The ACT test can be one of the most stressful tests for high school students. Fretting over how to prepare for the exam colleges use to decide whether to admit students, or what to do if a score isn’t as high as desired, can be dizzying for a student who already has plenty of schoolwork he or she already has to do.

Yesterday I was a chaperone on a fifth-grade field trip. I learned a lot of valuable things from chaperoning this field trip of 20 or so kids, and my findings are as follow.

Filmmaker Spike Lee spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at the University of Tennessee recently, offering suggestions to students -- with added instructions for African-American students -- on how to get ahead in today's world.

If you want to find out how much you know about something, have third-graders ask you about it.

I can’t remember my first day of high school, but I do remember getting ready for it. Specifically, I remember spending six hours on the phone with my BFF, planning what we were going to wear on that first day.

The grassy courtyard just outside the main office at Chatham Elementary School is now home to what faculty and students hope will become a lush garden filled with spinach, lettuce, radishes and herbs. Each of the school’s 34 classes participated in planting seeds Wednesday, establishing the first Gen H (Generation Healthy) garden to promote healthy eating habits. Similar gardens will be planted at Southern View Elementary and Black Hawk Elementary, both in Springfield, next week.

Popular television shows are glorifying industries like cooking, forensic science, fashion and ballroom dancing, drawing the younger generation to want those careers. However, the reality is not the same as what’s depicted on the tube.

How sad it is when “politics as usual” gets in the way of trying to teach our young people about the important things in life.

Matthew Montez is a first-generation college graduate. Brandon Fielder never had any doubt he would go to college; his only worry was how to pay for it. Both men are headed back to school.  High school. Montez and Fielder are part of the 68-member inaugural class of the Illinois Student Assistance Corps, a program that puts a pair of recent college graduates in community college districts to promote college readiness, attendance and graduation.

Shelly Nielsen sees students fall asleep in class at least twice a week.  “When I see teens asleep in my class, I wonder if I’m really that boring,” said Nielsen, a Springfield Lanphier High School special education teacher. “I also wonder why they’re so tired.” According to the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, teens need at least nine hours of sleep to function properly during the day. And according to a recent study, more than 90 percent of teens say they are sleeping less than that each night.

Educators say the safety of all students is paramount and preparation is an ongoing process. Lockdown drills, surveillance cameras, key card systems and accurate parental information are just a few of the tools used to ensure a safe school year.

Each year around this time, we like to turn over this space to Mr. Education to answer your back-to-school questions.

As high school graduates shop for new sheets and pack up their clothes, ready to embark on the next phase of their lives at college, they often leave behind parents who struggle to adjust to a new world without the children who have consumed much of their lives for 17 or 18 years.

In 35 years of teaching third through seventh grades, in locales stretching from Florida to Colorado, Sandy Bauer has learned that children are children — no matter where they call home. And, yes, there will be difficult students, she said — such as the girl who “had real acting-out problems.” But, no, they don’t have to remain contrary. With a little patience and a lot of communication, that student and teacher who cannot seem to get along just might end up forging mutual respect.

The New York Civil Liberties Union, the New York State affiliate of the ACLU, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Mohawk Central School.