We do suspect that kids are different these days than when we were in school. There are many reasons for it: from generational differences to technological advancement, the children of today and those of two decades ago are not just years but rather light-years apart.
But there are people who experience this change first-hand. They are teachers, educators, and professors who have devoted their lives to raising little daredevils into rebellious (or not) teens, helping them to discover their identities, strengths, and weaknesses. They are the ones who have spent the most time with the youngsters, and they surely have collected a lot of observations on their way.
“Teachers/professors of Reddit, what is the difference between students of 1999/2009/2019?,” someone wondered on Ask Reddit, sparking an illuminating thread with incredible insights. Below, we wrapped up the most interesting responses, so scroll down!
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I've taught (still teaching) elementary (mainly 1st - 3rd) since the mid 90s. Differences:
1- Many more obese kids. I'm talking obese at age 6. Not just a little chubby, either.
2- Many more attention problems. Not just the severe ones (ADD/ADHD), but kiddos who just have trouble focusing. Now, I don't want to hear a lot of backlash from non-teachers who say we mean teachers expect kids to sit all day and work. My students change activities frequently. They are allowed to stand instead of sit. We also do quite a bit of hands on stuff. But over the years, I've noticed a HUGE problem with focusing and getting things done.
3- Kids don't read as much. They spend free time on electronic devices. It's addictive and I'm guilty, too. I LOVE to read, but I find myself here on Reddit or elsewhere on the internet instead of actually READING books. But I'm 49. These kids NEED to read. And they need to read BOOKS.
4- Their vocabulary and speaking skills are lacking. Why? Well, the speech/language teacher at my school gave her theory. She worked in the private sector over the summer. Parents would drop off their young kids to her and sit in the lobby on their phones (as we all do). Over the summer she would assess these kiddos and most all of them were of normal intelligence and ability. So why are the kiddos severely behind in speaking and language skills? She claims that parents are not SPEAKING enough to their children. We adults spend so much time on our phones and laptops and are not having enough conversations with our children. I have to agree with this. Fifteen/20+ years ago, we were all not glued to our phones. People CONVERSED more with their kids in the past.
💯. Im a peds nurse since 2010 and kids are overweight and overstimulated with electronics. So many parents throw the ipad at kids when they out a dinner and no one talks to each other. I always sadly laugh when I see 1-2 year olds with ipads at dinner. Wth people. My kids are smart, read, good social skills and dont need constant technology. Kids need to learn how to deal with being bored once in a while. This plays into the instant gratification and entitlement.
I've been teaching high school since 1993.
Students are less homophobic by a long shot, at least where I've been. There is still homophobia but they can't be open about it.
Students talk about things like depression and mental illness more; whether the prevalence rate for things like depression actually is higher or not I don't know, but it's more talked about.
Attitudes toward school are about the same. Hard workers, average workers, and slackers are still probably the same proportion.
Obviously the use of technology is dramatically increased, which is good and bad. It's definitely made research super easy.
There's more awareness of bullying, though sometimes this term gets thrown around too casually.
Students in special ed are no longer openly mocked.
Students are larger. A lot larger.
Dating in an official sense doesn't seem to occur anymore; just seems like FWB (or without benefits) is the typical arrangement.
Seems like students spend a lot more time inside than 20 years ago.
In regards to technology, I think “experts” who have been telling us that the students are going to come in very technologically literate don’t actually realize WHAT technology students are using. Students are using cell phones, occasionally tablets, and gaming devices like xBox. They don’t use computers actively at home.
Massachusetts switched their standardized testing to computer based testing. 100% of our students have no idea how to type in a computer when they come to us in elementary school. So not only do we have to teach them the content for these ridiculous tests, we have to teach them how to type fluently and accurately before third grade so they can type essays on the computer at 8 years old. They said the switch was because students are more technologically savvy then ever before, which is probably partially true, but not in the way that they want.
Today's students don't know how to struggle or persevere through a problem. If they can't do it immediately, they need help.
On the plus side, they know a lot more about each other and are open to diversity. They communicate their emotions.
I still have no idea what to do with the part of my brain that used to store the enormous amount of phone numbers of my family and friends. Yes, I'm one of those: "Hey Grandpa!, more like Grand-Grandpa now, but seriously, I often think about that when I call someone on my phone and look at the number: "Huh..there was a time I could just dial this number without even thinking what the number was, now I just push a button, it's a good thing and yet, kinda sad at the same time.
My friend who's a first grade teacher says that kids are more anxious, less able to self soothe, and unprepared to solve even basic (first grader level) problems themselves.
Poor kids had to do kindergarten online in an educational environment completely unprepared for digital learning. They lived in fear and the world became dangerous. Contact with other human beings which before sustained us and made us a community became a source of fear. It's not a wonder that they're struggling. We all are too.
In 1999, class was super noisy when you came in. Everyone talking and then quieting down when you started teaching. Now, like walking into a funeral home. cell phone silence.
This is only in those schools where cell phones are allowed in class. Our class is still super noisy.
My students today are way over protected and far more nervous than when I started teaching in 1994. For example I have had several students ( typically girls) who at 12 or 13 have literally never been alone. Then have not been on a bike ride alone or a walk around their block alone. Their parents are so afraid of stranger danger that they are preventing their students from having the necessary alone time to get into trouble and try to solve problems independently.
The students are far more prone to anxiety, depression, cutting and suicidal idealization than previous generations of students. Probably related, but who knows.
Students are afraid of risk and need teacher support and because it is available all the time they kind of expect it. I had a student email me an hour ago because he did not understand a question on his homework. And I responded with some additional info to support this student. On a Sunday morning. Of course I am the one who taught them how to actually email something and I answered the email, so perhaps I am a contributor to this issue. 20 years ago he would have had to figure it out and give his best guess and let the chips fall.
I'm not surprised about your mention of young girls never going for bike rides alone. There IS danger of SA or kidnapping, it's not a fear, it's a reality.
There’s some sense of entitlement I’ve noticed. Like “I deserve a better grade” or “I deserve an extension because this week has been hard”. Plus some sense of arrogance: “why should I follow your instructions? My way is better”. To be fair, sometimes their way is better and I have learned from them in some occasions.
That's usually picked up from the parents at home. They listen to mom or dad rant about how they deserve more pay for doing multiple people's jobs. Then also seeing how mom and dad's decisions usually back fire so why the f**k listen to any adult they're all the same right?
Less ownership of learning/sense of curiosity, less grit/resilience, and large sense of entitlement. I teach middle school in the somewhat rural area where I grew up, and I still love my job and "my kids", but damn, it is so much more difficult these days.
I wonder if there’s less curiosity because there’s easy access to knowledge via the internet. If I know I can Google the answer, it kind of removes a lot of the thought process of trying to piece it together in my head first. I can just look it up. I don’t have to figure it out myself to come up with a working hypothesis.
I’ve been a teacher for 15 years and one thing I’ve noticed is that in recent years the “breakfast club” stereotypes like jocks, nerds, etc. seem to be falling by the wayside and kids seem to be hidden under many layers of irony.
Actually i found that the people participating in after school stuff and the gamers still seem to gather in the same spot its pretty easy to pick out the theater kids and cheerleaders
Been teaching since 2006. Kids are getting worse with computers due to them mostly using smart devices. I'm spending more time teaching things like how to double click and enter a URL than I used to.
Otherwise they seem the same though. It's the parents that are different--they're overextended and their kids are suffering since their parents don't have the spoons to engage in their education as much as they need to.
Mainly, I have noticed kids are both more remarkable and emotionally/mentally weaker. I'll watch a group of ninth graders perform a flawless orchestra concert. Then, the next day they'll break down in a full on anxiety attack. I don't know what happened, but teenagers' coping skills have gone to hell in a hand basket. Maybe overprotective/helicopter parents are to blame? Who knows?
I honestly think it’s both. My cousin is 14 and her parents have helicopter parented her up until the last year or so and are now making her do everything her self. She has no idea how to do things like use a microwave or cook because she was never taught how and comes to me for help with school work now. Her parents also don’t understand why she is so stressed after code red incidents (there were two at her school last year) because they never had them.
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When I was a kid we just broke down in private because it was seen as shameful, glad that's changing.
Exactly, I was suffering my whole teenage years because I had to force smile while I wanted to cry. But I can't. And I'm 90s kid, before that it was even worse
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Honestly, I think todays kids are a hell of a lot stronger than we were. If i had to worry about being shot in school on the daily i would have had poor coping skills also
dangers of climate change, hyper capitalism, pandemics, if you’re in the US - likelihood of someone with a semi automatic assault weapon running through your school, oh i wonder why kids have anxiety.
It's more than that, because existential threats (and more local and real threats) have always loomed over generations. Consider the threat of nuclear Armageddon that threatened generations who grew up in the 70s/80s for instance. No it's something more, personally I think it's social media, a decline in our culture and changes in parenting (some changes have been good of course, but some maybe not so).
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As a teenager who has been alive for 16 years, there have been over 180 school shootings, the global temperature is rising, I was stuck at home due to a pandemic for 2 years, and yet I'm told I am emotionally weaker because I have anxiety. My parents were not the problem the world we live in is. Please give kids a chance before you pass judgement, I promise we really are trying our best.
And hopefully you'll learn from us older folks mistakes and build a better world/s... or space stations. >.>
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Or they weren't trained from the cradle to hide their emotions and suck it up...cause um things got addressed at home...also trauma victims will get through a very stressful event and melt down when things are "normal" so there's that
Social media is partly to blame. People nowadays are constantly bombarded with news and information they're better off not knowing.
They aren't necessarily better off not knowing, but the constant bombardment with it is stressful.
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"We're more depressed" Well no s**t Sherlock what do you expect with the world we have to live in (especially in the US). We have to deal with climate change, getting womens right taken away and possibly also birth control rights and same sex marriage rights, even though we already thought those rights were staying for good here in the US which will directly affect a lot of people when they are older. Not to mention education and Healthcare being way too expensive. Any kid who educates themselves on the world is most likely going to have some form and anxiety and/or depression.
No that doesn't really make sense. Doesn't explain how did 70s/80s kids managed. They had their own existential threats hanging over them, (as all generations did) particularly the ever present fear of nuclear Armageddon along with many of the same social and economic stressors. Not to mention that it was far harder for LGBT folk in the 80s. Not trying to be critical, but I fail to see what is different (the specific threats and worries may be but overall there's no difference) Also consider that the same thing happens outside the US. In Northern Ireland where I live the kids are like this, yet their parents objectively had a far harder/scarier time growing up (30 year low level civil war). So clearly there are other factors at play beyond 'life is rubbish/hard/mean'. Personally I think social media has a big role to play in this, along with parenting that is either overindulgent or far too distant/neglectful.
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Kids are more open about their emotions. Back when I was in school I had break downs all the time and I was told to just suck it up and stop crying. No one wanted to deal with my issues or just take the time to listen. Kids are not weaker today. They're freer to express themselves.
The fact that parents treat minors like incapable babies until they're 17 and then expect them to know how to navigate the world when they turn 18. The amount of times I still feel like an idiot for not knowing something my mom does despite us having an age gap of over 20 years and despite me only really starting to learn how to be an adult around 16.
So what you're saying is that they cope well with normal stressful events, like preforming in a concert, but have a high baseline anxiety causing anxiety attacks without a discernable trigger. I would say that given school shootings, looming environmental disaster, and the prospect of graduating into a life of economic struggle, injustice, and the constant stream of bad news would explain that.
Or maybe the 2 decades of telling kids that their life will be ruined if their high school doesn’t go just so….
I finished high school back in the late 2000s. My school had active shooter drills after the Virginia Tech massacre. We were horrified by climate change after Al Gore's documentary and witnessing storms like Hurricane Katrina. We had an economic recession with limited job opportunities and crippling student loan debt. Things we should have improved on by now have only gotten worse. Current teens' anxieties are valid and the have my full sympathy.
The anxiety has always been there; it's just that people don't have to hide it or "tough it out."
School shootings? Police violence? COVID? Why go directly to the parents?
I think I'd be full of anxiety too if in the USA... two words school shootings.
As an 80s kid, I did duck and cover drills in elementary school. I never felt the imminent threat of being attacked though. I also think that kids today are more aware of the world around them through social media and easier access to news. When I was young, the news was on TV at 7 AM (I think), 6 PM, and 11 PM. Now, the news is all over the place, which can cause stress because almost all of it is things that people and especially kids can't really do anything about.
I wasn't helicopter parented and I have no problems with anxiety but then if I look at some of the people around me at school they have way to much anxiety
I think parents are putting too much effort into not "becoming their parent", and falling at being the parent their child needs. Kids need authority figures and discipline/real consequences when they mess up, not best friends a coddling. They also need to stay the hell off of social media and TikTok, and get outside and play.
That kind of "remarkable" as you put it, comes at a price. We are under so much pressure to succeed, especially when the world around us is crumbling. There's a general sense in my generation that there isn't time to learn slowly and being good at something "for your age" is an insult. We're pushed by our parents, our peers, our teachers, and ourselves to be great at what we do. That comes at a price. I can't tell you how many times in high school I got a bad grade or I messed up something I was supposed to be great at and simply couldn't handle those failures. It's not our fault that we're fighting to feel valuable and that no one is teaching us how to handle it when things don't work
It's both the parents and the kids. Don't blame the crappy world. The world was messed up when I was in school but I could handle it
As a teacher, I've noticed how students used to be much stronger mentally and more keen to work on themselves and study and teachers were extremely respected. Nowadays you can't tell a student to sit quietly for the teacher to teach her lesson without having them breaking down like how dare the teacher tell a student what to do. These days there is zero respect for teachers and the teaching system is completely corrupt and the students are so fragile.
or maybe...just maybe...they are living in a world where it's more acceptable to express emotion, depression, anxiety, etc. I see how it would feel like they aren't coping as well, but can you really say its healthier for them to bottle it up for the sake of appearances so it can be the foundation for mental breakdown later?
Don't blame the kids for this. Whether it's from psychological disorders or bad parenting, it's rarely the kid's fault they're 'emotional'. /srs
Overbearing parents may be to blame in some cases, especially if those parents are idiots and think they know what the kid's doing when they don't. Then they want perfectionism when the kid was near perfect anyways. That stress puts a massive tole on you...
I think the op mistakes their openness with their emotions with being unable to cope. When I was this age, schools, teachers and adults in general weren't interested in how you felt or why you felt like that. Kids now are expressing themselves better and healthier for it. It's like how people complain about the amount of depression etc meds people take now when 'back in the day' people 'self-medicated' with booze..
Maybe bc we are told to never discipline only talk to them and practically be their best friends
I see almost the same in every post. Kids being more mentally weaker, kids being overprotected, etc. And yes, I think that's exactly the problem. Even thou we, our parents and grandparents had a more difficult upbringing, we are still alive. But I think if these kids would have one of our days, they will commit suicide in seconds. Oh, and the self-entilement, parents please 😑
I’m a professor.
Downside:
1) students are getting worse at understanding what a good source is. “Googling” is research.
2) They are significantly less engaged- I’ve taught similar courses for at least 15 years. These cohorts speak very little in class.
3) their oral speaking and debate skills are much worse.
4) They have shorter attentions and can’t focus in on deeper material.
Upside:
1) They are kinder to a more diverse people. Not that I don’t see mean/dickish behavior, but it’s less accepted.
2) they are fairly creative.
3) They want to be involved at a higher level.
But #4 downside plus #3 upside makes them frustrating to manage because they come across to us older folks (gen X here) as very entitled (ie, they immediately want what we worked a long time for & they do not have the skill set or experience for the positions they think they deserve). So I fire a lot more of them than I ever had to in the past.
Not a teacher, but in higher education-- They really really want guidance. A scary amount of guidance. I don't know anyone else's experience, but when I was a kid and had a question my parent's couldn't answer, they would say "well, there are three sets of encyclopedias down the hall and you have a library at school. Figure it out. "
1. Lack of persistence. This is loosely correlated to [instant gratification conditioning.](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:EDPR.0000012344.34008.5c) If they can't figure something out on the first try, they require hand-holding for each step. And if they get frustrated with the hand-holding, they give up.
2. Fear of taking risks. Related to #1, helicopter parenting, and the cultural effects of high stakes testing. For example, a colleague asked if I could pick up his son and take him to lessons because he didn't trust the kid to make it on his own. The kid is 13, and the lessons are a one mile walk from his school through a safe neighborhood.
3. Tech dependent, not tech savvy. Kids who can tell you every YouTube video they've watched this week, and how to download extra skins on Minecraft, but don't know how to use a printer, or how to get anywhere without Google Maps.
4. Lack of problem solving skills. This is directly related, IMO, to all three of the first issues.
I would install GPS in my brain if I could. I am "directionally challenged ". Until I go somewhere several times, I use GPS. All the streets in my old subdivision were "Park something " Lived there 7 years and still got turned around. I wouldn't let my kids walk that far alone. Neighborhood might be safe, but things happen. But that's me
Not a teacher in the strictest sense, but I do a lot of tutoring, and I briefly taught some junior comp eco courses at the local elementary school. The biggest thing I’ve noticed is an over abundance of “lawnmower” parents—parents who plow down any obstacle in their kids’ paths without ever letting them challenge themselves. I had parents who would do their kids’ assignments for them because they were “hard,” then yell at the instructors when their children weren’t learning.
The other big thing is that knowledge of proper grammar seems to have really decreased. I know high school honors students who can barely string together a coherent sentence. I read and edit essays/resumes/research papers sometimes, and they were often borderline illegible because nobody knew basic spelling and punctuation. I had to actually teach people—some of whom were in AP English classes—that you need to capitalize proper nouns and put quotes around dialogue. People also don’t know how to use word processors for some reason—loads of students had no idea how to even center text, so they’d just press space until their titles were roughly in the middle of the paper.
This! The grammar, OY! I remember diagraming sentences in 5th grade, and now, I see the damn incorrect overuse of the apostrophe everywhere! 🤦🏽♀️
Lawnmower parents, more emphasis on test scores, and more reliance on technology. Less interest in learning and too much interest in social media.
Mental health. Each semester, I refer at least two or three students per class to campus counselling services.
A couple add-on observations:
- Students obviously now feel much more comfortable talking to their professors about their personal issues. I believe in educating the whole student, so I am OK with this. Also, I legitimately believe students have more stress on their plates now than they did 20 years ago. Increased competition, a weakening (North American) economy, climate change anxiety, the impacts of social media on self-worth, etc.
- At least 50% of the students I refer to counselling have already gone. I am impressed at the proactive nature younger people are taking with regards to their mental health. I agree that the stigma around mental health is decreasing, which I support.
First off, the kids are essentially the same--it is the parents who are far more immature. They want to be "buddies" with their kids instead of being, well, parents, so discipline is far worse. Kids know they won't be punished at home so the push the envelope at school. Parents are also making far worse decisions in raising their kids--have your family take a week long vacation in September while your child is flunking my class? Sure! That was unthinkable 10-20 years ago.
That said, students have far more distractions now. With the Internet and cell phones, kids no longer talk or even engage with each other in the halls or at lunch. As a result, school activities are suffering as kids now have that damn phone to entertain them after school. This has led to a generation of narcissistic kids that think not only that their **** don't stink, but that we should share in their gift.
Computer Science teacher here. There has been a definite move over time from trying to learn how to do something towards trying to find a ready made answer. Whenever I set my students an assignment, we discuss what they should do if they get stuck - typically involving re-reading notes, looking at the resources they've been given, looking at prior work, perhaps finally using web based resources. Students have always (as long as the web has been a thing) skipped straight to the last one, bit the subtle change is rather than searching for HOW to do something, most now just search for a fully formed complete answer which they can copy and hand in.
I’ve noticed that students don’t read as much. I used to read all sorts of books when I was young, and I believe that I’m a better writer for it. I fell in love with Steinbeck in 9th grade and read his works multiple times. How can you learn to write if you’ve never read great writing?
I'm an avid reader, several books a week. I reread if I have nothing new. Both kids love to read & both write. Youngest does custom stories and writes D&D stories. She is a fan of Shakespeare and Sherlock Holmes & introduced me to several series I wouldn't have read otherwise. Can't live without books
They're more alike than different, but students of 1999 were more likely to be able to write their own web page in raw HTML, and students in 2019 aren't sure how to make a basic Powerpoint or attach something to an email. I've been doing this long enough that I remember when the professors were baffled by all things computer-ish and the students were impatient with how clueless we were, and now it's reversed.
That, and even my smart students have zero idea how to use an apostrophe. That's something that's shown up in the past five to seven years. I blame autocorrect.
Edit: Thought of a couple more. In 1999, there was a hum of chatter with occasional outbreaks of laughter before class started, and I had to quiet them down to begin. Now there might be one or two people talking, but everybody else is glued to their phone. Also, back then there was a lot of flirting before class, and male and female students mixed and sat next to each other. Now it looks like an eighth grade dance: females on this side, males on that.
Edit: OK, two more, and then I'm done. In 1999, my female students tried to dress nicely for class, and my male students showed up in sweats and a t-shirt. Complete reversal now: the males dress fashionably and the females wear sweats and hoodies. And in 1999, just about everybody wore a baseball cap -- when it came time to take a test, I had to tell them to turn it around or take it off, not because I thought they might have answers written in the bill, but because I needed to see where their eyes were. When I gave that instruction, hats were turned on all but one or two heads; it was just as much part of the college student uniform as a backpack. These days, I might have one student in a ball cap once or twice a term. I think everybody puts more effort into their hair.
This made me giggle. My dad was a computer nerd from day one. He insisted that I know how to break down and rebuild a system, knew how to use DOS and Keep up on new tech. I really appreciated that. Before word processors became a real thing, I would write my home work using very basic DOS commands. Being able to turn in my papers on dot matrix computer paper was ballin back then lol. Today? I hardly ever use my computer in favor of my phone. lol
I was a university advisor for many years and now I’m an adjunct professor. Students today refuse to use their textbook/take notes to their detriment. They’ll turn in papers with applications of definitions/concepts they found by googling as opposed to ones discussed in class or in the text. It’s amazing how much research they’ll do that goes against what has been taught (and is easily at their fingertips).
Students lack the tenacity to stick with a task until they figure it out. Most will try once and if they aren’t perfect will give up and blame the teacher if they can’t do it. I teach physics, 11th grade, they want me to grade each step of each problem before they move forward. And if I don’t, some throw temper tantrums.
Gen X here. I mean, there's no excuse for temper tantrums, but isn't helping your students through a complex problem kinda like... teaching?? And if, as a whole they don't feel confident in their progress, maybe you're actually the problem, as that's your job? Just sayin.
Physical education teacher here. Watched a steady decline in fitness test scores over the years. Kids were in far better shape 20 years ago. Over the last 5 I’ve seen a dramatic dip in fitness in elementary age kids. Fewer outliers on the top end and far more kids on the low end. We do the PACER cardio test. We might have 1-2 kids in the whole building fail the pacer 10 years ago. I now see approx.18% of student fail it. (You can almost walk the first 8, passing for most boys is 23 and 15 for girls. Also used to 10-15 % of student over 65. I think we had 2 in the whole group that was tested. (About 400) We’ve also see strong correlation between fitness scores and “end of grade” testing. Usually the students with better cardio fitness do better on testing and those with lower scores do worse on EOG’s. In theory if we can boost their fitness scores we can boost their EOG’s. We will see a major health crisis in 30-35 years. With a strong rise in preventable disease, due to inactive lifestyle.
The need for instant gratification due to technology; they have a harder time engaging in critical thinking activities because of standardized testing; better entrepreneurs (always bargaining to get the best for them).
In 2009, kids were blown away if you could reference online memes. Nowadays, not so much. They’re more likely to sneer and call you a boomer.
One of my professors loves to reference memes. It's certainly cringe at times, but everyone in the class appreciates the effort.
I work in a college and hear the stories of professors.
While students are obsessed with grades and bugging the professor on what they have the minute you say "i have your grades, come to my office between 11 and 1 and get it and if your missing anything ill let you know" not a soul showed up - no emails saying "hey i have classes then can i come in at a different time?". Students have been drying in professors offices over grades and its not the ones who really do try but just dont get it - its the ones that are missing 2 labs, 10 homework assignments, and missing quizzes but feel they deserve a C in the class because they show up ALMOST every day.
During labs and such like others have said they dont read instructions or if it doesn't explicitly SAY something they wont do it (like turn the meter on sorta thing)
Professors have had parents call their office demanding to know what their childs grade is. Professors have to remind them that your child is over 18 and legally an adult i cannot divulge that information to you. Or parents want to know why their kid is almost failing their class and why they are making the class so hard.
The parental thing is the one that still blows my mind. When I first started teaching, I'd have a couple parents -- ALWAYS the parents of boys in my experience -- complain. Now, every single goddamn term, I have some mom or dad acting like because they're paying the bills, their kid's education is like a goddamn fast food burger and they "have the right" to demand it "their way" and "get what they're paying for!" Goody for you, but legally I can't and won't tell you anything. With online classes? Even worse. These assholes INTERRUPT CLASS to make these demands. No, parents, I do NOT work for you, and no, you do NOT "pay my bills" by any stretch.
Students now seem to stay away from politics and activism completely because they don't know who to trust. İt's very sad.
Becoming engaged with the world beyond ones family and hometown through political activism used to be a important -- perhaps the most important - part of university. İt is not that students now are apathetic, they are just being told that everything is 'fake news' and so they don't want to feel 'duped' into being passionate about issues that might not be real.
I don't recall giving one flying c**p about politics or social issues until I started paying taxes and that was the popular position among my peers. Activism has always been the exception among youth. I remember being forced to do c**p outside the class in Government because "get involved" and hating every minute of it 20+ years ago. If anything kids are more aware and passionate about "issues" than ever before thanks to social media.
Two words: anxiety and technology.
College teacher since 1999 👩🏫
Swearing amongst children I think has gotten worse. I've heard 1st-hand of what a 'lower-demographic' pupil has said to a teacher and it was horrificly-sexual. Not sure if the pupil was a girl or a boy. I have heard a 'lower-demographic' father saying the same sort of thing to his (cute-sounding) son walking past my house as well, when the son wa complaining another schoolkid picking on him. Very horrific and very sad. (South of England)
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I’m a highschooler. as much as i want to complain about grumpy old boomers, these are nearly all true. i see it every day. my mom was an english teacher, so i have a pretty good handle on grammar usage. we are sophomores btw - my classmate asked what a verb was and where the apostrophe goes in “They’re”, all in one sentence. i’m worried about how the kids in my generation act so cold and bratty towards adults. i’m worried about the kindergarteners (my sister is 6) - the PE teacher was right. they are getting less active. i worry about a lot of silly things, but the things on this list actually do call for attention
Let me start off by saying I go to a private school and appreciate that my parents work their asses off for me. But the school (Gr 3-12) hires out a personal trainer and we do workouts every Wednesday so the p.e. aspect doesn't really apply. I am a junior this coming year and I must say I was very shocked when I read about the apostrophe issue. I'm surprised that's actually happening
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College English lit prof here. When I was first teaching in Los Angeles, late 90s/early 2000s, my students--almost all nonwhite--wanted to engage and talk about the n-word. They wanted to analyze the differences between "-ger" and "-gah." They wanted to engage texts that used it and tear into it, hard, from Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes to Mark Twain to rap and Quentin Tarantino. They wanted to talk about the shifts they'd experienced in their lifetimes, and, especially, about their own personal experiences with hearing/using the word. They thought I was lame for not reading it out loud b/c "it's just a word, we don't give it power!" Now, my students of most races refuse any texts that even includes the word, even though I have a practice of not reading it out loud. They frame encountering the word in the classroom as an act of violence perpetrated on them. It's hard to find spaces in that fine line between censorship, historical accuracy, context, trauma, and hate speech.
That is really interesting that you were able to have that experience with them in the early generations. It's not a word we really come across in literature much in Australia, but we did have one book we studied about an Aboriginal boy. There were other racial slurs in there (against both Aboriginal and white people) and we discussed them and why they became part of the vernacular and why they are less common now etc. This was in the mid 2000s, but I would be surprised if the book list and the way it is taught changed that much, as us Aussies don't shy away from difficult topics often. In fact, a couple of years later our play text we studied began with F**k, repeated about five times, so we discussed why it was important to read that, rather than a censored version. If I remember correctly, a few years ago my sister's set text was about a girl who was wrestling with depression/killed her self, which of course led to lots of important discussions.
Load More Replies... I think that it’s wonderful that children now take so much in their stride as far as LGTBQ matters go. My son said that his friend Charlotte is now Charles, he didn’t question it, just respected the change and carried on. My only concern is that children now seem so desperate to label themselves from a very young age, even from as young as six.They shouldn’t be worrying about their sexuality at that age, they should just be playing and having fun. There’s plenty of time to worry about sexual identity when puberty hits!
This is something us "you don't need labels!" Gen X-ers need to reconcile. These kids, unlike us, are probably going to go through multiple cycles of labels and rejecting labels and finding new labels. I think there's actually a thread of commonality here, though, about interrogating and understanding who we are as individuals, and who we WANT to be. That said, every single queer person I've known has expressed that they knew they were queer by the time they were 5-6. It's not about "sex," per se, it's about gender. That these kids can just be like "Mom, Dad, I like boys, not girls" or "I want to wear a dress/cut my hair short/paint my nails" and it's often no biggie is exactly what we spent all of those decades marching for.
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Most of these entires really do sound like “kids these days” grumpy adults.
Definitely. Some have their merit, like the higher stress, being more open with mental health and so. But many are definetly adults looking at their past with nostalgia. Most kids in the 90s and 2000s were not programming, reading constantly or had perfect grammar. We were told the same, that we were lazy, didnt respect them, that TV and videogames was destroying our brains, that we didnt read enough etc. If you lived in a city you werent normally allowed to walk alone until quite late and you couldnt just "be outside playing" because your parents needed to take you to the park and stay there. My partner grew up in a small village and his childhood was more free but i grew in a big city and we barely had any unsurpervised outside time until we were like 15 and could go alone.
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Here is my personal experience as a teacher who teaches programming. I teach college students btw. 1) Write a program to find x percent of y. Students are now confused. Now I ask them to do the same on paper. Some cant do it. Then I explain how percentages work. Now they get it. I do tell them that this is how discounts work in real life. 2) Calculate the simple interest earned on an amount. I have to tell them the formula. If you have a bank account you should know have a basic knowledge of how interests work. As a teacher, I do blame our education system for this. You should know about how these things work or you would get scammed without even realising and they are college students who will be doing highly technical jobs.
Actually, these days students or young adults or working-class adults often don't get simple interest on their checking accounts any more, or it's such a low rate that you've got to have 5+ figures to actually get anything bc otherwise it's less than a penny and is always rounded down. Plus, the interest rates on accounts like savings or retirement are meaningless - the banks are out here changing them multiple times a year, and if it's a 401k they'll say things like "so we told you to expect 8% on average but the market crashed and actually you had a couple months where it was -3% and it's been less than inflation all year, but since we told you that was just an ~estimate you can't do anything about it, sorry!"
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I am an art teacher. I see students have less imagination or creativity. When given an open ended assignment to promote independent thought and creativity, they ask way more questions, wanting me to tell them exactly what to do and how to do it. Kids have to learn there are multiple ways to solve a problem, more than one way to do things. There does not have to be a single "right" answer.
Something I noticed when I went back to college about the younger generations is that they are very susceptible to peer pressure. When you get them alone, you can get an honest opinion about things from them, but when they are in class, in a group, they'll go along with whatever the group thinks. You can actually see it happening, almost like a wave going over the class. One kid virtue signals in a discussion, then everyone falls in line. A few times one of the older students will speak out and give a different opinion, which then makes them the enemy and is now an outcast. For the rest of the quarter most of the kids wouldn't even talk to that person.
The same behavior most people have in social media. Not a coincidence.
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I mean… most of these are ok, but some of them just sound like older people complaining about kids nowadays. I’m a teen, and like, none of this is our fault. This is how we were raised. Especially little kids, they don’t just decide to have short attention spans and be super nervous all the time. It’s their parents and the hell of a world we live in today that made them like that.
As a highschool student that stuff isn't true for all students the no activities stuff look at your school and see how much clubs and sports are being advertised my school has a small sheet of paper on a board that people don't notice or don't have enough time to read. The technology ones annoy me a lot because the computer class in 7th grade taught us coding on a website where you drag boxes into more boxes and so far the only class that has taught me real world stuff was half a semester. I think the people in charge of this country should go back to school and get some new experience to figure out what they actually should do and it shouldn't be a private school they should go to a random small town public highschool and spend a month going to class and asking students what needs changed
I understand the view that students 'aren't socialising' and are 'absorbed in their phones/ipads/laptops/other devices', but I think there's something people miss here. That kid typing away on their phone? They're messaging their friends. And, controversial, but I wouldn't say that's any less socialising than talking in real life. If anything, it gives them a chance to think about what they say before they say it, allowing there to be less misunderstandings and mix-ups and meaning less arguments.
My mum was a teacher. The biggest difference was when they closed school for special needs children in my town because some council busybody decided it is discriminatory to label these kids. They just made these kids go to normal primary school where the teachers had no resources nor training to deal with them. Some of them were not problematic, just slow learning. Some of them had serious mental/psychological problems and kept screaming, breaking things, kept running across classroom, some were violent. One such child would distupt entire class all day every day and in the end the child suffered, the class suffered and the teachers suffered. She counted hours not days until her retirement.
I've enjoyed reading this but I (millennial) disagree on one point, and that is that the younger generations are more prone to anxiety and less resilient etc due to upbringing/ helicopter parenting etc. While this might be part of the issue, another big issue is that we have reason to be anxious; we spent the past 2.5 years of our youth in a pandemic, most people my age will probably never be able to own a home as the housing markets are unaffordable nowadays (even with a full-time job and maybe a partner), the dating culture is absolutely horrible and ever glooming threat of the next world war doesn't make it better. Other than that I think there is much truth and also a lot of nostalgia in those shared experiences.
I'm 25 and a high school teacher. Comparing my generation with my high schoolers: 1. Students are less motivated. 2. They have shorter attention spans. 3. More caring about social issues. 4. Much more open about mental health. 5. Cell phones are a big issue. 6. Grammar skills are lacking. 7. Many students do not have automatic respect for teachers and admin, respect must be earned.
Most are parenting issues. Anxiety, depression, bad behavior, lack of language and social skills, screen addiction... Those repeats constantly thru all 30 responses. I know sitting your child in front of a screen makes your life easier, but how much damage are you doing to his/her future? How much hours per week you spend with them? Are you really a parent, or just a food provider? My wife and I don't want kids, because we know we have no time and no patience to raise a kid properly. And I think every couple should think about it seriously before having a kid they can't handle.
I'm not a teacher. I've been hiring people for more than a decade and have really experienced the change in the general attitude to life that resonates with these teachers. From experience, they are definitely less resilient and require more guidance compared to the older group. Perseverance is the other issue as well, so is delayed gratification. It is a worrisome trend because all those traits contribute to building their skillset and eventually a career.
Gen X students were in school in the 80s, and college in the early 90s. 1999 students are Millennials.
Half of these genuinely go over the legitimate changes (good and bad) in schools with some really good points and discussion topics while the other half is just complaining 'back in my day!'-style. I guess it just depends on how the OP frames their thoughts though
I was surprised about some of these, especially the loss of knowledge of computers, so I asked my sister, who is actually in the generation below me (9 years younger) and she said it was probably accurate (though her school's computer room burned down halfway through primary school so that was part of why they stopped IT lessons).
Kids now are more informed than ever and I think that's why they are more anxious and depressed than ever before. Before kids wouldn't know about some law restricting rights or global climate change unless they were watching/reading/listening to the news, but now if you open up Instagram or Twitter or TikTok or whatever you get bombarded with current events that are depressing. The massive increase in school shootings are also a major reason as to why kids are more anxious, they know that every day they walk into a classroom could be their last and there is nothing they can do about it and no one who has the power to do something will do it which is incredibly frustrating.
One thing I've noticed in reading this a) personally I'm gonna use my phone less and read more. I've been missing my books anyway. And b) if I EVER have a kid I'm doing with them what my parents did for me: no phone until middle school. Smart phone that is. I had limited screen time as a kid while I was at home and it was supervised and I would definitely make sure that my child had a way to contact me in case of an emergency, or to make sure that everyone was aware if plans had changed for getting to/from somewhere, etc.
I’m a highschooler. as much as i want to complain about grumpy old boomers, these are nearly all true. i see it every day. my mom was an english teacher, so i have a pretty good handle on grammar usage. we are sophomores btw - my classmate asked what a verb was and where the apostrophe goes in “They’re”, all in one sentence. i’m worried about how the kids in my generation act so cold and bratty towards adults. i’m worried about the kindergarteners (my sister is 6) - the PE teacher was right. they are getting less active. i worry about a lot of silly things, but the things on this list actually do call for attention
Let me start off by saying I go to a private school and appreciate that my parents work their asses off for me. But the school (Gr 3-12) hires out a personal trainer and we do workouts every Wednesday so the p.e. aspect doesn't really apply. I am a junior this coming year and I must say I was very shocked when I read about the apostrophe issue. I'm surprised that's actually happening
Load More Replies... College English lit prof here. When I was first teaching in Los Angeles, late 90s/early 2000s, my students--almost all nonwhite--wanted to engage and talk about the n-word. They wanted to analyze the differences between "-ger" and "-gah." They wanted to engage texts that used it and tear into it, hard, from Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes to Mark Twain to rap and Quentin Tarantino. They wanted to talk about the shifts they'd experienced in their lifetimes, and, especially, about their own personal experiences with hearing/using the word. They thought I was lame for not reading it out loud b/c "it's just a word, we don't give it power!" Now, my students of most races refuse any texts that even includes the word, even though I have a practice of not reading it out loud. They frame encountering the word in the classroom as an act of violence perpetrated on them. It's hard to find spaces in that fine line between censorship, historical accuracy, context, trauma, and hate speech.
That is really interesting that you were able to have that experience with them in the early generations. It's not a word we really come across in literature much in Australia, but we did have one book we studied about an Aboriginal boy. There were other racial slurs in there (against both Aboriginal and white people) and we discussed them and why they became part of the vernacular and why they are less common now etc. This was in the mid 2000s, but I would be surprised if the book list and the way it is taught changed that much, as us Aussies don't shy away from difficult topics often. In fact, a couple of years later our play text we studied began with F**k, repeated about five times, so we discussed why it was important to read that, rather than a censored version. If I remember correctly, a few years ago my sister's set text was about a girl who was wrestling with depression/killed her self, which of course led to lots of important discussions.
Load More Replies... I think that it’s wonderful that children now take so much in their stride as far as LGTBQ matters go. My son said that his friend Charlotte is now Charles, he didn’t question it, just respected the change and carried on. My only concern is that children now seem so desperate to label themselves from a very young age, even from as young as six.They shouldn’t be worrying about their sexuality at that age, they should just be playing and having fun. There’s plenty of time to worry about sexual identity when puberty hits!
This is something us "you don't need labels!" Gen X-ers need to reconcile. These kids, unlike us, are probably going to go through multiple cycles of labels and rejecting labels and finding new labels. I think there's actually a thread of commonality here, though, about interrogating and understanding who we are as individuals, and who we WANT to be. That said, every single queer person I've known has expressed that they knew they were queer by the time they were 5-6. It's not about "sex," per se, it's about gender. That these kids can just be like "Mom, Dad, I like boys, not girls" or "I want to wear a dress/cut my hair short/paint my nails" and it's often no biggie is exactly what we spent all of those decades marching for.
Load More Replies... Most of these entires really do sound like “kids these days” grumpy adults.
Definitely. Some have their merit, like the higher stress, being more open with mental health and so. But many are definetly adults looking at their past with nostalgia. Most kids in the 90s and 2000s were not programming, reading constantly or had perfect grammar. We were told the same, that we were lazy, didnt respect them, that TV and videogames was destroying our brains, that we didnt read enough etc. If you lived in a city you werent normally allowed to walk alone until quite late and you couldnt just "be outside playing" because your parents needed to take you to the park and stay there. My partner grew up in a small village and his childhood was more free but i grew in a big city and we barely had any unsurpervised outside time until we were like 15 and could go alone.
Load More Replies... Here is my personal experience as a teacher who teaches programming. I teach college students btw. 1) Write a program to find x percent of y. Students are now confused. Now I ask them to do the same on paper. Some cant do it. Then I explain how percentages work. Now they get it. I do tell them that this is how discounts work in real life. 2) Calculate the simple interest earned on an amount. I have to tell them the formula. If you have a bank account you should know have a basic knowledge of how interests work. As a teacher, I do blame our education system for this. You should know about how these things work or you would get scammed without even realising and they are college students who will be doing highly technical jobs.
Actually, these days students or young adults or working-class adults often don't get simple interest on their checking accounts any more, or it's such a low rate that you've got to have 5+ figures to actually get anything bc otherwise it's less than a penny and is always rounded down. Plus, the interest rates on accounts like savings or retirement are meaningless - the banks are out here changing them multiple times a year, and if it's a 401k they'll say things like "so we told you to expect 8% on average but the market crashed and actually you had a couple months where it was -3% and it's been less than inflation all year, but since we told you that was just an ~estimate you can't do anything about it, sorry!"
Load More Replies... I am an art teacher. I see students have less imagination or creativity. When given an open ended assignment to promote independent thought and creativity, they ask way more questions, wanting me to tell them exactly what to do and how to do it. Kids have to learn there are multiple ways to solve a problem, more than one way to do things. There does not have to be a single "right" answer.
Something I noticed when I went back to college about the younger generations is that they are very susceptible to peer pressure. When you get them alone, you can get an honest opinion about things from them, but when they are in class, in a group, they'll go along with whatever the group thinks. You can actually see it happening, almost like a wave going over the class. One kid virtue signals in a discussion, then everyone falls in line. A few times one of the older students will speak out and give a different opinion, which then makes them the enemy and is now an outcast. For the rest of the quarter most of the kids wouldn't even talk to that person.
The same behavior most people have in social media. Not a coincidence.
Load More Replies... I mean… most of these are ok, but some of them just sound like older people complaining about kids nowadays. I’m a teen, and like, none of this is our fault. This is how we were raised. Especially little kids, they don’t just decide to have short attention spans and be super nervous all the time. It’s their parents and the hell of a world we live in today that made them like that.
As a highschool student that stuff isn't true for all students the no activities stuff look at your school and see how much clubs and sports are being advertised my school has a small sheet of paper on a board that people don't notice or don't have enough time to read. The technology ones annoy me a lot because the computer class in 7th grade taught us coding on a website where you drag boxes into more boxes and so far the only class that has taught me real world stuff was half a semester. I think the people in charge of this country should go back to school and get some new experience to figure out what they actually should do and it shouldn't be a private school they should go to a random small town public highschool and spend a month going to class and asking students what needs changed
I understand the view that students 'aren't socialising' and are 'absorbed in their phones/ipads/laptops/other devices', but I think there's something people miss here. That kid typing away on their phone? They're messaging their friends. And, controversial, but I wouldn't say that's any less socialising than talking in real life. If anything, it gives them a chance to think about what they say before they say it, allowing there to be less misunderstandings and mix-ups and meaning less arguments.
My mum was a teacher. The biggest difference was when they closed school for special needs children in my town because some council busybody decided it is discriminatory to label these kids. They just made these kids go to normal primary school where the teachers had no resources nor training to deal with them. Some of them were not problematic, just slow learning. Some of them had serious mental/psychological problems and kept screaming, breaking things, kept running across classroom, some were violent. One such child would distupt entire class all day every day and in the end the child suffered, the class suffered and the teachers suffered. She counted hours not days until her retirement.
I've enjoyed reading this but I (millennial) disagree on one point, and that is that the younger generations are more prone to anxiety and less resilient etc due to upbringing/ helicopter parenting etc. While this might be part of the issue, another big issue is that we have reason to be anxious; we spent the past 2.5 years of our youth in a pandemic, most people my age will probably never be able to own a home as the housing markets are unaffordable nowadays (even with a full-time job and maybe a partner), the dating culture is absolutely horrible and ever glooming threat of the next world war doesn't make it better. Other than that I think there is much truth and also a lot of nostalgia in those shared experiences.
I'm 25 and a high school teacher. Comparing my generation with my high schoolers: 1. Students are less motivated. 2. They have shorter attention spans. 3. More caring about social issues. 4. Much more open about mental health. 5. Cell phones are a big issue. 6. Grammar skills are lacking. 7. Many students do not have automatic respect for teachers and admin, respect must be earned.
Most are parenting issues. Anxiety, depression, bad behavior, lack of language and social skills, screen addiction... Those repeats constantly thru all 30 responses. I know sitting your child in front of a screen makes your life easier, but how much damage are you doing to his/her future? How much hours per week you spend with them? Are you really a parent, or just a food provider? My wife and I don't want kids, because we know we have no time and no patience to raise a kid properly. And I think every couple should think about it seriously before having a kid they can't handle.
I'm not a teacher. I've been hiring people for more than a decade and have really experienced the change in the general attitude to life that resonates with these teachers. From experience, they are definitely less resilient and require more guidance compared to the older group. Perseverance is the other issue as well, so is delayed gratification. It is a worrisome trend because all those traits contribute to building their skillset and eventually a career.
Gen X students were in school in the 80s, and college in the early 90s. 1999 students are Millennials.
Half of these genuinely go over the legitimate changes (good and bad) in schools with some really good points and discussion topics while the other half is just complaining 'back in my day!'-style. I guess it just depends on how the OP frames their thoughts though
I was surprised about some of these, especially the loss of knowledge of computers, so I asked my sister, who is actually in the generation below me (9 years younger) and she said it was probably accurate (though her school's computer room burned down halfway through primary school so that was part of why they stopped IT lessons).
Kids now are more informed than ever and I think that's why they are more anxious and depressed than ever before. Before kids wouldn't know about some law restricting rights or global climate change unless they were watching/reading/listening to the news, but now if you open up Instagram or Twitter or TikTok or whatever you get bombarded with current events that are depressing. The massive increase in school shootings are also a major reason as to why kids are more anxious, they know that every day they walk into a classroom could be their last and there is nothing they can do about it and no one who has the power to do something will do it which is incredibly frustrating.
One thing I've noticed in reading this a) personally I'm gonna use my phone less and read more. I've been missing my books anyway. And b) if I EVER have a kid I'm doing with them what my parents did for me: no phone until middle school. Smart phone that is. I had limited screen time as a kid while I was at home and it was supervised and I would definitely make sure that my child had a way to contact me in case of an emergency, or to make sure that everyone was aware if plans had changed for getting to/from somewhere, etc.
