Teacher Claims New ‘Mewing’ Trend Might Be The Final Reason She Quits Teaching, Goes Viral
The old sarcastic “talk to the hand” has just received an upgrade. It’s called “mewing” and it originated as a DIY technique to strengthen your jawline.
However, once the kids got in on the trend, there was no stopping them. They took the face exercise and made it into a silent protest meant to dismiss others and signal they’re not interested in engaging in a conversation.
But now that it’s spread to classrooms, mewing has been increasingly subjected to criticism, too. One of the opponents is Teresa Newman, a middle and high school teacher, who took to TikTok to explain why she believes it’s so rude.
More info: TikTok
Image credits: Taylor Flowe (not the actual photo)
“I think this mewing trend with students is probably going to be the final reason that I decide to never return to the classroom to teach ever again”
“If you’re not familiar with what mewing is, basically it’s a gesture that kids are making towards other people that signal to that person that they don’t care what they have to say. Or they’re too busy being silent doing the mewing technique to respond to them. It’s basically just another way to be dismissive to somebody.
The gesture stems from this technique where people are like thrusting their tongue inside of their mouth to like strengthen their jaw line. If you haven’t watched the documentary Open Wide on Netflix, you should definitely do yourself a favor and watch it because the technique itself stems from some really problematic New Age orthodontic techniques, which also stem from eugenics.”
Image credits: teresakayenewman
“The problem that I have with mewing in the classroom and at school is that kids are using it as a way to be disrespectful to their teachers without their teachers understanding what it is they’re doing and why they’re doing it.
It’s a nonverbal gesture, it doesn’t really signify anything specific unless you know exactly what it means and why they’re doing it. And it’s basically a way for the kids to not have to answer verbally any questions or respond to anything that the teacher or the adult in the room has to say. They’re doing it to each other as well. But I’m seeing this trend of them directing it more towards the adults in the room.
Image credits: Kenny Eliason (not the actual photo)
Of course, the kids think it’s funny because the adult in the room doesn’t understand, they look clueless, it makes them look stupid, it makes them look out of the loop, but it’s also a power play on the part of the kid. It’s a way for them to not have to take accountability for things that are being asked of them. It’s a way for them to not have to participate in class. And the teacher can’t really respond in a way that’s helpful or useful. Because if they try to get them in trouble, if they try to question the gesture, if they try to respond in some way that’s going to stop the gesture from happening again, there’s really no way to prove that the gesture is in and of itself disrespectful or harmful.”
Image credits: teresakayenewman
“This trend is also fueled by social media. And every kid in the room that sees somebody do the mewing gesture to a teacher is going to find it funny. They’re going to respond in a way that encourages them to do it over and over again.
I can hear and smell the comments for this video coming from a mile away, especially if this lands on 18-and-under TikTok, because it’s so easy for kids to look at criticisms of this gesture and this trend and go, ‘Why are you doing all this? Why are you so mad? It’s just a joke. It’s just a meme.’ When, in reality, they absolutely understand how dismissive and disrespectful it is of the person that’s trying to engage with them, especially in a learning environment.
They also understand how hurtful it can be when somebody is trying to engage with you as far as a conversation or asking you questions, or trying to get you involved in a lesson or an activity or conversation and they do this. That just tells them that you have no interest in engaging with them at all, for whatever reason, because they just don’t like you or they don’t care what you have to say.”
Image credits: teresakayenewman
“And it’s so easy for them to just play it off as a joke, like it’s not that big of a deal. But it is that big of a deal. And I think that’s what gets me about the trend is that for us teachers, all we do is try so hard to engage our students in our lessons and to get them involved in class. For something like this to come along and basically be made into this like nonchalant ‘Oh, we’re just playing around, we’re just having fun.’ But in reality, the play and the fun is really hurtful. It’s really disruptive to the learning environment as well.
I really don’t care if you talk to me in a way that makes me feel like, ‘Oh, you’re just a fun-ruiner’ or ‘Oh, you must be fun at parties.’ I don’t give a s**t, honestly. There’s always an appropriate place and time to use a meme or to use some kind of trend like that. But in a classroom environment, for kids to continue to do this every single day over and over to people who are just trying to give them an enriching educational experience, it pi**es me off. And I don’t find it funny at all.”
Image credits: teresakayenewman
“To me, it’s more indicative of a larger issue that we’re facing nowadays, where kids don’t take anything seriously. You can easily say that kids have never taken anything seriously. But I can push back on that and say that there are a lot of things and a lot of scenarios that kids did take seriously to a certain extent. But now it seems like there’s more kids in the classroom that cannot take one single second of the day seriously. To take everybody’s feelings for granted, they don’t care how what they say or do makes people feel. Everything is a meme. Everything is a joke. And if you want to push back on that attitude at all, you’re just seen as a joke yourself.
No one in their work environment, and school is a work environment for children, no one in their work environment should be able to respond to someone who is sincerely trying to engage them in conversation with a silent gesture. You know, it’s smug, it’s rude, and I don’t care how much you think it’s fun or funny, or how young you are or how little you take seriously the situation in which you’re doing it. It’s all of those things wrapped into one.”
Image credits: teresakayenewman
“You know, we’re not asking kids not to be kids. We’re not asking kids not to participate in trends. We’re not asking kids to take everything in their life seriously. But when someone walks into the classroom and really sincerely asks them genuine questions, engages them in lessons, engages them in activities, makes them think critically, and all they have in response is something stupid like this, it should piss teachers off. Though, hopefully, this at least arms you with some knowledge of what that actually means, and when somebody does that to you in the classroom, you aren’t going to feel like such a goon and you can respond in a way that’s going to be more effective in the future.”
Image credits: teresakayenewman
The educator’s video has gone viral
@teresakayenewman What is the “mewing” gesture, why are students mewing their teachers, and why is it harmful and disruptive to the learning environment? #teacher ♬ original sound – Newman Music Academy
And it has received a lot of strong reactions
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People complaining about "kids these days" always conveniently forget about kids of the past. This is a tired trope. There will be something new in 20 years and the mewing kids will complain just like this teacher. Yes it sucks but it isn't anything new that kids can be disruptive.
Kids these days have lost their empathy to a degree that never happened before, especially the kids who started their school career in 2020 and had very limited social interactions. Bullying and hazing have taken gorms that were unthinkable. I've been bullied at school mercilessly, but I can't remember being followed in my free time with no escape due to the internet. The downside of modern technology is that children now have an anonymous space to rile each other up, and some of the most vile and outright fascist comments come from children who are not even teenagers. The crime rates about juveniles has risen too. When I was younger, the first child murderers made the news worldwide. It was unthinkable to read that two teenagers had killed their 5 year old neighbours. Now? Several children every year all over the world get arrested for rape and even murder. Don't tell me that's normal. That has never happened before to that degree. Lets not forget: most school shooters are also teens
Load More Replies...
Teens: We are independent thinkers, we are inventive, we aren't like old people, we make up our own minds. .... Teens: TikTok says mew, so we mew
Just so I understand this correctly ... They meow at the teacher like cats? Or is this a name for a gesture? Sorry, I'm not a native and the TikTok posts are always confusing to read because of all the face pics in between
Load More Replies...
I can see the disrespect here, but I can also promise the teacher had something like this when she was a student that pissed off her teachers. Kids being disrespectful as they manage that transition into adulthood is pretty normal. I remember it being really hard to know where that li e between standing up for myself and being disrespectful was, especially when you had teachers or parents that taught you disagreeing with me is disrespectful. You lash out in a way where you can say I told you this, not my fault you didn't understand
Everyone had something like this. About 15 years ago it was the ring tone older people couldn't hear. There's slang, secret computer codes, pager codes, scratching your nose with your middle finger etc...
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Oh teachers, what are you even like. Trolling teachers has undoubtedly been going on for centuries. I'm Gen X and God knows we did it. We weren't allowed to chew gum in class, so what did we do? Just acted like we were chewing gum. Teachers who didn't have control of their class absolutely lost their shït about it. Teachers who were a bit more savvy didn't have any trouble.
This was exactly my thought! Why if she is even complaining when she is describing that trend so well. Being able to describe it should make you also able to stop it. As mentioned by Awesome ATA: good teachers always found a way to stop whatever trend was at that time going on. This teacher sounds like one who just hopes for higher help. But this is not how things work. I'm happy not being a teacher, and I assume that she's from the US where the rules have shifted into something that even can't be explained anymore with stupidity. But living in Europe, I still have hope as teachers still, in most countries, can "call out" those pupils in an appropriate manner.
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Cab I have a job at bored panda where i just type out what a tik tok vid says and take a screenshot of some reactions to said video, please? I could do this very quickly
there is literally a link where you can submit your articles up top... I think you will find the pay pretty low.
Load More Replies...
The problem here really isn't the kids or the mewing gesture. The problem is that teachers no longer have any authority to enforce discipline in the classroom. When I was in school, repeated displays like this would have resulted a null grade for the current lesson and possibly detention. And if a teacher felt you were mocking them or disrupting the lesson, there was no appeal - teachers didn't have to justify things like that. It was automatically justified by the fact your behavior kept other students from learning because the teacher was too busy with your shenanigans.
If the teacher thinks about quitting over this, she might not be cut out for that line of work
She said "the last straw". It's probably not the only thing that will make teachers quit.
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pretty kids at all points in time have found ways to subtly disrespect teachers and adults in general. i agree with the responses in the article of taking it over yourself, and "UNO reversing" it on the kids! they'll get bored with it pretty quick.
Nothing to do with being pretty. All kids do it at some point.
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OMG I had a friend who loved cats so we'd meow at each other for fun--i didn't think it was rude? But then again I'm not on tiktok sooooo
When you start policing your students’ facial expressions, you’ve lost the plot as a teacher. These kids know they are pushing her buttons so they keep doing it. Just ignore it or go with”be careful, your face will freeze that way”. It’s a classic for a reason. Or go with “do you need to use the restroom? You look like you are passing gas.”
It's not a facial expression, they put a finger in front of their mouth like they're shushing you, and then they move their index finger across the jawline, to show they're mewing. The whole point is that they WANT their face to stay that way, to get a better jawline.
Load More Replies...
Parents need to stop be lazy chodes and expect one person to raise their dopey crotchfruit. Teachers can have whatever thickness of skin they want. Until they get paid a living wage to babysit your nightmare monsters, I think you should STFU.
Load More Replies... Extra, boring but time consuming, homework for the whole class if anyone does this. It'll stop fast. Any of the kids who try to keep doing it will get peer pressured out of it when the rest of the class is angry about extra homework.
I am failing to understand this on so many levels. One point this teacher makes is that she really doesn’t care. This comment is surrounded by other comments about how she is really upset by it and quitting her job because of it. She also decided to use ThickTok as her mode of communication. The social media platform for 13 year olds which they use to communicate their stupidity whilst counting up their views to decide their self worth. And also where this spread in the first place. So she is basically telling these children that their silly sheep behaviour IS having the desired effect but it’s ok because their teacher is just as immature and desperate for upvotes as they are. Well done. Sorry, I meant grow up.
Nah I'm with her. I'm in College and there is a dude in my class who mews pretty much at the end of every sentence, or makes R2D2 noises. He's in his 20's and never does it when talking to the Prof, so he can control it. We'll be talking about human trafficking, homelessness, and addiction and he's randomly mewing like a f*****g cat. It's an exhausting trend that needs to stop.
That's not the kind of mewing the article refers to. Mewing as in the technique invented by orthodontist John Mew, not like a cat.
Load More Replies...
People complaining about "kids these days" always conveniently forget about kids of the past. This is a tired trope. There will be something new in 20 years and the mewing kids will complain just like this teacher. Yes it sucks but it isn't anything new that kids can be disruptive.
Kids these days have lost their empathy to a degree that never happened before, especially the kids who started their school career in 2020 and had very limited social interactions. Bullying and hazing have taken gorms that were unthinkable. I've been bullied at school mercilessly, but I can't remember being followed in my free time with no escape due to the internet. The downside of modern technology is that children now have an anonymous space to rile each other up, and some of the most vile and outright fascist comments come from children who are not even teenagers. The crime rates about juveniles has risen too. When I was younger, the first child murderers made the news worldwide. It was unthinkable to read that two teenagers had killed their 5 year old neighbours. Now? Several children every year all over the world get arrested for rape and even murder. Don't tell me that's normal. That has never happened before to that degree. Lets not forget: most school shooters are also teens
Load More Replies... Teens: We are independent thinkers, we are inventive, we aren't like old people, we make up our own minds. .... Teens: TikTok says mew, so we mew
Just so I understand this correctly ... They meow at the teacher like cats? Or is this a name for a gesture? Sorry, I'm not a native and the TikTok posts are always confusing to read because of all the face pics in between
Load More Replies... I can see the disrespect here, but I can also promise the teacher had something like this when she was a student that pissed off her teachers. Kids being disrespectful as they manage that transition into adulthood is pretty normal. I remember it being really hard to know where that li e between standing up for myself and being disrespectful was, especially when you had teachers or parents that taught you disagreeing with me is disrespectful. You lash out in a way where you can say I told you this, not my fault you didn't understand
Everyone had something like this. About 15 years ago it was the ring tone older people couldn't hear. There's slang, secret computer codes, pager codes, scratching your nose with your middle finger etc...
Load More Replies... Oh teachers, what are you even like. Trolling teachers has undoubtedly been going on for centuries. I'm Gen X and God knows we did it. We weren't allowed to chew gum in class, so what did we do? Just acted like we were chewing gum. Teachers who didn't have control of their class absolutely lost their shït about it. Teachers who were a bit more savvy didn't have any trouble.
This was exactly my thought! Why if she is even complaining when she is describing that trend so well. Being able to describe it should make you also able to stop it. As mentioned by Awesome ATA: good teachers always found a way to stop whatever trend was at that time going on. This teacher sounds like one who just hopes for higher help. But this is not how things work. I'm happy not being a teacher, and I assume that she's from the US where the rules have shifted into something that even can't be explained anymore with stupidity. But living in Europe, I still have hope as teachers still, in most countries, can "call out" those pupils in an appropriate manner.
Load More Replies... Cab I have a job at bored panda where i just type out what a tik tok vid says and take a screenshot of some reactions to said video, please? I could do this very quickly
there is literally a link where you can submit your articles up top... I think you will find the pay pretty low.
Load More Replies... The problem here really isn't the kids or the mewing gesture. The problem is that teachers no longer have any authority to enforce discipline in the classroom. When I was in school, repeated displays like this would have resulted a null grade for the current lesson and possibly detention. And if a teacher felt you were mocking them or disrupting the lesson, there was no appeal - teachers didn't have to justify things like that. It was automatically justified by the fact your behavior kept other students from learning because the teacher was too busy with your shenanigans.
If the teacher thinks about quitting over this, she might not be cut out for that line of work
She said "the last straw". It's probably not the only thing that will make teachers quit.
Load More Replies... pretty kids at all points in time have found ways to subtly disrespect teachers and adults in general. i agree with the responses in the article of taking it over yourself, and "UNO reversing" it on the kids! they'll get bored with it pretty quick.
Nothing to do with being pretty. All kids do it at some point.
Load More Replies... OMG I had a friend who loved cats so we'd meow at each other for fun--i didn't think it was rude? But then again I'm not on tiktok sooooo
When you start policing your students’ facial expressions, you’ve lost the plot as a teacher. These kids know they are pushing her buttons so they keep doing it. Just ignore it or go with”be careful, your face will freeze that way”. It’s a classic for a reason. Or go with “do you need to use the restroom? You look like you are passing gas.”
It's not a facial expression, they put a finger in front of their mouth like they're shushing you, and then they move their index finger across the jawline, to show they're mewing. The whole point is that they WANT their face to stay that way, to get a better jawline.
Load More Replies... Parents need to stop be lazy chodes and expect one person to raise their dopey crotchfruit. Teachers can have whatever thickness of skin they want. Until they get paid a living wage to babysit your nightmare monsters, I think you should STFU.
Load More Replies... Extra, boring but time consuming, homework for the whole class if anyone does this. It'll stop fast. Any of the kids who try to keep doing it will get peer pressured out of it when the rest of the class is angry about extra homework.
I am failing to understand this on so many levels. One point this teacher makes is that she really doesn’t care. This comment is surrounded by other comments about how she is really upset by it and quitting her job because of it. She also decided to use ThickTok as her mode of communication. The social media platform for 13 year olds which they use to communicate their stupidity whilst counting up their views to decide their self worth. And also where this spread in the first place. So she is basically telling these children that their silly sheep behaviour IS having the desired effect but it’s ok because their teacher is just as immature and desperate for upvotes as they are. Well done. Sorry, I meant grow up.
Nah I'm with her. I'm in College and there is a dude in my class who mews pretty much at the end of every sentence, or makes R2D2 noises. He's in his 20's and never does it when talking to the Prof, so he can control it. We'll be talking about human trafficking, homelessness, and addiction and he's randomly mewing like a f*****g cat. It's an exhausting trend that needs to stop.
That's not the kind of mewing the article refers to. Mewing as in the technique invented by orthodontist John Mew, not like a cat.
Load More Replies... 
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