In the United States, far more students attend public schools (63 million) than private ones (11.2 million).
However, some teachers believe that the system is failing them. Last year, a 7th-grade teacher went viral for claiming that kids in his classes were way behind and had 4th-grade skills.
A few days ago, a now-deleted Reddit user who went on the platform by the nickname DragonfruitBright810 brought back attention to this topic by listing all the areas in which their 15- to 18-year-olds are slacking.
A high school teacher has become fed up with her students’ performance
Image credits: LightFieldStudios/ Envato elements (not the actual photo)
So they posted an honest rant online
Image credits: Polina Tankilevitch/Pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: CarlosBarquero/Envato elements (not the actual photo)
Image credits: anonymous
Research tells us that there might be some truth to these claims
There’s some data to back up the teacher’s concerns. For example, math and reading scores among America’s 13-year-olds fell to their lowest levels in decades, with math scores plunging by the largest margin ever recorded, according to the results of a federal test known as the nation’s report card.
The results, released in June, are the latest measure of the deep learning setbacks incurred during the pandemic. While earlier testing revealed the magnitude of America’s learning loss, the latest test casts light on the persistence of those setbacks, dimming hopes of swift academic recovery.
More than two years after most students returned to in-person class, there are still “worrisome signs about student achievement,” says Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the federal Education Department.
In the national sample of 13-year-old students, average math scores fell by 9 points between 2020 and 2023, while reading scores fell by 4 points. The test, formally called the National Assessment of Educational Progress, was administered from October to December in 2022 to 8,700 students in each subject.
Image credits: Max Fischer/Pexels (not the actual photo)
Similar setbacks were reported the year before when NAEP released broader results showing the pandemic’s impact on America’s fourth- and eighth-grade students.
Though math and reading scores had been sliding even before the pandemic, the latest results show a precipitous drop that erases earlier gains in the years leading up to 2012 — scores on the math exam, which has been given since 1973, are now at their lowest levels since 1990, and reading scores are their lowest since 2004.
The United States, the world’s largest economy, is far from a global leader in education, even as it spends more per student than many other countries.
In math, the US ranks 28th out of 37 participating countries from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, made up mostly of industrialized democracies that account for a majority of world trade.
Even relatively affluent U.S. students did not score as high in math as the average-performing students in top places like Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong.
Perhaps equally concerning: one in three U.S. students scored below a basic level of math proficiency, indicating that they struggle with skills they may need in the real world.
“I don’t think you can drop much lower,” says Andreas Schleicher, the director for education and skills at the O.E.C.D., which oversees the exam. “You don’t want to compare the U.S. to less advanced economies,” he adds.
After the teacher posted their rant, people immediately started reacting to it and sharing similar experiences
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If schools stop forging grades. My son has an A in French. No way in hell should he. He can't tell me a single word. Same went with Spanish.
Mr. Hererra : You idiots have been in this class for almost a whole school year and the only Spanish you know is what you learned at Taco Bell. And Beavis couldn't get that right. I'm gonna give you jerks 10 seconds to come up with a sentence in Spanish and if you can't, you're both going to the principal's office and you're both flunking! [pauses] Mr. Hererra : Well I'm waiting. Butt-Head : [laughs] Uh, rendo-pordo-curdoh-nut-a-ben-yubarduhvuh Rico Suave. Mr. Hererra : Principal's office, Now! Beavis : Uhh Taco supreme. [Laughs] Mr. Hererra : [the class continues laughing] Get out! Now!
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Let’s look at the generations above them eh? The ones who aren’t being responsible parents, the ones who have neglected their own academic skills or who do little to pass on their skills. I have a daughter, she is the responsibility of me and her Mum, it’s our job to stretch her, challenge her and teach her, we are her parents and we have to reinforce what’s taught at school, it’s not easy sometimes, my old grey matter ain’t what it was but if it was easy then school would be too easy. I had to up my game, learn the new methods and support both my daughter and her teachers. IT’S MY JOB AS A PARENT.
As an educator myself, I agree with you for the most part. I have also noticed that kids can be sneaky and work hard to maintain appearances when they feel that what they’re experiencing doesn’t suit them. I’ve had parents find out the extent of the lies their kids are telling them halfway through the school year, or even at its end in some cases. I also had to learn to take anything my students say, with as much grace as with a grain of salt. Sometimes parents just do not know what their kids are doing because their kids know that their parents want to believe them and everything they do and they’re quick to take advantage of that. Fortunately, when the parents find out, they are to tell their kids that the behavior is not acceptable. I also think you and your wife do well to hold your daughter accountable to being a responsible and respectful child and student. Emphasizing truth and grace, and everything you do is will be difficult. You’re both doing wonderfully and keep it up!
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Oh yes this is a huge problem, and I can tell you it is not new. When I started teaching college in the mid 1990s, I was shocked to discover that many of my students had significant difficulties with simple reading comprehension. I would say that about 30 to 40 percent of college freshmen in 1995 were reading at a sixth grade level. And it has only gotten worse since then. In addition, written and spoken communication skills were very low, as you can imagine. There were just so many students who could not write a sentence in English. And these were native speakers. I do not understand why K-12 public schools are passing and graduating children who do not have sufficient basic reading and writing skills. There are some bad trends in public education that contribute to this for sure, like grade inflation and not giving homework and spending too much time on autoscan testing.
I agree. When I was in high school (I'm 38) they suddenly realized a whole bunch of kids basically couldn't read. They did emergency testing to find all the kids that couldn't read and threw them all in a reading class to catch them up. I was personally struggling at math, due to alot of truancy from being poor and homeless. I missed some critical lessons (multiplication) early on and got way behind. They actually pushed a bunch of us from pre-algerbra to algebra 2 in high school skipping the in between lesson. Whole class was so lost the teacher spent half a year trying to get us moved back to algebra 1, half way thru the year we where moved back to 1... half way thru the lesson. Guess how well we did. I also knew a guy in his 50s who didn't know the name of mount Rushmore, called it "that monument with all the presidents heads" it's a complex problem that has existed for some time, it's just getting worse because it's a cumulative effect.
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Not a pupil but a workmate who even studied. I was to teach her a process. Now, I'm a big fan of manuals that are so stupid and step by step, that you could sit the janitor in front of the computer and they could do it. She just stopped at one point as her notes from last week didn't include what to do. I told her to check the manual. She read to the step she just did AND NOT FURTHER. I literally had to ask her to "read it out loud to me, and don't stop until I say so" to make her read the next passage without explicitly telling her to do so. And I'm...you have a manual, right there. All you have to do is read -> act out -> read -> act out. And that's too much?
I am not even a teacher but I worked in a convenience store across the street fro a high school and the number of students that couldn't even count their money astounded me. And they were graduating!!!
I'm fairly bright, but I failed math all through school. I remember even having problems in first grade. When I graduated high school, I passed a math equivalency test by three points. I had problems at home and I can tell you straight out, when you have home problems, school? You don't care a jot about school. I decided to start math again when I went back to college in my 20s. I had to start with basic arithmetic. I didn't know decimals, fractions, or how to cancel. Thanks to some great teachers, I continued through Algebra to Calculus and finally to Physics classes. But I wish things could have been different and I could have learned all this when I was younger. It would have saved so much time and money.
You saw a gap and took the time to fill it. That's something to be proud of. Thanks for also pointing out that home life really does have a major effect on how a child does in school. Education is a multifaceted issue that needs an overhaul both in the home and in the public education sector. Because so many factors can affect each student and their capacity to learn and retain new knowledge, a one size fits all approach to education is not going to produce the expected results.
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The fact that a certain cheeto appointment a wildly unqualified person to be Secretary of Education, who wanted to gut the public education system certainly didn’t help.
Sadly not limited to just the US either. Friend is going through similar problems with his kids. Problems like failing basic English and Math but there is no holding kids back a year until they understand it. Or even giving them remedial work to catch it up. I believe it shouldn't just be on the teachers, but many parents are working long hours so they don't have the hours needed to help the kids either.
Definitely not limited to the US. I have a British coworker in her early 20s who has A-levels and is reasonably intelligent. She had no idea the US were involved in WWII in any way.
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My oldest is now in 5th grade. COVID hit when she was in 1st grade, and had a hybrid year for 2nd grade. The amount of foundational knowledge that is currently lacking is staggering. All of the kids that were affected then are missing a bunch of the basics needed to be successful in these subsequent years. But instead of helping them catch up or repeat a grade, the standards have just been lowered, and they keep getting pushed along.
Both my children are products of the pandemic. Both are excelling. You know why? Because as a parent I saw the gap, reacted to the gap, and made sure we prioritized learning and reinforcing those basic foundational concepts at home on our own time. We all had a lot of it during lockdown...
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This is a many faceted problem, but one of the things I see as a part of the problem that leads to these kinds of gaps [admittedly this is just my opinion] is that we are too reluctant to hold a kid back. I was held back in 3rd grade because my multiplication skills were behind. This was early 80s. When I've expressed concern about my own kids being ready for the next grade level, I'm told that we don't hold a kid back until there is a significant learning gap. But by then it's almost always too late. We used to hold kids back to PREVENT a significant learning gap. Repeating the 3rd grade did wonders for me.
I wish it wasn't true. Damn. The complete end of the American era of excelling. Worse it's breeding compliant consumers with no critical thinking skills.
Some might argue that's the entire point, although I believe it's definitely a multi-faceted problem.
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Holding kids back looks poorly for the teacher and the school, and sometimes the behavioral issue kids just get pushed through. Parents being uninvolved in their child's education is far too prevalent, they claim they don't understand, are too busy, or other silly excuses. Take the PHONE away from your under 18 y/o, shut down youtube, even kids youtube. Bring the computer back into the living area and WATCH what they are doing, engage with them and monitor their school work, review their homework. It is a collaboration teacher, student and parents. Schools be more supportive you job is to educate the kids not pass them off to the next grade, WATCH the teachers, HELP the teacher, SUPPORT the teachers. And the lazy teachers who are phoning it in - LEAVE.
we have run into this issue at work with new hires. they expect us to tell them what to do in every situation, instead of logically thinking about what they should do. we've had several people try to order negative quantities on purchase orders. we've also had issues with basic computer skills- people don't know how to cut/copy & paste, they don't know how to minimize a window, they don't know how to juggle multiple open windows. it's really bad and honestly, scary.
This weekend the staff took the whole house to do something. I'm not exactly sure what but he received a call that basically went like this: Staff: "so and so refuses.to get up and move seats. He's not sitting with everyone else. He went off and sat by himself. My fiance: "where exactly is he sitting? Can you see him?" Staff: "he's sitting in the row in front of me. In the seat directly in front of mine" My fiance: "so what is the issue?" Staff: "he's not sitting with the group?!" My Fiance: "right, I understand, but he's directly in front of you right?" Staff" "yea man he's not listening when I tell him he needs to stay with the group." My fiance: "yea I get what you're saying BUT YOU CAN EASILY SEE HIM CORRECT?" Staff: "yes" My fiance: "so you can see that he is sitting there and not off wherever doing something he's not supposed to be CORRECT?!" Staff: "yes" Fiance: "sounds to me like this isn't an issue you should be calling me with on my day off." 🤦🏽♂️
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No. I started school in 1957. My parents were illiterate and couldn't help me. BUT, our curriculum was reading, writing, and arithmetic. Discipline was stern and parents did support that. I and my classmates grew up literate and able to function. If a kid failed, that kid was held back. We had no participation trophies. Part of this gosh-awful mesh belongs to changes in the educational system, dictating time instead of letting teachers concentrate on the basics.
When my 3rd and 5th grade kids get home today I will be asking them about the things on these lists that they should know already. My 3rd grader scored almost 80 points higher than the state average on his state test this year, but now I'm curious if he really is as advanced as I think, or if he's just where he should be and if everyone else is behind. My older one is the one I'm most worried about..I already told him this year if he doesn't pass his next state test, I'm along the school to hold him back. He was held back already in first grade. It was my decision. The school would have let him move on, as they have the past two years, but I didn't think he was ready. He has been just below the scores he needed to "pass" state tests last year and the year before and has been able to get passing grades on classwork, so I didn't make too much of a fuss about them allowing him to move on. But again, as I've told him, if he doesn't get that passing score on his state test this year, I will. If there are things on these lists he doesn't know, he'll be learning them, even if that means I have to teach it to him myself. And his sports will be put on hold until he has. I'll be damned if my kids graduate from school when they aren't ready.
The fact that you care and will be involved probably means your kids are fine.
Load More Replies... I created an account just to respond to this. I've been seeing this conversation more and more among high school math teachers. I've been one for 30+ years. This deficit started before covid. I don't know if it's common core or screens or what, but a huge number of kids are not developing number sense and concrete math at a young age. Several years ago, I asked an 8th grader whether he would add, subtract, multiply or divide to find the total if he had $5 in one pocket and $2 in the other. He said divide. I teach Alg2. I realize not every kid needs the skills taught in Alg2. Like it or not, it's usually a college admissions requirement, and so I get a lot of kids planning a 4yr degree. I get kids who can't distribute 2(x+3), can't solve even one or two step equations like 2x-5=7. I do example after example with them and they can't apply one problem's steps to the next. Forget combining like terms or negatives.
But I'm supposed to teach them quadratic, polynomial, rational, radical functions, etc: simplifying, solving, graphing. I partially blame common core for not allowing kids to "play" math at young ages. They need to solidify counting and operations with concrete ideas first. I also blame early screen use. Kids should play with Legos, puzzles, blocks, games, etc. Parents need to get off their phones and play with their kids the old fashioned way. Then admin make us give multiple retakes and inflated grades, so kids just get pushed through. I may lose my job over it some day, but I won't push a kid through Alg2, have them go off thinking they're all set for college, and not be able to perform at pre-alg levels on a placement test. Some of us still believe we should be preparing kids for real-life success and not just making them feel like winners day in and day out.
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I was in 3rd or 4th grade when No Child Left Behind was instituted, and I think it caused a LOT of problems in students. Why try when you're just going to pass anyway?
I did AP calc junior year. It was so damn easy, I have no clue how my classmates were failing. I was an exchange student from Germany and half the stuff I already knew from regular 10th grade math. (Well, let's call it honors maths, germay has different level of schools based on academic performance) I was also the only person that got an A in English, despite the fact that I wasn't fully fluent back then. My teacher was very depressed about that. It really wasn't hard to get an A, all you had to do was turn in 5 sentences of homework a day. You could finish that during class hours. I got an easy 4.0 and I know from other German classmates that their classes were even easier. One had a history teacher that would write all the answers to the test on the board the day before and the students were allowed to copy them down an take the list int the exam. And still students failed. All they had to do was copy down the answers, they didn't even have to memorize them.
Holy s**t! I was reading and speaking in full sentences by the time I was 2. I knew my name, address, and phone number before starting kindergarten. I knew cursive script before I was officially supposed to and the teacher had to keep correcting me for using it, telling me, "You can't use that until you're in the next grade." All of this came from my - working, first as a realtor, then as a nurse - mom. My mom, who also took care of the house because my father simply worked and "brought home the bacon" - all he took care of was the yard and outside stuff. I get it, times are f*****g hard, but how much harder are things going to be with us turning out actual idiots who'll eventually be responsible for running things in 30 years? No wonder it's so much more common to see unintelligible "English " around the web today - no one knows how to do any better. How utterly depressing.
I have issues with math, it's the one subject I wasn't able to excel at with practice despite my developmental disability. I can type at 120 wpm and I don't use the standard typing procedures, so that one I feel is nitpicky. Despite my issues I was still miles ahead of these kids nowadays. I got over the walls and even started teaching myself Japanese. Yet these kids can't even spell the word "window". Both parents and the school system are failing these children. I learned so much on my own from self appointed research projects, documentaries, and reading. These kids aren't being taught knowledge is important. The parents couldn't care less in these newer self-centered and lazy generations. If the parents don't know how to prioritize, how are the kids going to know? The schools are dropping the ball, teaching unnecessary things and spending more time on social causes instead of the things needed to properly function in society. I have very little faith in the future.
I agree in the extent that this has gotten much much worse over the past decade or so. I remember when I was in junior high and high school (early to mid 2000s), my class became one of the first classes that was a victim of No Child Left Behind. They had to change all the requirements to graduate. I was an honors student, so nothing impacted me, but the requirements got changed to where now instead of learning grade level information/taking grade level classes, the school was fine with whatever those kids learned back in 6th grade. I work at a credit union, I speak with people of all ages every day. Everyone in every age group is lacking basic fundamentals of life. Daily, I have to explain that when you spend money your available balance decreases.
This is so true, and it's extremely frustrating! I'm an 11th grade English teacher. My students' reading levels range from 1st-10th grade. My students can't always use context clues or write complete sentences. Capital letters are "optional," and punctuation occurs only when the mood strikes. I just found out this week that some of them didn't know what or why a leap year was. Other things they don't know are: *that the calendar agenda I made for them with all of the assigments -that we've looked at EVERYDAY for the past 7 weeks- has all of the assignments they need to do. They are STILL asking me to tell them what they need to do. LOOK AT THE CALENDAR AGENDA I PROJECT ON THE SCREEN EVERYDAY, KIDS! It's the same one I shared with you 7 weeks ago, and it's in your Google docs. *I don't know what each student's average is. Look it up in PowerSchool. That's why you have access to it. It's absolutely exhausting. I'm going to quit next year after my daughter graduates. I need peace. 😭
I'm not a teacher but an occupational therapist in a middle school setting. The other day I had a seventh grader that had no idea what STATE she lived in. Then I asked her if she could name a state. She couldn't. None. Zero. She couldn't tell the difference between cities and states.
I tutored a 1st grade class during the pandemic and I was surprised at how smart they all were. However, we have some of the best public schools in the country in my area so I understand that my experience is not universal. It too bad all children don't have access to a quality education that will set them up for future learning. I grew up in the same area and my high school had a 100% rate of college acceptance/attendance - I'm not sure if that's still the case or not.
These kids will grow up to be the people taking care of us when we're in nursing homes, so we'd better come up with real solutions fast, not just point our fingers and kick around blame.
No child left behind act Everybody wins Everybody passes Nobody struggles " No, not my kid mindset... Parents have to be parents... I was raised my immigrants, being taught the mother language and cultural was part of life... I thought my parents not being " American parents" was a burden... honestly now that I'm much older... its been the greatest honor...
Like it or not, the film Idiocracy is slowly becoming a reality. And people are letting it happen.
During the pandemic the kids I teach (Gr 5) were in Grade 1 and had alternate week schooling. They can't even tell the difference between lower case b and d. This is common in Grade 1, but by Grade 5 they should know. Their second language skills are non-existent. Two teachers had to give the classes easier papers because their marks were so bad. Our education department demands that we pass most of the kids. So every year the papers just get easier and easier. It's partly the fault of the Department but society has also changed and parents and kids don't prioritize learning. They all think they can be sports stars or influencers when they grow up so they won't need to know basic Maths or language skills. And I don't know how we're going to get things back on track.
I drive a bus. The back talking from the students and not knowing their bus stop or what their address is or understand what I mean by crossing street. Some will give me their address, like I'm supposed to know exactly where it's located, and they don't even know their own streets. Some od these are high schoolers, by the way. And I'm in my mid-30s.
Parents seem to often take no responsibility, expecting the state to do everything. For those of us who don't, it becomes painfully obvious that state provided education is awful if you have a bright kid that routinely learns things at home. It isn't as much a problem with being in a class with struggling students, it's a syllabus and teaching philosophy that holds back progress in an attempt to get people to the same level. Trying to make kids 'learn' something they already completely understand, and have for some time, is not going to, it's going to make them bored and disengaged, and then they will get told off and labelled as naughty, which then further disengages them. The system in the UK needs a complete rethink.
This can't be explained by COVID. That can be only a small part of the problem. Most of the items listed by the teacher are learned in elementary school (ages 5-12), and COVID should only have affected them for one year. Not to name shapes? Not to know how to write basic punctuation? In HIGH SCHOOL?! As far as sounding at words, SOME SCHOOLS DON'T TEACH THAT. They "teach" reading using the think method, like how students learned instruments in The Music Man. There is a very, very good podcast out there about it called "Sold a Story". It's honestly heartbreaking. (And it explains why so many customer service people can't even make a guess how to pronounce my name, though it's pronounced exactly how it's spelled.)
School systems were struggling before the concept of no child left behind was introduced.
As a teacher since 1991, NCLB and Common Core didn't help anything.
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To be fair, diagramming a sentence was one of the most useless things I learned in school.
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In my experience the underlying problem is that children can't read. Learning is difficult if you can't read. Comprehending anything made of symbols is harder. At every step the cognitive load of understanding new concepts is added to the load of trying to read and understand words. It's too much for anyone. Imagine trying to learn a new concept by reading about it in a language you don't understand. The solution for most children is easy. Read to them from infancy. As you read, point at the words. That's it. They will learn to read just as they learn to understand spoken language. They will learn to read before they know what reading is. They couldn't avoid learning to read if they tried.
I am currently teaching grade 12 Calculus. I had students ask me why 4 times 2/3 is 8/3 (not 8/12) why we don't change the sign when dividing by the 2 to solve 2x = 10. They had no clue what perpendicular means. Fun times!
the thing about inquiry based learning in primary schools especially is so real, my brothers generation isnt learning basics or skills he can use to succeed intellectually. they push the really conceptual stuff too early i think
It's Common Core. I have a gifted daughter who was adding and subtracting up to ten digits in kindergarten, now in 2nd grade they institute common core and they're still teaching adding and subtracting 2 and 3 digit numbers and she's struggling because they are making her do all this pointless guessing, regrouping and drawing boxes/ lines instead of actually solving the problem. She reads adult fiction novels for fun, but she can't spell, construct sentances or capitalize, because all of their curriculum is taught on chromebooks at school. They're learning about water tables in school, and this consists of watching a very long, very boring YouTube video and copying the map key on a piece of paper. I sat in on that class... The info in the video was wrong. I tutor my kid at home and they say she's at 80th percentile in math, but then say she is not meeting state requirements. Common Core is garbage.
In 2001, I gave up on school when I found the physics and chemistry professors, at my local community College ,couldn't teach me anything I hadn't learned already from independent study at my then high school library. I asked a question about Burnelli's principal the third day in physics class and got a blank stare for a reply, then later that week I asked the chemistry professor about thermal loss in a combustion event and was told that the subject was FAR too advanced for a second year College course. How can we expect teachers to teach when most of them didn't receive the education they should have before being placed in a position to pass on knowledge?
When I was a sophomore in high school nearly twenty years ago, I wrote an essay in a creative writing class complaining about No Child Left Behind. My main complaint was that in mixed classes (with both honors students and regular students) many of my classmates were such slow readers or needed so much additional help from the teachers to understand basic concepts that I often sat there doing nothing for half of the class period or longer while the teachers helped others. If it was that bad nearly twenty years ago, I can well believe how bad it is now. Add on top of No Child Left Behind the profound lack of respect for knowledge and the pride many people feel for being ignorant. When I was growing up parents could opt their kids out of learning about evolution or reading "controversial" books. Things have only eroded further since then.
I teach third grade_ bilingual. 55% percent of my students are on kinder and first grade reading level. Every week we get new students from South and Central America,, some can't write their names or count to 20. The other students are not interested in writing, only a few have help at home. This problem is complex.
If the government would remove their hand from the education process it would improve. If they are involved, it turns to s**t. Wo do not need statistics to prove this, people only need to open their eyes and listen with their ears.
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I think that education is not a priority, in our country and in students homes. Many families are worried about how they are going to put food on the table, not if their students homework gets finished. At the other end of the spectrum, some families are putting more emphasis on sports than schooling. I teach first grade, when students are supposed to learn to read, pretty important if you ask me. I have had only 5 days all school year when all of my students have been at school. I have three students who have never attended a full week. I cannot get my first graders proficient in anything if they don't come to school, read at home and most importantly have a supportive/stable family structure.
I teach 7th grade ELA. My students are struggling mightily due to my insistence they can write a complete essay in a week's time that is 500 or more words. They honestly think the concept is insane. So many kids don't capitalize I, some have no concept of spaces for paragraphs or sentences. We're left with a dilemma: I can either triage and teach them how to use sentence stems to have vaguely coherent thoughts that show their understanding... Or they can completely fail as I try to fix fundamental problems that happened in 3rd grade. There is a limit to how much can be made up in a school year if there are gaps in knowledge. They're being graded on a 7th grade curriculum and I'm being judged on their understanding of it... But they legitimately have NEVER used a dictionary or even knew what a thesaurus was so do I just let that desert grow? It's... Awful and depressing.
So just exactly who, dear teacher, are you blaming this on? Parents send kids to school depending on the teachers to teach! We, everyone in each city & town, pay the taxes which fund the Boards of Education in each town. My specific towns budget, 60% goes to the BOE. 60%! Heaven forbid we have 3 snow days then the schools are complaining about going into the summer vacation. I see students having pajama days, movie days, dress up like your favorite Frozen character, and kids talk about how teachers are on their Iphones all day. When there were wildfires last year, pick a state, teachers rolled in televisions and turned them on. Told the students "you are all amateur journalists today" had them watch the wildfire news coverage all day long. That went on for over a week. I don't know. How about instead of writing a column like this, contact your superintendent, your teachers union, local government, media? My comments will not be popular, try teaching. Start at 1st grade
It's called NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND they really screwed us! I came from an era of failing a class meaning summer school or retaking the year. Now they can't even read a clock if it's not digital, can't even sign their names anymore. This world is sad!
Here's how you make money: use cash to pay, after they punch the numbers for the money you show them into the register. Change about slightly like adding a nickel. Now they have to do the calculations in their head. If they make a mistake in your favor you made money. If they make mistake where you lose money you point it out.
This article is a case in point of the problem. When I was a kid, if another kid was asked what month it was and didn't know, the teacher had a look of pity and explained things. Then, in our small town, I knew they would relay how bad they felt for the kid. Here we are. The kid didn't ask, but they shouldn't have to ask, be taught or be told. They should just know everything. If they never learned, the whole generation is every bad thing and it's the parents' fault and the school admin failed. It seems to be more like this every day to me. Someone sees a problem and they have to discuss who is to blame. And they have to extend the blame out to every living human who shares some quality with the people they blame. It is a rare thing for me to encounter someone who noticed a problem and have them discuss specific actions that must be taken and specific people they can name to solve the problem. If we love blame and hate solving problems, are we doomed?
I read an article the other day. It was by a primary school teacher complaining about the things that annoy them about their pupils. One of which was lace up shoes. Because the kids couldn't tie them and it took to long for the teacher to tie them. Another teacher responded saying, yes, if they don't know how to tie their shoes, get them velcro fastenings. Surely, the answer to that is to teach your children to tie them. I taught a friends daughter when she was 10 and I realised she didn't know. She brought me her 14 year old brother's trainers. My friend said he won't like that, he doesn't know how to tie them either. You have to at least show them. It's not something they just 'pick up'. My 27 year old niece thinks the Pyramids of Egypt are made of sand. Her 30 year old brother, who lives with his fiancee, rang his mum to ask her how to peel a potato.
Is it the parents fault, the student’s fault, or the teacher’s fault here?
"Is it the parents fault, the student’s fault, or the teacher’s fault here?" Yes. Pretty much in that order.
Load More Replies... Where are those teachers from? This is scary, but at the same time, I haven't seen that around me. I wouldn't be surprised if that's in the US, in some place where schools is underfunded and parents need 3 jobs to make ends meet. Kids naturally learn what's useful to them. I'm wondering what's the life of a 11th grader who doesn't know seasons look like...
I'm in college now and we had some high schoolers come in to do a rehearsal with our conductors, and part of it was a recruitment effort. So... we were asking for contact info so we could reach out about other events and admissions.... One of these kids looked me dead in the eyes and said, I don't know my address.
I'm assuming this is all US teaching? In the UK they made a push to level the playing field, it started in the late 80's and they've been slowly removing more and more items from the syllabus. The great thing is that all kids now get A's making it impossible to tell who the talented ones are.
This is a prime example of what I've said before. Schools don't teach anymore. They "teach" students to memorize things for tests and then fudge the grades to push them out of the school system. They don't teach any form of critical thinking.
Anyone here NOT an American? Just wondering if anyone else's system is dumbing down the population.....
I think it's anywhere kids have access to phones and tablets. Concentration and perseverance go to shït. Combine that with GenX and Millennial parents who don't want to be bad cop, and here we are.
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What genuinely scares me about this article, besides the obvious, is that not ONE of these teachers had a comment which didn't have one error. I saw bad punctuation, words which weren't included in sentences, etc. I only have a high school education. I graduated in 1994. I can compose better than any of them. 😳
The bottom line, why are we looking to the government to fix the problem, they are the problem. It has become more important to teach non- essential topics to indoctrinate the children to become something the government wants then to ALLOW THE TEACHERS TO TEACH.
The question here is what the hell were their elementary teachers doing a few years ago?
My niece is 5 and a half. We have been teaching her since she was a baby. Her dad, grandparents, her uncle and I. She is very intelligent. She reads at a 5th grade level, is very artistic and is at a second grade level in math. We are starting on history. It really shows that it takes a village to raise a family. I used to teach preschool and my sister teaches kindergarten. She has been helping her us resources that I can't get on my own.
I learned how to tie my shoes in kindergarten. I learned how to read in 1st grade. I learned math as well. I learned how to type in highschool. We didn't spend our days going from classroom to classroom. We sat in one room to learn and were taught by teachers. When did teachers start expecting parents to teach their children BEFORE they go to school? What is the point of school if they want the kids to be taught at home? What do teachers do now? My son, who is in 4th grade, has been taught by us his entire school career. The teachers can't be bothered. I have worked as a para in schools. They hand out assignments, put the kids in groups to work on it and if they don't get it done, instruct them to take it home for their parents to help. Sure, there are a few good teachers, but the rest of you....you get online and complain that the parents expect you to do EVERYTHING
Lol bj James I've been thinking about it. Partly why I had already told my oldest of the didn't pass his tests this year id personally ask that he be held back. Ya know. Way before reading this. I honestly just hadn't realized how bad the education system has become until reading this which is why I commented. But I appreciate your concern lol
And people give me a hard time for joking that I didn't learn anything from my teachers.
I cannot believe the disruption to learning caused by COVID wasn't mentioned in this article!
Part of the problem is that so many people are listening to the politicians who are keep saying that the problem with public education is ideological, that schools are “too woke”, and so on. When parents think that the only purpose of education is to indoctrinate kids with ideas they oppose, they aren’t going to support their kids’ education.
Their parents simply suck. Gentle parenting entails shoving a screen in front of children as soon as 2 years old. No discipline, no anything, just harassing teachers every time their angel faces problems.
Thats... not what hentld parenting is. It just means they take the approach to understand a child's emotions and teach them to work through it, instead of hitting them. What you are describing is near negligent. Not emotionally aware.
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If one or two students fail, it's their fault. If most students fail, it's the teacher's fault. Trying to force information they don't understand isn't understanding and learning it's just having that information in your brain uselessly. Teachers need to address issues students have and work on it. This is a teacher problem not student problem.
And these are exactly the students who think unions are out to get them, love fox "news" and vote Republican every time.
If schools stop forging grades. My son has an A in French. No way in hell should he. He can't tell me a single word. Same went with Spanish.
Mr. Hererra : You idiots have been in this class for almost a whole school year and the only Spanish you know is what you learned at Taco Bell. And Beavis couldn't get that right. I'm gonna give you jerks 10 seconds to come up with a sentence in Spanish and if you can't, you're both going to the principal's office and you're both flunking! [pauses] Mr. Hererra : Well I'm waiting. Butt-Head : [laughs] Uh, rendo-pordo-curdoh-nut-a-ben-yubarduhvuh Rico Suave. Mr. Hererra : Principal's office, Now! Beavis : Uhh Taco supreme. [Laughs] Mr. Hererra : [the class continues laughing] Get out! Now!
Load More Replies... Let’s look at the generations above them eh? The ones who aren’t being responsible parents, the ones who have neglected their own academic skills or who do little to pass on their skills. I have a daughter, she is the responsibility of me and her Mum, it’s our job to stretch her, challenge her and teach her, we are her parents and we have to reinforce what’s taught at school, it’s not easy sometimes, my old grey matter ain’t what it was but if it was easy then school would be too easy. I had to up my game, learn the new methods and support both my daughter and her teachers. IT’S MY JOB AS A PARENT.
As an educator myself, I agree with you for the most part. I have also noticed that kids can be sneaky and work hard to maintain appearances when they feel that what they’re experiencing doesn’t suit them. I’ve had parents find out the extent of the lies their kids are telling them halfway through the school year, or even at its end in some cases. I also had to learn to take anything my students say, with as much grace as with a grain of salt. Sometimes parents just do not know what their kids are doing because their kids know that their parents want to believe them and everything they do and they’re quick to take advantage of that. Fortunately, when the parents find out, they are to tell their kids that the behavior is not acceptable. I also think you and your wife do well to hold your daughter accountable to being a responsible and respectful child and student. Emphasizing truth and grace, and everything you do is will be difficult. You’re both doing wonderfully and keep it up!
Load More Replies... Oh yes this is a huge problem, and I can tell you it is not new. When I started teaching college in the mid 1990s, I was shocked to discover that many of my students had significant difficulties with simple reading comprehension. I would say that about 30 to 40 percent of college freshmen in 1995 were reading at a sixth grade level. And it has only gotten worse since then. In addition, written and spoken communication skills were very low, as you can imagine. There were just so many students who could not write a sentence in English. And these were native speakers. I do not understand why K-12 public schools are passing and graduating children who do not have sufficient basic reading and writing skills. There are some bad trends in public education that contribute to this for sure, like grade inflation and not giving homework and spending too much time on autoscan testing.
I agree. When I was in high school (I'm 38) they suddenly realized a whole bunch of kids basically couldn't read. They did emergency testing to find all the kids that couldn't read and threw them all in a reading class to catch them up. I was personally struggling at math, due to alot of truancy from being poor and homeless. I missed some critical lessons (multiplication) early on and got way behind. They actually pushed a bunch of us from pre-algerbra to algebra 2 in high school skipping the in between lesson. Whole class was so lost the teacher spent half a year trying to get us moved back to algebra 1, half way thru the year we where moved back to 1... half way thru the lesson. Guess how well we did. I also knew a guy in his 50s who didn't know the name of mount Rushmore, called it "that monument with all the presidents heads" it's a complex problem that has existed for some time, it's just getting worse because it's a cumulative effect.
Load More Replies... Not a pupil but a workmate who even studied. I was to teach her a process. Now, I'm a big fan of manuals that are so stupid and step by step, that you could sit the janitor in front of the computer and they could do it. She just stopped at one point as her notes from last week didn't include what to do. I told her to check the manual. She read to the step she just did AND NOT FURTHER. I literally had to ask her to "read it out loud to me, and don't stop until I say so" to make her read the next passage without explicitly telling her to do so. And I'm...you have a manual, right there. All you have to do is read -> act out -> read -> act out. And that's too much?
I am not even a teacher but I worked in a convenience store across the street fro a high school and the number of students that couldn't even count their money astounded me. And they were graduating!!!
I'm fairly bright, but I failed math all through school. I remember even having problems in first grade. When I graduated high school, I passed a math equivalency test by three points. I had problems at home and I can tell you straight out, when you have home problems, school? You don't care a jot about school. I decided to start math again when I went back to college in my 20s. I had to start with basic arithmetic. I didn't know decimals, fractions, or how to cancel. Thanks to some great teachers, I continued through Algebra to Calculus and finally to Physics classes. But I wish things could have been different and I could have learned all this when I was younger. It would have saved so much time and money.
You saw a gap and took the time to fill it. That's something to be proud of. Thanks for also pointing out that home life really does have a major effect on how a child does in school. Education is a multifaceted issue that needs an overhaul both in the home and in the public education sector. Because so many factors can affect each student and their capacity to learn and retain new knowledge, a one size fits all approach to education is not going to produce the expected results.
Load More Replies... The fact that a certain cheeto appointment a wildly unqualified person to be Secretary of Education, who wanted to gut the public education system certainly didn’t help.
Sadly not limited to just the US either. Friend is going through similar problems with his kids. Problems like failing basic English and Math but there is no holding kids back a year until they understand it. Or even giving them remedial work to catch it up. I believe it shouldn't just be on the teachers, but many parents are working long hours so they don't have the hours needed to help the kids either.
Definitely not limited to the US. I have a British coworker in her early 20s who has A-levels and is reasonably intelligent. She had no idea the US were involved in WWII in any way.
Load More Replies... My oldest is now in 5th grade. COVID hit when she was in 1st grade, and had a hybrid year for 2nd grade. The amount of foundational knowledge that is currently lacking is staggering. All of the kids that were affected then are missing a bunch of the basics needed to be successful in these subsequent years. But instead of helping them catch up or repeat a grade, the standards have just been lowered, and they keep getting pushed along.
Both my children are products of the pandemic. Both are excelling. You know why? Because as a parent I saw the gap, reacted to the gap, and made sure we prioritized learning and reinforcing those basic foundational concepts at home on our own time. We all had a lot of it during lockdown...
Load More Replies... This is a many faceted problem, but one of the things I see as a part of the problem that leads to these kinds of gaps [admittedly this is just my opinion] is that we are too reluctant to hold a kid back. I was held back in 3rd grade because my multiplication skills were behind. This was early 80s. When I've expressed concern about my own kids being ready for the next grade level, I'm told that we don't hold a kid back until there is a significant learning gap. But by then it's almost always too late. We used to hold kids back to PREVENT a significant learning gap. Repeating the 3rd grade did wonders for me.
I wish it wasn't true. Damn. The complete end of the American era of excelling. Worse it's breeding compliant consumers with no critical thinking skills.
Some might argue that's the entire point, although I believe it's definitely a multi-faceted problem.
Load More Replies... Holding kids back looks poorly for the teacher and the school, and sometimes the behavioral issue kids just get pushed through. Parents being uninvolved in their child's education is far too prevalent, they claim they don't understand, are too busy, or other silly excuses. Take the PHONE away from your under 18 y/o, shut down youtube, even kids youtube. Bring the computer back into the living area and WATCH what they are doing, engage with them and monitor their school work, review their homework. It is a collaboration teacher, student and parents. Schools be more supportive you job is to educate the kids not pass them off to the next grade, WATCH the teachers, HELP the teacher, SUPPORT the teachers. And the lazy teachers who are phoning it in - LEAVE.
we have run into this issue at work with new hires. they expect us to tell them what to do in every situation, instead of logically thinking about what they should do. we've had several people try to order negative quantities on purchase orders. we've also had issues with basic computer skills- people don't know how to cut/copy & paste, they don't know how to minimize a window, they don't know how to juggle multiple open windows. it's really bad and honestly, scary.
This weekend the staff took the whole house to do something. I'm not exactly sure what but he received a call that basically went like this: Staff: "so and so refuses.to get up and move seats. He's not sitting with everyone else. He went off and sat by himself. My fiance: "where exactly is he sitting? Can you see him?" Staff: "he's sitting in the row in front of me. In the seat directly in front of mine" My fiance: "so what is the issue?" Staff: "he's not sitting with the group?!" My Fiance: "right, I understand, but he's directly in front of you right?" Staff" "yea man he's not listening when I tell him he needs to stay with the group." My fiance: "yea I get what you're saying BUT YOU CAN EASILY SEE HIM CORRECT?" Staff: "yes" My fiance: "so you can see that he is sitting there and not off wherever doing something he's not supposed to be CORRECT?!" Staff: "yes" Fiance: "sounds to me like this isn't an issue you should be calling me with on my day off." 🤦🏽♂️
Load More Replies... No. I started school in 1957. My parents were illiterate and couldn't help me. BUT, our curriculum was reading, writing, and arithmetic. Discipline was stern and parents did support that. I and my classmates grew up literate and able to function. If a kid failed, that kid was held back. We had no participation trophies. Part of this gosh-awful mesh belongs to changes in the educational system, dictating time instead of letting teachers concentrate on the basics.
When my 3rd and 5th grade kids get home today I will be asking them about the things on these lists that they should know already. My 3rd grader scored almost 80 points higher than the state average on his state test this year, but now I'm curious if he really is as advanced as I think, or if he's just where he should be and if everyone else is behind. My older one is the one I'm most worried about..I already told him this year if he doesn't pass his next state test, I'm along the school to hold him back. He was held back already in first grade. It was my decision. The school would have let him move on, as they have the past two years, but I didn't think he was ready. He has been just below the scores he needed to "pass" state tests last year and the year before and has been able to get passing grades on classwork, so I didn't make too much of a fuss about them allowing him to move on. But again, as I've told him, if he doesn't get that passing score on his state test this year, I will. If there are things on these lists he doesn't know, he'll be learning them, even if that means I have to teach it to him myself. And his sports will be put on hold until he has. I'll be damned if my kids graduate from school when they aren't ready.
The fact that you care and will be involved probably means your kids are fine.
Load More Replies... I created an account just to respond to this. I've been seeing this conversation more and more among high school math teachers. I've been one for 30+ years. This deficit started before covid. I don't know if it's common core or screens or what, but a huge number of kids are not developing number sense and concrete math at a young age. Several years ago, I asked an 8th grader whether he would add, subtract, multiply or divide to find the total if he had $5 in one pocket and $2 in the other. He said divide. I teach Alg2. I realize not every kid needs the skills taught in Alg2. Like it or not, it's usually a college admissions requirement, and so I get a lot of kids planning a 4yr degree. I get kids who can't distribute 2(x+3), can't solve even one or two step equations like 2x-5=7. I do example after example with them and they can't apply one problem's steps to the next. Forget combining like terms or negatives.
But I'm supposed to teach them quadratic, polynomial, rational, radical functions, etc: simplifying, solving, graphing. I partially blame common core for not allowing kids to "play" math at young ages. They need to solidify counting and operations with concrete ideas first. I also blame early screen use. Kids should play with Legos, puzzles, blocks, games, etc. Parents need to get off their phones and play with their kids the old fashioned way. Then admin make us give multiple retakes and inflated grades, so kids just get pushed through. I may lose my job over it some day, but I won't push a kid through Alg2, have them go off thinking they're all set for college, and not be able to perform at pre-alg levels on a placement test. Some of us still believe we should be preparing kids for real-life success and not just making them feel like winners day in and day out.
Load More Replies... I was in 3rd or 4th grade when No Child Left Behind was instituted, and I think it caused a LOT of problems in students. Why try when you're just going to pass anyway?
I did AP calc junior year. It was so damn easy, I have no clue how my classmates were failing. I was an exchange student from Germany and half the stuff I already knew from regular 10th grade math. (Well, let's call it honors maths, germay has different level of schools based on academic performance) I was also the only person that got an A in English, despite the fact that I wasn't fully fluent back then. My teacher was very depressed about that. It really wasn't hard to get an A, all you had to do was turn in 5 sentences of homework a day. You could finish that during class hours. I got an easy 4.0 and I know from other German classmates that their classes were even easier. One had a history teacher that would write all the answers to the test on the board the day before and the students were allowed to copy them down an take the list int the exam. And still students failed. All they had to do was copy down the answers, they didn't even have to memorize them.
Holy s**t! I was reading and speaking in full sentences by the time I was 2. I knew my name, address, and phone number before starting kindergarten. I knew cursive script before I was officially supposed to and the teacher had to keep correcting me for using it, telling me, "You can't use that until you're in the next grade." All of this came from my - working, first as a realtor, then as a nurse - mom. My mom, who also took care of the house because my father simply worked and "brought home the bacon" - all he took care of was the yard and outside stuff. I get it, times are f*****g hard, but how much harder are things going to be with us turning out actual idiots who'll eventually be responsible for running things in 30 years? No wonder it's so much more common to see unintelligible "English " around the web today - no one knows how to do any better. How utterly depressing.
I have issues with math, it's the one subject I wasn't able to excel at with practice despite my developmental disability. I can type at 120 wpm and I don't use the standard typing procedures, so that one I feel is nitpicky. Despite my issues I was still miles ahead of these kids nowadays. I got over the walls and even started teaching myself Japanese. Yet these kids can't even spell the word "window". Both parents and the school system are failing these children. I learned so much on my own from self appointed research projects, documentaries, and reading. These kids aren't being taught knowledge is important. The parents couldn't care less in these newer self-centered and lazy generations. If the parents don't know how to prioritize, how are the kids going to know? The schools are dropping the ball, teaching unnecessary things and spending more time on social causes instead of the things needed to properly function in society. I have very little faith in the future.
I agree in the extent that this has gotten much much worse over the past decade or so. I remember when I was in junior high and high school (early to mid 2000s), my class became one of the first classes that was a victim of No Child Left Behind. They had to change all the requirements to graduate. I was an honors student, so nothing impacted me, but the requirements got changed to where now instead of learning grade level information/taking grade level classes, the school was fine with whatever those kids learned back in 6th grade. I work at a credit union, I speak with people of all ages every day. Everyone in every age group is lacking basic fundamentals of life. Daily, I have to explain that when you spend money your available balance decreases.
This is so true, and it's extremely frustrating! I'm an 11th grade English teacher. My students' reading levels range from 1st-10th grade. My students can't always use context clues or write complete sentences. Capital letters are "optional," and punctuation occurs only when the mood strikes. I just found out this week that some of them didn't know what or why a leap year was. Other things they don't know are: *that the calendar agenda I made for them with all of the assigments -that we've looked at EVERYDAY for the past 7 weeks- has all of the assignments they need to do. They are STILL asking me to tell them what they need to do. LOOK AT THE CALENDAR AGENDA I PROJECT ON THE SCREEN EVERYDAY, KIDS! It's the same one I shared with you 7 weeks ago, and it's in your Google docs. *I don't know what each student's average is. Look it up in PowerSchool. That's why you have access to it. It's absolutely exhausting. I'm going to quit next year after my daughter graduates. I need peace. 😭
I'm not a teacher but an occupational therapist in a middle school setting. The other day I had a seventh grader that had no idea what STATE she lived in. Then I asked her if she could name a state. She couldn't. None. Zero. She couldn't tell the difference between cities and states.
I tutored a 1st grade class during the pandemic and I was surprised at how smart they all were. However, we have some of the best public schools in the country in my area so I understand that my experience is not universal. It too bad all children don't have access to a quality education that will set them up for future learning. I grew up in the same area and my high school had a 100% rate of college acceptance/attendance - I'm not sure if that's still the case or not.
These kids will grow up to be the people taking care of us when we're in nursing homes, so we'd better come up with real solutions fast, not just point our fingers and kick around blame.
No child left behind act Everybody wins Everybody passes Nobody struggles " No, not my kid mindset... Parents have to be parents... I was raised my immigrants, being taught the mother language and cultural was part of life... I thought my parents not being " American parents" was a burden... honestly now that I'm much older... its been the greatest honor...
Like it or not, the film Idiocracy is slowly becoming a reality. And people are letting it happen.
During the pandemic the kids I teach (Gr 5) were in Grade 1 and had alternate week schooling. They can't even tell the difference between lower case b and d. This is common in Grade 1, but by Grade 5 they should know. Their second language skills are non-existent. Two teachers had to give the classes easier papers because their marks were so bad. Our education department demands that we pass most of the kids. So every year the papers just get easier and easier. It's partly the fault of the Department but society has also changed and parents and kids don't prioritize learning. They all think they can be sports stars or influencers when they grow up so they won't need to know basic Maths or language skills. And I don't know how we're going to get things back on track.
I drive a bus. The back talking from the students and not knowing their bus stop or what their address is or understand what I mean by crossing street. Some will give me their address, like I'm supposed to know exactly where it's located, and they don't even know their own streets. Some od these are high schoolers, by the way. And I'm in my mid-30s.
Parents seem to often take no responsibility, expecting the state to do everything. For those of us who don't, it becomes painfully obvious that state provided education is awful if you have a bright kid that routinely learns things at home. It isn't as much a problem with being in a class with struggling students, it's a syllabus and teaching philosophy that holds back progress in an attempt to get people to the same level. Trying to make kids 'learn' something they already completely understand, and have for some time, is not going to, it's going to make them bored and disengaged, and then they will get told off and labelled as naughty, which then further disengages them. The system in the UK needs a complete rethink.
This can't be explained by COVID. That can be only a small part of the problem. Most of the items listed by the teacher are learned in elementary school (ages 5-12), and COVID should only have affected them for one year. Not to name shapes? Not to know how to write basic punctuation? In HIGH SCHOOL?! As far as sounding at words, SOME SCHOOLS DON'T TEACH THAT. They "teach" reading using the think method, like how students learned instruments in The Music Man. There is a very, very good podcast out there about it called "Sold a Story". It's honestly heartbreaking. (And it explains why so many customer service people can't even make a guess how to pronounce my name, though it's pronounced exactly how it's spelled.)
School systems were struggling before the concept of no child left behind was introduced.
As a teacher since 1991, NCLB and Common Core didn't help anything.
Load More Replies... To be fair, diagramming a sentence was one of the most useless things I learned in school.
Load More Replies... In my experience the underlying problem is that children can't read. Learning is difficult if you can't read. Comprehending anything made of symbols is harder. At every step the cognitive load of understanding new concepts is added to the load of trying to read and understand words. It's too much for anyone. Imagine trying to learn a new concept by reading about it in a language you don't understand. The solution for most children is easy. Read to them from infancy. As you read, point at the words. That's it. They will learn to read just as they learn to understand spoken language. They will learn to read before they know what reading is. They couldn't avoid learning to read if they tried.
I am currently teaching grade 12 Calculus. I had students ask me why 4 times 2/3 is 8/3 (not 8/12) why we don't change the sign when dividing by the 2 to solve 2x = 10. They had no clue what perpendicular means. Fun times!
the thing about inquiry based learning in primary schools especially is so real, my brothers generation isnt learning basics or skills he can use to succeed intellectually. they push the really conceptual stuff too early i think
It's Common Core. I have a gifted daughter who was adding and subtracting up to ten digits in kindergarten, now in 2nd grade they institute common core and they're still teaching adding and subtracting 2 and 3 digit numbers and she's struggling because they are making her do all this pointless guessing, regrouping and drawing boxes/ lines instead of actually solving the problem. She reads adult fiction novels for fun, but she can't spell, construct sentances or capitalize, because all of their curriculum is taught on chromebooks at school. They're learning about water tables in school, and this consists of watching a very long, very boring YouTube video and copying the map key on a piece of paper. I sat in on that class... The info in the video was wrong. I tutor my kid at home and they say she's at 80th percentile in math, but then say she is not meeting state requirements. Common Core is garbage.
In 2001, I gave up on school when I found the physics and chemistry professors, at my local community College ,couldn't teach me anything I hadn't learned already from independent study at my then high school library. I asked a question about Burnelli's principal the third day in physics class and got a blank stare for a reply, then later that week I asked the chemistry professor about thermal loss in a combustion event and was told that the subject was FAR too advanced for a second year College course. How can we expect teachers to teach when most of them didn't receive the education they should have before being placed in a position to pass on knowledge?
When I was a sophomore in high school nearly twenty years ago, I wrote an essay in a creative writing class complaining about No Child Left Behind. My main complaint was that in mixed classes (with both honors students and regular students) many of my classmates were such slow readers or needed so much additional help from the teachers to understand basic concepts that I often sat there doing nothing for half of the class period or longer while the teachers helped others. If it was that bad nearly twenty years ago, I can well believe how bad it is now. Add on top of No Child Left Behind the profound lack of respect for knowledge and the pride many people feel for being ignorant. When I was growing up parents could opt their kids out of learning about evolution or reading "controversial" books. Things have only eroded further since then.
I teach third grade_ bilingual. 55% percent of my students are on kinder and first grade reading level. Every week we get new students from South and Central America,, some can't write their names or count to 20. The other students are not interested in writing, only a few have help at home. This problem is complex.
If the government would remove their hand from the education process it would improve. If they are involved, it turns to s**t. Wo do not need statistics to prove this, people only need to open their eyes and listen with their ears.
Load More Replies... I think that education is not a priority, in our country and in students homes. Many families are worried about how they are going to put food on the table, not if their students homework gets finished. At the other end of the spectrum, some families are putting more emphasis on sports than schooling. I teach first grade, when students are supposed to learn to read, pretty important if you ask me. I have had only 5 days all school year when all of my students have been at school. I have three students who have never attended a full week. I cannot get my first graders proficient in anything if they don't come to school, read at home and most importantly have a supportive/stable family structure.
I teach 7th grade ELA. My students are struggling mightily due to my insistence they can write a complete essay in a week's time that is 500 or more words. They honestly think the concept is insane. So many kids don't capitalize I, some have no concept of spaces for paragraphs or sentences. We're left with a dilemma: I can either triage and teach them how to use sentence stems to have vaguely coherent thoughts that show their understanding... Or they can completely fail as I try to fix fundamental problems that happened in 3rd grade. There is a limit to how much can be made up in a school year if there are gaps in knowledge. They're being graded on a 7th grade curriculum and I'm being judged on their understanding of it... But they legitimately have NEVER used a dictionary or even knew what a thesaurus was so do I just let that desert grow? It's... Awful and depressing.
So just exactly who, dear teacher, are you blaming this on? Parents send kids to school depending on the teachers to teach! We, everyone in each city & town, pay the taxes which fund the Boards of Education in each town. My specific towns budget, 60% goes to the BOE. 60%! Heaven forbid we have 3 snow days then the schools are complaining about going into the summer vacation. I see students having pajama days, movie days, dress up like your favorite Frozen character, and kids talk about how teachers are on their Iphones all day. When there were wildfires last year, pick a state, teachers rolled in televisions and turned them on. Told the students "you are all amateur journalists today" had them watch the wildfire news coverage all day long. That went on for over a week. I don't know. How about instead of writing a column like this, contact your superintendent, your teachers union, local government, media? My comments will not be popular, try teaching. Start at 1st grade
It's called NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND they really screwed us! I came from an era of failing a class meaning summer school or retaking the year. Now they can't even read a clock if it's not digital, can't even sign their names anymore. This world is sad!
Here's how you make money: use cash to pay, after they punch the numbers for the money you show them into the register. Change about slightly like adding a nickel. Now they have to do the calculations in their head. If they make a mistake in your favor you made money. If they make mistake where you lose money you point it out.
This article is a case in point of the problem. When I was a kid, if another kid was asked what month it was and didn't know, the teacher had a look of pity and explained things. Then, in our small town, I knew they would relay how bad they felt for the kid. Here we are. The kid didn't ask, but they shouldn't have to ask, be taught or be told. They should just know everything. If they never learned, the whole generation is every bad thing and it's the parents' fault and the school admin failed. It seems to be more like this every day to me. Someone sees a problem and they have to discuss who is to blame. And they have to extend the blame out to every living human who shares some quality with the people they blame. It is a rare thing for me to encounter someone who noticed a problem and have them discuss specific actions that must be taken and specific people they can name to solve the problem. If we love blame and hate solving problems, are we doomed?
I read an article the other day. It was by a primary school teacher complaining about the things that annoy them about their pupils. One of which was lace up shoes. Because the kids couldn't tie them and it took to long for the teacher to tie them. Another teacher responded saying, yes, if they don't know how to tie their shoes, get them velcro fastenings. Surely, the answer to that is to teach your children to tie them. I taught a friends daughter when she was 10 and I realised she didn't know. She brought me her 14 year old brother's trainers. My friend said he won't like that, he doesn't know how to tie them either. You have to at least show them. It's not something they just 'pick up'. My 27 year old niece thinks the Pyramids of Egypt are made of sand. Her 30 year old brother, who lives with his fiancee, rang his mum to ask her how to peel a potato.
Is it the parents fault, the student’s fault, or the teacher’s fault here?
"Is it the parents fault, the student’s fault, or the teacher’s fault here?" Yes. Pretty much in that order.
Load More Replies... Where are those teachers from? This is scary, but at the same time, I haven't seen that around me. I wouldn't be surprised if that's in the US, in some place where schools is underfunded and parents need 3 jobs to make ends meet. Kids naturally learn what's useful to them. I'm wondering what's the life of a 11th grader who doesn't know seasons look like...
I'm in college now and we had some high schoolers come in to do a rehearsal with our conductors, and part of it was a recruitment effort. So... we were asking for contact info so we could reach out about other events and admissions.... One of these kids looked me dead in the eyes and said, I don't know my address.
I'm assuming this is all US teaching? In the UK they made a push to level the playing field, it started in the late 80's and they've been slowly removing more and more items from the syllabus. The great thing is that all kids now get A's making it impossible to tell who the talented ones are.
This is a prime example of what I've said before. Schools don't teach anymore. They "teach" students to memorize things for tests and then fudge the grades to push them out of the school system. They don't teach any form of critical thinking.
Anyone here NOT an American? Just wondering if anyone else's system is dumbing down the population.....
I think it's anywhere kids have access to phones and tablets. Concentration and perseverance go to shït. Combine that with GenX and Millennial parents who don't want to be bad cop, and here we are.
Load More Replies... What genuinely scares me about this article, besides the obvious, is that not ONE of these teachers had a comment which didn't have one error. I saw bad punctuation, words which weren't included in sentences, etc. I only have a high school education. I graduated in 1994. I can compose better than any of them. 😳
The bottom line, why are we looking to the government to fix the problem, they are the problem. It has become more important to teach non- essential topics to indoctrinate the children to become something the government wants then to ALLOW THE TEACHERS TO TEACH.
The question here is what the hell were their elementary teachers doing a few years ago?
My niece is 5 and a half. We have been teaching her since she was a baby. Her dad, grandparents, her uncle and I. She is very intelligent. She reads at a 5th grade level, is very artistic and is at a second grade level in math. We are starting on history. It really shows that it takes a village to raise a family. I used to teach preschool and my sister teaches kindergarten. She has been helping her us resources that I can't get on my own.
I learned how to tie my shoes in kindergarten. I learned how to read in 1st grade. I learned math as well. I learned how to type in highschool. We didn't spend our days going from classroom to classroom. We sat in one room to learn and were taught by teachers. When did teachers start expecting parents to teach their children BEFORE they go to school? What is the point of school if they want the kids to be taught at home? What do teachers do now? My son, who is in 4th grade, has been taught by us his entire school career. The teachers can't be bothered. I have worked as a para in schools. They hand out assignments, put the kids in groups to work on it and if they don't get it done, instruct them to take it home for their parents to help. Sure, there are a few good teachers, but the rest of you....you get online and complain that the parents expect you to do EVERYTHING
Lol bj James I've been thinking about it. Partly why I had already told my oldest of the didn't pass his tests this year id personally ask that he be held back. Ya know. Way before reading this. I honestly just hadn't realized how bad the education system has become until reading this which is why I commented. But I appreciate your concern lol
And people give me a hard time for joking that I didn't learn anything from my teachers.
I cannot believe the disruption to learning caused by COVID wasn't mentioned in this article!
Part of the problem is that so many people are listening to the politicians who are keep saying that the problem with public education is ideological, that schools are “too woke”, and so on. When parents think that the only purpose of education is to indoctrinate kids with ideas they oppose, they aren’t going to support their kids’ education.
Their parents simply suck. Gentle parenting entails shoving a screen in front of children as soon as 2 years old. No discipline, no anything, just harassing teachers every time their angel faces problems.
Thats... not what hentld parenting is. It just means they take the approach to understand a child's emotions and teach them to work through it, instead of hitting them. What you are describing is near negligent. Not emotionally aware.
Load More Replies... If one or two students fail, it's their fault. If most students fail, it's the teacher's fault. Trying to force information they don't understand isn't understanding and learning it's just having that information in your brain uselessly. Teachers need to address issues students have and work on it. This is a teacher problem not student problem.
And these are exactly the students who think unions are out to get them, love fox "news" and vote Republican every time.
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