
Egregious acts and unethical practices have happened in schools since they first began.
Not too long ago, the news was filled with stories and commentary on Paris Hilton's YouTube documentary where she opened up about her time in the troubled teen industry.
In Canada, the Indigenous community is bringing home the lost native children that were discovered in unmarked graves in former residential schools. The same reckoning began in the U.S. in 2016.
Though we may not be seeing these extreme examples of unethical actions in public schools today, there are still grievances among our youth. We went to AskReddit to hear about the things we force our students to bear.
Redditor hugscar asked:
"What are unethical practices schools do?"
Some of these will shock you.
Zero tolerance policies.
"Bullied and harassed students having the same repercussions as their bully for defending themselves."- novato1995
"I remember when the zero tolerance policy started being applied to both/all parties, a behaviorist predicted an upswing of violence, plus an increase in violent intensity (from slaps to punches; from punches to stabbings; from stabbings to shootings)."
"If I am remembering right, that prediction is being found accurate."- liquidarc
A lack of consequences.
"I had a bully in middle school grab and twist my thumb hard enough to snap tendon (or whatever is in your thumb. It's been a while) and nothing happened to him since he would have to sit out football if he was punished."- TheLaughingSage
"So for my school I have 2 things."
"They have a no pass list."
"You are only allowed to be out for 5 minutes at most, and no passes first or last 10 minutes of class, no exceptions."
"If you break these rules, or you're just a b*tch/troublemaker in class enough times, you get put on the no pass list for at LEAST a week, so you get 0 passes at ALL."
"It could be for that class for a week, it could be the whole day for the rest of the year.
"I'm sitting at home with a concussion and not at school right now because some kid physically assaulted me."
"She gave me a concussion, two bruises, a red star shaped mark on my head, and 3 different muscle tissue injuries."
"Her doing this has prevented me from performing in front of thousands of people this Friday."
"She has not been punished or talked to at all."
"They have said 'I think you and her just have conflicting ideas and she might have been triggered by things in class and you really don't know each other well'."
" When she came up behind me, grabbed my hair, and yanked me down to the ground by my hair."
"This is bullshit especially because she did this earlier in the year too, and if she does it one more time especially since she is still at school and has not been punished in the slightest, my parents are going to press charges."- cat_lover_21.
Chained fire escapes.
"Our assembly room/gymnasium had the fire escape doors chained shut, and the police department was aware of it."- snarlyelder.
Required textbooks.
"Requiring you to purchase textbooks brand new from the college's bookstore because that's the only way to get the access code to complete the required assignments on the publishers website."- austininlaw
Limiting access to water.
"Less severe but limiting kids access to water, I.e. you can’t have your drink bottle at the table."
"Which sucks when you live in Australia and at summer the temperature gets up to 36c and school is during all the hottest hours of the day."- TeamLarge7729
A "told you so" moment.
"I was a decently misbehaved third grader."
"Told my teacher I had a stomach ache and I needed to go to the nurse."
"I asked a number of times."
"She thought I was just trying to get out of individual reading time."
"My appendix burst on the bus ride home."
"I was never one to ask to go to the nurse."
"Just a hyperactive kid my teacher apparently had enough of."
"Denying medical attention to an 8 year old seems unethical."
"This is not a 'boy who cried wolf' story for all those saying 'I told ya so.'"- jurassicgrif
Bathroom access.
"Not allowing kids to use the restroom."
"As someone who was diagnosed with multiple reproductive issues at an early age, I had some pretty intense periods."
"And this rule made school even worse."
"Got the nickname 'Paint Bottle' because my school was infamous for denying the bathroom."
"they were closed to all students during a set time because of 'misuse') and I literally had no help from anyone at all. Never realized it was as bad for other people too."
- RebelRebelPebble
"Not being allowed to go the toilet."
"You gotta go, you know?"- Averyjackman.
Invasion of privacy.
"This is probably very specific to my home country but period checks."
"I'm from Malaysia and yes sadly this is a thing and I've witnessed it firsthand. Mostly to make sure girls aren't lying about their periods just to get out of prayer activities."- roticanaidraws.
We're failing our students by passing them.
"Passing students that aren't ready for the next grade because they need to pad their passing rates to keep funding."
"It's setting the kids up for failure down the road."- VoijaRisa
Unattainable prerequisites.
"Making classes a graduation requirement then not letting kids take those classes because they’re full since everyone needs to take them."- intense_fingerguns.
Cost Cutting Measures
"More of a University thing but using students as unpaid labor, mostly grad students and 'interns'."
"Also my school used prison labor to make all the dorms and dorm furniture, said that Healthcare for student workers was 'too luxurious' (exact quote!) and canceled it, canceled all shift meals for student workers, and raised our tuition to pay for our president's massive pay increase and to redo the stupid stadium used for Olympic trials for literally no reason."
"Literally I think he's the highest paid uni president in the US by a long shot."
" I know he gets a 400,000 every single YEAR for just his housing."
"You get a cookie if you can guess what uni I went to lol."- 1kingdweebus2
Dress codes.
"No hats or hoods."
"iI don't know if this rule is in another school but it was back then when i was in elementary, but you weren't allowed to bring fast food food."- Slow-Revolution-9617.
No facial hair policies.
"One of my old high schools had mandatory shaving."
"All guys must be clean shaven every day."
"And in the principals office was the cheapest bag of bulk single blade razors you’d ever seen."
"Sometimes they forgot to tell us where the shaving cream was."
"I started shaving in junior high so afternoon classes were 50/50 if they’d make me go shave."- GingerMarquis.
You're all in trouble.
"Collective punishment."
"This is a literal war crime according to Geneva Convention, so if you hate the teacher the gave a collective punishment, you can literally sue them in the international court and if the teacher will be found guilty, they wouldn’t be able to pay fines and fees due to their salary being low and will probably be in prison."
"School uniforms are a violation of human rights too because according to UN convention on the rights of a child a child has freedom of expression."
"Many schools will say it’s a local rule for students to wear uniforms in their school, but international laws are ABOVE the local ones."- fedunya1.
Too much homework.
"Giving a heavy workload in middle school/early high school and saying that it teaches time management. "
"All it does is speedrun burnout."- MoonarLune.
Not meeting compliancy standards.
"Not accommodating for disabilities properly."
"I actually have a story for this."
"I’m not sure if it’s really a disability, but I am legally blind in my right eye."
"We were going to march in a parade in 7th grade."
"I was placed on the far left. "
"The reason why it was a problem is that I am blind in my right eye so I was not able to see people to my right without turning my head."
"We needed to face forward. It made it way harder to know where I needed to be."
"I tried talking to the band teacher about placing me on the right but he didn’t listen and kept me there despite my concerns."
"It made things a lot harder than it needed to be."- The_Fluffy_Riachu.
Children are often given little autonomy or rights when it comes to taking control of a situation.
During the pandemic, some parents are practicing giving their kids more "choices with limits" to bring about well-being for their kids.
Ultimately, the lesson here might be to believe our youth when they feel something isn't right.
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Advancements in science happen every day in every way.
But often it feels like we are still so far behind.
How have we not cured so many diseases?
Shouldn't we know more about space?
What is Jello really made of?
So much to ponder and understand.
Maybe one day.
We all have a bucket list of what we'd like to see cured or invented before our last breaths.
Let's discuss...
Redditor yoda2060wanted to discuss all the science that needs to be devoured before the sand runs out of the hourglass. They asked:
"What scientific achievement you would like to see before you die?"
Life is infinite and we'll never know everything that is possible. But let's dream of what could be...
New pieces...
"I want to see us grow hearts, kidneys, livers, etc... In labs and end the need for donations and waiting lists for transplants."
IMadeThisBullS*itUp
"I waited for a heart/bilateral lung transplant for over a year and I spent 8 months living in the hospital waiting for it. You’re basically waiting for someone to die."
"Which feels all kinds of wrong… but my therapist (all transplant patients sees a transplant therapist) kept reminding me that me needing a heart and lungs doesn’t cause someone to die…"
"And what made even harder was that my mom died of Covid about 5 weeks before my transplant happened. So while I was praying and hoping so hard my mom wouldn’t die… I was also praying for my transplant to happen. I had a lot of mixed and confusing feelings. My transplant happened last November."
Junebug1515
"Idiot Bottom Line"
"To build an environment friendly world."
deadprotocol_
"That depends entirely on how far you want to go with 'environmentally friendly.' Some amateurish pseudo-intellectuals will say that humanity itself is devastating the planet by it's very existence so we'll call that the 'Idiot Bottom Line."'
"So you have to find an acceptable level above that to declare environmentally friendly. For example can we still have hear exchangers? Space debris? Artificial Electromagnetic radiation? There has to be a level before you can declare such and so far no one agrees."
PoorPDOP86
“20 years, tops”
"Viable nuclear fusion."
AlterEdward
"Nuclear Astrophysicist here. I know the joke is that we been saying '20 years, tops' for 50 years now - who do you think came up with that joke? But seriously, we are really close."
"We need a reaction that is self-sustaining and puts out more energy than we put in. We can easily do a reaction that’s one or the other, just getting one that’s both is hard. And with recent updates to the Greenwald limit we found some relatively minor tweaks that doubles previous theoretical max output."
Gleeful-Nihilist
Deep Within
"Figuring out what Dark Matter is, solving the mysteries of black holes. Proper thorough investigation of our own oceans."
fIumpf
So far, so interesting. We have so much to learn.
let me dream...
"Prosthetic limbs and organs that can work just as well as real ones. Affordably too. A cure for total nerve damage. Carbon neutral liquid fuel. FTL travel (let me dream)."
idonthaveanaccountA
Contact
"Making contact with another intelligent species in another solar system."
Pigs100
"That's probably not going to happen. I'd be overjoyed though if we discovered even just microbial life in the oceans of Europa or Enceladus. They'd be the first true extra-terrestrials ever encountered."
Cybyss
Going Places
"If we had teleports then we might also have other technologies integrated with it like instant dental work, instant food, instant surgery, things just unthinkable without the technology but before the steam engine travel was by horse so they could not imagine traveling cross country in any other way besides ships. Maybe with teleports we wouldn't need energy, just an infinite loop of the first spark."
Stickerdan
Sickness be gone...
"Cure for all cancer forms."
Kal-El1994
"I approached a nursing assistant with the question. They could describe it as trying to go after the stick of a lollipop. The treatments are mostly concerned with favors, not sticks. If they can discover a way to deal with the stick, then you may be able to treat cancer from there."
MissSara101
"I think it is important to add that there won’t be ONE cure to all cancers. Cancer is such a broad spectrum of diseases that sometimes have next to nothing in common. But hopefully we will keep getting the survival rates up with different medications for different cancer types."
TastyConsideration82
Simplicity
"Solve back pain please. We can do crazy sh*t like nuclear bombs, new fancy vaccines and space exploration, yet we don't have a solution to one of the biggest and most common ailments that existed though all of humanity."
inksane
I want to see all of this happen! Fingers crossed.
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Fast fashion is terrible for the environment, one of the largest polluters of clean water globally because of its all too common use of cheap, toxic textile dyes.
It also places producers under more and more pressure to manufacture more and more clothes on masse–the people working in the factories that make this stuff are being paid a pittance, contributing to much of the wealth inequality in less developed nations.
Additionally, it's estimated that the textiles industry produces 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 per year and that just two percent of all fast fashion emissions can be reduced through recycling. Ouch. Time to change habits, right?
People shared their thoughts on this and other topics after Redditor urmomsucked asked the online community,
"What should people seriously stop buying?"
"Pets..."
"Pets they can’t take care of."
WonderfulShop888
I have known several people who got puppies, decided they couldn't handle them, and dumped them. It's rage-inducing.
"Nestle products."
"Nestle products. Literally the most evil company currently in business. Unfortunately it's really hard to tell what brands they own."
I_used_to_be_hip
Nestle is responsible for the deaths of babies in undeveloped nations. It's sick.
"Designer clothes..."
"Designer clothes and accessories with logos slapped all over them. It wastes your money and makes you look idiotic."
Botryoild2000
The funny thing is, the designer clothes/accessories with logos slapped all over them are typically the cheapest options from said designer.
"Simple syrup."
"Simple syrup. It’s sugar water with an $8 price tag."
providentialchief
It's easy enough to make your own. Your iced tea will never be the same again.
"Cheap belts."
"Cheap belts. A quality leather belt will last you decades."
[deleted]
I have a few (quality leather belts, that is) and they've lasted for years and years. Can confirm.
"Cigarettes."
"Cigarettes. To anyone reading this, please just don't start even if it's out of curiosity. I'm 20 years deep into this and it's hell."
SeaSwimmer5386
Smoking is a brutal addiction to break. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently proposed rules prohibiting menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars to stop young people from picking up the habit.
"Garment workers..."
"Fast fashion. Garment workers get paid s*it, the environment suffers and you look like everybody else on the street with no personality or sense of individualism."
SenoritaBrownRecluse
This should be up at the top. The environmental impact is terrible.
"Unnecessarily large vehicles..."
"Unnecessarily large vehicles, which they'll then inevitably complain cost too much to fill the gas tank."
[deleted]
Gas guzzlers need to go. It's far past time that they be phased out.
"Anything advertised..."
"Anything advertised on Instagram. It’s a scam and those influencers are just making it look cheap AF."
megapintt
Or just avoid Instagram in general. That would solve a lot.
"New phones..."
"New phones when their current is just as good."
[deleted]
You've got that right. People buy a new one for the hell of it without even thinking about it.
It's pretty clear that many of us need to change our habits now. Our wallets will thank us later.
Have some suggestions of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
If you make too many funny faces, your face will stay that way permanently.
Watch too much tv and your eyes will fall out.
Break a mirror and it's seven years of bad luck.
These are among the many myths and superstitions we heard as children, more often than not from our parents and teachers as a way of scaring us into behaving.
But while there is not one ounce of truth to any of these tall tales, there are many who still believe them, and many more.
Redditor RedditPersonIf was curious to learn what superstitions people continue to believe are true, leading them to ask:
"What myths are obviously false, yet most people still believe they are true?"
When they fly the coop...
"If you take care of a baby bird, the mother won’t want it anymore because it’ll smell like a human."- GreatXs
No amount of fiber can help you
"If you swallow gum, it'll stay in your digestive tract for 7 years."- stinky_cheese33
It was every other subjects he had trouble with
"Albert Einstein failed math in school."- Nothingreallyend
Though it does make shampooing easier
"Shaving your hair will make the hair grow back thicker.'- RunWithScissorsss
Sleep with your mouth closed
"The amount of spiders you eat while being asleep."- pantsofafatman
Just... No...
"That you are supposed to pee on a jellyfish sting to ease the pain."- Actuaryba
Olé
"Bulls not liking the color red."
"Bulls are partially color blind and can only see yellow, green, blue, and violet."- Rogurzz
Call a Lyft instead
"Coffee, speed, and uppers sober you up."
"Nope!"
"Too drunk to drive?"
"Now you're drunk AND on drugs, you just don't feel the effects of the booze but your motor skills, reaction time and decision making are all still drunk AF."- kirkrjordan
Best let nature run its course
"The damn alpha wolf."
"It was one study under captivity, the poor researcher made it his life's work to try and set it right."
"If you want a brutal hierarchy where everyone pecks down, what you're looking for is chickens."- raxeira-etterath
Give this one some thought
"We can only use 10% of our brain."- UnbearableHuman
A little bit of research will clear up any doubt you have on these old superstitions and beliefs.
And for anyone who helped out a friend who got stung by a jellyfish, no need to be embarrassed.
Who hasn't looked at a scarf someone knitted for a loved one, a flawless homemade birthday cake, or an immaculately planted garden and thought, "I wish I could do that"?
But you'd never dare try to attempt it yourself, knowing that it's well beyond your personal skill set.
But is it?
Intimidating as they may seem, some skills might be deceptively easier than they appear to be, or might come more naturally to you than to many others.
Redditor halfmoon599 was curious to hear what skills people believed to be much easier than they seem, leading them to ask:
"What skill is actually easier to learn than what other people think?"
Everyone can be ambidextrous!
"I'm left handed and and I wanted to learn to write with my right hand."
"it was much easier than I thought and now I can write with it making it look somewhat decent."- JE3V4N_
"Using your off hand skillfully."
"I worked on this when I owned a woodworking business and it has helped so many times over the years."- karg_the_fergus
Should you ever forget your keys...
"Picking a lock."
"It only takes about 1 or 2 hours to learn, contrary to popular belief." - DifficultAd5113
Can't get to the genius stand? No problem!
"Fixing computers."
"It's just a lot of googling and YouTubing."- theassassintherapist
"Basic IT troubleshooting."- usmarine7041
You'll have a blanket done in no time!
"Crocheting!"
"It looked really difficult to me but I was really pleased how easy it was to pick up."
"Especially with YouTube tutorials."- geeltulpen
But do get a license first...
"Flying a small airplane is actually very simple."
"It's everything else like weather and flight planning, emergency mindfulness, airspace and traffic, and confidence in yourself that gets tricky, but any person with eyeballs and a pulse could fly a plane."- Clyde-MacTavish
With practice, of course
"Parallel parking."- Feels2old
Give your arms a rest!
"Unicycling."
"It takes just 10-20 minutes a day for 3-10 days.'
"Find a railing you can lean on to start."
"At some point, you'll be able to let go and ride!'- Vegan_BTW_VR
... Is it though?...
"Driving a stick shift."- fantazja1
Next time you think, "aw, I wish I could do that," rather than keep wishing, why not just give it a try?