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Opinion

It’s a Very Special Back to School Open Thread

As we do every Friday, we're turning Racket over to you, the readers.

11:11 AM CDT on September 11, 2026

Photo by note thanun on Unsplash

Your pals at Racket—all of whom work from home, none of whom have children of school-going age—were just chatting the other day about how quiet the city is now that all the kids are back in school. (It honestly makes me a little sad!)

I know there are plenty of parents reading this, so tell us how back-to-school is going. Did your kids go back earlier this year? Have you shipped any of your children off to college? What are your hopes and concerns? If you're an educator, how's it going so far? How has AI made all of this more or (in the interest of fairness) less stressful?

Personally, though I haven't been in school for some time, I had the ol' stress dream last night where I've been skipping a class all semester and show up for the exam. Usually it's a math class but this time it was bio, just for variety's sake I guess. Thanks brain.

As always, feel free to ignore this prompt and talk about whatever you want. This is your Open Thread after all.

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