Category: education

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Twitter Thread Captures Just How Impossible It Is to Pay off Student Loans

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who has student loan debt, the mere mention of the phrase “student loans” is probably enough to send you into a panic. The loans, which can be the only way for some people to afford higher education, often wind up being incredibly difficult to get pay off – even if you make consistent payments on time for years.

Twitter used Lacy M. Johnson posted a tweet about her own student loan debt situation, and it’s all too relatable.

Other people responded to Lacy’s tweet with their own student loan stories, and let’s just say they’re…bleak.

“Started out owing $120k,” one person wrote. “7 years, never missed a payment. Got it all the way down to $137k!”

Another wrote: “Graduated grad school in 08 with nearly $100k in debt, have paid over $100k since then in interest, still owe $100k.”

“Borrowed $97k, been paying for 13 years. Checked yesterday. I still owe $146k,” yet another wrote.

These stories aren’t exactly surprising — student loan debt is the second-largest type of consumer debt in the country, and it has only continued to grow in recent years as colleges and universities raise tuition much faster than either inflation or wage growth.

Others chimed in to reply to Lacy’s tweet with their experiences of going to college BEFORE it was so expensive. “I cannot imagine doing it in today’s world,” one person wrote.

Student loans are a dark cloud over folks’ heads, and many people expect to die without ever paying off the debt — unless a miracle occurs, like winning the lottery or a new student loan forgiveness policy.

Sigh. At least we’re all in it together…

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Enjoy These Hilarious Tweets About Preschool Graduations

I bet you’ve noticed that there’s a graduation for everything now. And every grade. If I remember correctly, I think I had an eighth-grade graduation, and then I graduated from high school (barely).

Nowadays, judging by social media, every single grade has an elaborate ceremony with all kinds of pageantry. What is going on?

I think you know what I’m talking about…let’s get to the jokes!

1. How dumb…wait a second.

2. It’s about time.

3. Doesn’t bother me at all…

4. A little underdressed.

5. Ouch…

6. You got served.

7. Just like that.

8. Didn’t go as planned.

9. Hope you have deep pockets.

10. I like the last option.

11. This is hilarious.

12. Ninety minutes?

13. Gonna be intense.

14. Wait, they get presents?

15. This tweet sums it up.

If you have any funny memories or stories from your kids’ graduations, share them with us in the comments!

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This Is What Happens to Your Student Loan Debt After You Die

A few decades ago, this isn’t a question that would have been on many people’s minds. Student loans were typically small and paid off shortly after graduation, leaving the students who needed them free to start their adult lives, debt-free and degree in hand.

Now, things are very different, with the majority of students exiting four years of college (or more) with debt that could literally take them the rest of their lives to erase.

But what happens to the loan if the person who signed for it does pass away before it’s paid?

If you have no idea, you’re not alone – a recent survey done by Haven Life revealed that almost 75% of borrowers aren’t sure what effect their death would have on their lines.

“The reason is because it is a scary thing to think about…losing a parent, most often the co-signer, or a parent losing a child. Most people don’t think about it until something happens,” says Barbara Ginty, a certified financial planner.

The answer is that it depends on what type of loan you have, along with a few other factors.

If you have a federal student loan in your name when you pass, the outstanding balance will be wiped out through a “death discharge.” All that needs to happen is a friend or family member remitting proof of your death (a death certificate, etc) to the servicer, and it will be cleared.

The same protections are in place for Parent PLUS loans, and recent changes to tax law through the Tax Cuts And Jobs Act (2018) mean those discharged loans are not taxed as income, which is significant.

If you have private loans, though, your situation could be a bit trickier. Discharges, even due to death, are considered on a “case-by-case basis,” says Elaine Griffin Rubin, a senior contributor for the financial aid site Edvisors.

That said, most lenders do have it in the fine print that death is a valid reason for forgiving the loan.

If your parent was a co-signer, and they pass away, though, the lender might not be as forgiving, says Ginty.

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@pillar_app is an amazing company that has launched a program called Boost which is available from now until January 6th 2020 where you can help pay off student loans for someone you love with the payment going directly to their loan company. I want to #sleighmyloans because I don’t want to be one of the millions of people in debt for years and years paying back my loans plus interest almost equaling them while lifting an enormous burden off my shoulder and just focus on my future. #sleighyourloans #pillar #studentloans #studentloandebt #debtfree #donate #help #college #graduate #degree https://pages.donately.com/pillar/fundraiser/all-alexandria-fisher-wants-this-holiday-is-zero-student-debt/

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“Often times, private lenders have a clause stating that the loan goes into automatic default if the co-signer passes away.”

That means that even if you have a payment plan and are current on your payments, a company could expect you to repay the loan in full immediately if your co-signer dies.

If you live in Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin, you could also be liable for your spouse’s loan balance, since those are community property states.

I mean, you’re young and healthy and you’ll probably never have to worry about any of this. That said, bad luck can strike anyone, so if you want to protect your loved ones, talk to them about your loans and your plans for paying your debts if something should ever happen.

Life insurance is a good idea for everyone, to be honest.

That’s your free tip for the day. You’re welcome.

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Teachers Share Their Worst Helicopter Parent Experiences

Helicopter parents are often criticized for being overprotective, getting involved in older children’s careers, and even giving teachers a hard time.

A Reddit thread asks teachers about their worst experiences with helicopter parents, and they truly delivered. Here are some of the best worst stories we could find.

10. Power to the Parents

This is pretty scary.

“I had 3 kids who were caught turning in the same paper and after giving them zeros for the assignment they got their parents to form a witch hunt. One of the parents rallied all the other parents in the class who all came in to hold a meeting about me and how I teach, even though none of them have been in my class or have talked with me personally. This is a highly advanced class and the LOWEST grade is a C which is really amazing. I’m actually super proud of all of them. Anyway, parents got the administration to have me allow them to redo the paper (essentially showing that I have zero authority for grades or to uphold high standards) AND I now must be extra evaluated because of the things these parents say I do in my class. Meanwhile I still have to teach these kids and act as a professional toward them, which I will. This behavior is unacceptable as a parent.”

9. Daily Email Updates

No fun at all.

“I had a student a few years ago whose mom would email all his teachers every single day wanting to know what we had done in class (we have websites with class calendars on them). It got so bad that the school eventually told her that she could only email once a week.

Later that year, the student turned in a research paper, and the first paragraph had been stolen word for word from a website. I printed out the web page, gave the kid a zero, and wrote a referral for cheating.

Hours later, the mom emails me furious that I would accuse her son of cheating. I explained the situation, and she told me “oh, it wasn’t his fault! He had been too busy to type it, so I did it for him. I wanted to spruce up the intro a little bit, so I added that little extra bit. I guess I forgot to add the source”

Seems legit…”

8. Killjoy for Everyone

The entitlement is strong here!

“The 8th graders at my middle school used to take a trip to a theme park or something every year, but you weren’t allowed to go if you were failing any of your classes. Well, some kid’s mom called and whined that her kid couldn’t go (because he was failing) and it was discriminatory towards him and ended up getting the trip canceled for everyone.

Edit: For those that say the school was being unfair for keeping someone back who was failing. The end of the year trip was the ONLY field trip that they would keep kids home on for failing and we knew upfront that we were expected to do well to get to go. This kid just didn’t give a shit about school. He skipped a lot, he was constantly in trouble for acting out, and in one class that I had with him we were getting ready to take a test and he said “Fuck this”, tore it up and walked out.

His mom should have been more focused on getting him help rather than ruining things for the kids who did try.”

7. Too Early for This

In second grade?

“Teaching 2nd grade, we took a field trip to our district’s vocational school so the kids could get a sense for the wide array of career choices available. One parent would not allow her daughter to attend because she was so afraid her daughter might take a liking to one of the non-collegiate career tracks (horticulture, culinary arts, etc.) and ruin her predestined path to medical school. Second. Grade.”

6. Mom Moved In

For an entire semester!

“When first visiting colleges, one of the stories our tour guide told us was of how this kid’s mom moved in as his room mate…for an entire semester.“

5. This Parent Had a Theater Fixation

Too bad for the child in this scenario!

“When I was in high school the director of the musicals always cast her daughter as the lead in every play even though she was awful. I challenged her on it when I was elected vice president of the club, which was a student vote she had no control of, and I was never cast in a show again. Flash forward to this girl getting accepted to college, the mom applies for a teaching job in the theater department of the school she’s attending.”

4. Competitive Much?

It was supposed to be a fun activity, but…

“I gave my students a fun Halloween activity that was basically a color by number on a hundreds chart. If they followed the directions, it turned out to be a monster. I hung them up for parents to see and one of the moms saw her daughters paper and was so disappointed and told me, “she can color better than that, you just have to push her.” She’s 5 and it was supposed to be fun.”

3. Trespassing Parent

One parent even picked a lock!

“I had a parent sneak into my classroom during my lunch period and erase his son’s name from the “sad face list” on the board, claiming that he “got a feeling” while he was at work that his son was being mistreated at school. He could only believe that I had wrongfully accused his son of something, because his son was an angel. He picked the lock to come in and “defend” his son!”

2. One Parent Wanted a TA to Break the Law

Thankfully the TA was able to solve this.

“As a college TA, I had one parent come in and demand that he see his sons grades(yup…asian…son about 19?). I told him about FERPA laws and that I indeed had no access to grades to begin with. He tried going above my head and ended up getting booted off campus since he harassed all the professors his son had classes with.”

1A. A Bonus Story

This is from a working adult.

“One time my assistant’s mother called me to say that her son had overslept, and he would be late to work. Homeboy is 27 years old, and does not live at home any more. WTF kind of person would rather call his mother than his own manager to say he’ll be late?”

1B. A Bonus Story 2

I taught ESL to a bunch of high schoolers, many of which were at an SAT level. There was this one kid who was incredibly fluent and would write wonderful essays in my class.

However, his mother wasn’t satisfied. She forced him to write a 10000 word essay every single day. Now, she had never learned a foreign language, didn’t speak English, I don’t think she even graduated from college. But she would (through her son and other translators) give me an earful on how I was being too easy on the students because I wasn’t making them do 4 hours of homework a night.

And this poor kid… this unfortunate, 14 year-old bastard who was fluent in two languages and was ready to take the SATs in a language not his own ended up getting worse and worse at writing. He would repeat things again and again just to get the word count, because his mother would check the essays every night. (well, she’d check the numbers. She wouldn’t be able to read the paper.) He would lie and make up stories, interjecting them at weird places. He did ABSOLUTELY MISERABLY in his exams because he wouldn’t take my advice to “stop writing when you’ve run out of things to say”.

These are some wild stories! Do they make you more appreciative of what teachers put up with? Feel free to answer that question or share another story in the comments section.

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The First Makeup Museum in the World Will Open in New York City in 2020

Because there’s basically a museum dedicated to everything these days, it makes sense that a museum dedicated to makeup should exist, too. And, frankly, it is sure to get some folks pretty excited.

In May 2020, the Makeup Museum is set to open in New York City. The museum is dedicated to telling the story of the impact that makeup has had on society, and the first exhibit will be called “Pink Jungle: 1950s Makeup in America.” This first installation will highlight the icons, entrepreneurs, and artifacts that defined that fascinating decade.

 

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Co-founder Doreen Bloch said,

“The Makeup Museum is a critical institution for the cultural landscape in New York because makeup has a 10,000-year history. There is so much that the Makeup Museum wants and has to explore. The 1950s is a perfect time period for the Makeup Museum to start within the debut exhibition because the 1950s is the birth of the modern cosmetics industry.”

Posted by Makeup Museum on Tuesday, July 16, 2019

The museum’s Facebook page talks about the mission of the organization:

“The Makeup Museum is the world’s leading institution exploring the history of beauty and its ongoing impact on society. The Makeup Museum is dedicated to empowering all people to learn about and have fun with beauty. The Makeup Museum brings beauty to life through large-scale exhibits, events, and interactive and shoppable programming.”

The museum will be located at 94 Gansevoort Street in New York City.

What do you think? Are you going to check this out when it opens next year? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Girls Won the Five Top Prizes in National STEM Contest for Middle Schoolers

As people say, “The future is female.” And that trend was certainly on display recently at the 2019 Broadcom MASTERS competition. The competition, “Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars,” highlights very bright middle-schoolers and is run by the Society for Science & the Public.

This year, girls won all of the top five prizes awarded at the competition in Washington, D.C. What makes it even more extraordinary is that the five winners were out of a total pool of 2,348 applicants from 47 states. A total of 18 boys and 12 girls were then brought to D.C. to take part in the competition.

While in D.C., the middle-schoolers were given STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) projects to work on in teams. The youngsters were judged on leadership, teamwork, problem solving, and communication. The last 20% of their score was based on the science projects that the kids had applied to the competition with. The panel of judges included engineers, scientists, and educators.

The five winners were:

The Samueli Foundation Prize: $25,000
Alaina Gassler, Improving Automobile Safety by Removing Blindspots

Lemelson Award for Invention: $10,000
Rachel Bergey, Spotted Lanternflies: Stick’em or Trick’em

Marconi/Samueli Award for Innovation: $10,000
Sidor Clare, Bound and Bricked

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Advancement: $10,000
Alexis MacAvoy, Designing Efficient, Low-Cost, Eco-Friendly Activated Carbon for Removal of Heavy Metals from Water

STEM Talent Award, sponsored by DoD STEM: $10,000
Lauren Ejiaga, Ozone Depletion: How it Affects Us

Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of the Society for Science & the Public, said,”We are just so thrilled that the top five winners were girls this year. This is the first time in our history that it was a sweep for girls. It’s also the first time in our history that we had more girl finalists than boy finalists.”

Way to go ladies! Keep your eye on these kids, because they’re going places.

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15 Funny Tweets from Moms and Dads Who Are Struggling with Their Kids’ Homework

Confession time: my parents helped me out once in a while with my homework when I was growing up, and my sister, who is now a Math teacher, really helped me out because that subject makes absolutely no sense to me.

I also remember times when my parents said, “You’re on your own with this one because I can’t figure it out!” That’s what the parents in these tweets are going through.

As they say…the struggle is real…

1. He’s nailing it.

2. A good life lesson.

3. It’s tough out there.

4. That’s why we’re weeping.

5. You sure did!

6. I can’t handle this right now.

7. Might be time for a tutor.

8. It breaks every man eventually.

9. That’s enough…

10. You must cheat.

11. Time to disappear.

12. Done with this. For good.

13. That’s not gonna happen.

14. WTF is this?!?!

15. Saying it out loud isn’t really helping…

Do you help your kiddos out with their homework? Let us know about your struggles in the comments!

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Here Are Some Great Gifts for Grandparents That They’ll Actually Use

(Quick note: This is a sponsored post, but we never write about stuff that we don’t love. So yes, somebody paid us to write this post, but they didn’t tell us what to write or how to write it. Click here to learn more about how we make money and select our advertising partners.)

Have you ever seen something and thought, “I wish I would have thought of that!” Maybe you haven’t, but a grandparent you know sure has! And you’ve undoubtedly heard one of them say, “That’s the best thing since sliced bread!”

Yeah, bread didn’t used to be sliced. It was just a whole loaf. That was a thing.

Today we’re taking a look at 5 awesome gifts for this holiday season that will get your Mamo and Bampo talking like there’s no tomorrow. “What a handy gift!” they’ll exclaim. And they’ll be right. Because these are pretty darn great!

#1. Bug Bite Thing

Photo Credit: Bug Bite Thing

This handy, dead-simple tool has been a fave product of ours for many years, and the sharks on Shark Tank apparently agree!

Check out what happens when all five sharks are fighting over one product!

So why were they so excited?

Because the Bug Bite Thing actually works.

Listen, literally every single person on this planet has to deal with bug bites or stings.

And if you’re a grandparent and you have grandkids… you want to make sure they’re always taken care of when those bites strike!

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We love it!! 💚💚

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Do you want to use expensive creams and ointments?

No, of course not. Because they don’t treat the actual cause of the bug bite.

But the Bug Bite Thing does. It sucks the irritant or venom out the wound with simple suction.

Plus, it’s completely reusable. Just wash it with soap and water, dry it off, and it’s ready to use again.

It’s so easy, we even made a meme about it! Because if there’s one thing grandparents love… it’s memes!

Click here and grab a couple today at their website or click here to pick one up on Amazon! The grandparents in your life will thank you!

#2. Oasis Diffuser – Waterproof Aromatizer

Photo Credit: Oasis Diffuser

As we get older, the one thing we all pay attention to is our health. That’s where essential oils can help. They aid in reducing stress, inflammation and all kinds of conditions you wouldn’t expect.

Oil diffusers have been growing in popularity, but what about when you get in the shower? That’s where the Oasis Diffuser – Waterproof Aromatizer comes in.

It’s a very simple idea. You fill up the bottles, turn on the diffuser and take a shower. All that beautiful smelling mist does the rest!

So what kind of essential oils should you use? You can go grab ANY kind really, but some of our favorite essential oils are blends from Zum.

Photo Credit: Indigo Wild

Put those two together, and those grandparents in your life will look at shower time in a whole new light!

Click here to pick one up today, and click here to check out those oil blends from Zum!

#3. 23andMe Health + Ancestry Service

Photo Credit: 23andMe

Where did we come from? How did we all end up here? These are questions we ask our elders, but sometimes they either don’t know or can’t remember. You’ll give them insight into their ancestry and the traits that come along with that.

Photo Credit: 23andMe

Plus, you’ll give them reports about their health that may reveal things that they never saw coming.

Photo Credit: 23andMe

Click here to grab a kit for the grandparents in your life.

#4. Letters to My Grandchild

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

Are you ready to cry? Yeah you are! Because what’s more weepy than thinking of a grandparent writing a letter to their grandkids that they’ll read in the future?

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

Answer, nothing!

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

This book includes 12 prompted letters for grandparents to fill in with their memories, wit and wisdom.

And there are other books in this series too…

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

Click here to check out all the titles! You may want to pick up more than just one!

#5. Did You Know 2020 Desk Calendar

Photo Credit: Did You Know

What do grandparents like more than hugs from their grandkids? Reading a new, fun fact every single day of the year! Like this one!

Photo Credit: Did You Know

Okay, we kid. Hugs are clearly better, but who in your life do you know who would be more inclined to look at a desk calendar every single day than grandma and grandpa?

For instance, did you know this about ghost peppers?

Photo Credit: Did You Know

Yeah, stay away from those ghost peppers! Yikes!

Click here and grab at Did You Know? 2020 Desk Calendar today!

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George Martonaro was sentenced…

George Martonaro was sentenced to life without parole on non-violent charges. In his 32 years in the prison system, he learned dozens of subjects, taught numerous courses such as creative writing to over 8000 inmates, and authored more than 30 books.

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Jokes About College Professors That Are Right on the Money

Professors sure are a unique breed, huh?

They’re smart, they’re passionate, they’re eccentric…

And by eccentric, we mean that a lot of them are just plain weird.

Let’s celebrate the interesting lives of professors with some funny tweets at their expense.

1. Whatever…

2. Hahahahaha.

3. Let me in on that.

4. What are you, an idiot?

5. Never a good thing.

6. Probably shouldn’t do this.

7. Not really the case…

8. Classic!

9. Not quite an F…

10. Hello, Brain.

11. That’s amazing.

12. Well, that was all for nothing.

13. Ugggghhhhhh.

14. Hey, it’s me!

15. How’d that work out for you?

Do you have a favorite funny joke or story about a college professor from your past (or maybe your present)?

Share with us in the comments…and if it’s a current professor, leave their name out so you don’t end up getting an F this semester, okay?

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