School Social Worker for 7 years and left. (It's called different things in different places)
I worked in urban, suburban, rural, poor and wealthy communities. Some relevant topics relevant to the career. Worked in counseling, special education, IEP's, College admissions, managing a separate program for students with emotional disabilities, how schools work, education system, or anything else. I now have a career completely different. Ask away!

So my school has this History/social studies teacher that not many people like. Mostly because he's old, and isn't chill at all. But he has this system, that he calls P-Bucks. If you do good in his class or he just thinks you deserve it. Then he can give you a P-Buck. Now here's the important part. P-Bucks have 2 uses, the first is giving you an extra 5 points on any assignment. But the second is the interesting one.

With enough P-Bucks, you can SKIP ENTIRE PROJECTS. This is completely unfair, because one of my classmates who is just a complete ass to everyone. And is the loud obnoxious kid the school (not even a class clown. He's not funny, just annoying) he can ask his friends since he's a popular kid for more P-Bucks. THIS MAN CAN LITERALLY SKIP ASSIGNMENTS JUST BECAUSE HES POPULAR. WE HAVE A PROJECT DUE BY FRIDAY THIS WEEK. BUT IT COSTS 60 P-BUCKS SO HE MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO GET ENOUGH.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS DUDE'S DOWNFALL. HES BEEN NOTHING BUG AN ASS TO ME ALL YEAR, AND HAS NEVER HAD TO DO AN ASSIGNMENT IN HIS LIFE JUST BECAUSE THIS OLD ASS TEACHER MADE A SYSTEM NOT BASED ON KINDNESS OR HARDWORK, BUT ON POPULARITY

Education was supposed to teach us how to think. It was meant to develop understanding, judgment, and the ability to question the world around us. Instead, for many people, it has become something very different.

It promises knowledge, yet too often rewards memorization. It speaks about development, while producing anxiety and pressure. It claims to create opportunity, yet frequently builds dependency instead of independence. What should be a system for cultivating intelligence increasingly functions as a system for managing behavior.

This is not a small failure at the edges. It is structural.

From an early age, students learn not how to understand, but how to pass. They learn not how to question, but how to comply. Over time, curiosity becomes risk, mistakes become fear, and agreement becomes the safest strategy. Thinking—real, independent thinking—begins to feel dangerous.

And yet, this process is still called education.

At the same time, the system quietly builds a hierarchy around itself. Degrees become signals of worth. Institutions become gatekeepers of legitimacy. People are sorted and judged before they are truly understood. A modern caste-like structure emerges—less visible than older systems, but deeply embedded in how society functions.

Those who follow the prescribed path are accepted. Those who step outside it are questioned. Not necessarily because of what they know, but because of how they learned. This is not merit. It is pre-approval disguised as fairness.

And still, people continue to participate. Not always because they believe in the system, but because they are afraid not to. Afraid of exclusion, of being left behind, of being labeled before they have even begun. Fear becomes the engine of participation, and fear is a poor foundation for anything that claims to develop free human beings.

Meanwhile, the world has already changed.

Knowledge is no longer scarce. Access is no longer limited. With the rise of artificial intelligence, learning no longer needs to be slow, standardized, or controlled by institutions. It can be adaptive, continuous, and shaped around the individual. For the first time, it is possible to build learning around understanding instead of structure.

The monopoly is gone.

But the system remains—outdated, rigid, and defended not by its outcomes, but by belief in its necessity.

This is the contradiction we are now facing. A system that promises knowledge but often produces confusion. That promises development but produces anxiety. That claims to build intelligence while encouraging dependence.

At some point, such a system must be questioned.

Not emotionally. Not blindly. But clearly.

This is not about rejecting education. It is about reclaiming it. Real learning is not obedience. Real understanding is not repetition. Real intelligence is not certification.

It is thinking.

And thinking cannot be forced. It must be developed.

We are now at a point where a different approach is not only possible, but necessary. One that is more open, more adaptive, more human, and more aligned with how people actually learn.

The question is no longer whether change is needed. The question is whether we are ready to take part in it.

You are not alone in seeing this. You are not alone in questioning it. And you are not alone in stepping beyond it.

Learn to think. Not what to think.

Mandatory education is not education — it is obedience training with a syllabus.

Think. Don’t repeat.

You are not alone.

Read the full version of The Education Manifesto for a complete breakdown of the system and what must happen next: doctrinai.com

"I've read a good deal of the comments and I think that yall are missing the bigger point. It's not just the parents, it's not just the teachers, it's the entire society that is the problem. Kids are smarter than adults give them credit for. They see the crap that is going on. They have no reason to trust even the most basic of systems because they see that the systems are working as intended and they believe that no matter what they do they have no hope of escaping them. They may not have the language to articulate it, but they see the rot and instead of trying to get rid of it, they are just trying to enjoy what little they can while they still can before they will be forced into labor or prison for the rest of their lives with no hope of having any real power or agency themselves. The disrespect towards parents, teachers, and even cops is justified. They are pushing back against systems and carving out their own power within systems that have currently and historically denied them agency. The "good students" (and I was one of them when I was a kid) are simply the ones who are either too afraid to act out or the ones who haven't given up hope, possibly both. The rest believe them to be naive. The worst part is that the latter group are correct. To fix the problems at home and in the classroom, we need to change as a society and show the kids that there is hope for a better future and that knowledge is a weapon that they themselves can sieze and wield to break down the oppressive systems that keep them down. But no one is ready for that conversation."