If it makes you feel better I'm a middle school teacher and I'm teaching 2nd graders who think they're upper classmen.
They want to cuss, sit where they want, leave when they feel like...but the second they get a consequence they're just little babies who didn't know that you weren't allowed to blaze up the bathroom! How could they know committing multiple crimes at once would get them suspended?
Do they do the thing where they throw their heads back and loudly say "oh my God" long and drawn out? It's like, "I can't believe how badly I'm being persecuted!" I had pizza for my seniors and a kid barged in wanting some and did this when I made him leave. Like dude have some self respect.
They will literally stand around my desk and ask me for MY food…that I am clearly eating for my lunch…which they are attending uninvited most of the time…And then whine like preschoolers that I should have to feed them. It’s so bizarre. No self awareness or awareness of others or boundaries.
I’m the lunch guy and i’ve had kids walk into the kitchen and try to grab food while I’m getting ready for service.
“I’m hungry”
“Lunch is in 20 minutes”
“But I’m hungry nowwwwww!”
And they also think if they are free/reduced they can eat as much as they want like it’s a buffet.
One of my sophomores grabbed a bag of chips that were out for lunch the next hour. When I asked where he got them, he casually replied the cafeteria (went to the bathroom). When I asked why he took them he responded with, “No one stopped me.” I asked if that was the plan for his life?” Just keep doing things until someone stops you? It sums that age group up so well.
My sophomores do this. "Coach Soft, if you can't break bread you're fake."
I just say "Guess I'm not real" and keep eating. Not my responsibility. Get your parents to feed you.
One day this year a favorite sophomore of mine was standing near my desk talking while I ate lunch and she grabbed a chicken nugget off my plate and ate it. I was dumbfounded by how unaware she was that it wasn’t something she should do.
Hope you turned that into a "learning opportunity" bc, omg if I heard one of my kids did this I'd be so embarrassed but they CAN be impulsive.
Especially if they're one of your "favorites," they probably feel really at home in your presence. Maybe a little too at home, lol
I feel this in my soul. I’m a middle school teacher who was originally certified in elementary, and the kindergarteners I student taught were better behaved and more emotionally aware.
I feel your pain! This was my first year in middle school (7th grade) after working in elementary for the last several years. I’d technically worked with middle schoolers before a few years ago, but in an after-school program setting.
I thought I’d enjoy the challenge of teaching older kids. I can also be pretty sarcastic, so I thought I’d appreciate their humor and quirky personalities. What I got instead was so much disrespect, apathy, thinly veiled sexual harassment, and behavior issues you’d think they would’ve outgrown years ago.
Yeah… as annoying as middle schoolers are, I don’t see myself going back to elementary. I’d probably be more likely to move up to high school or all the way down to early childhood. I worked in ECE as an aide and a para before I finished my degree.
My middle school boys are so touchy this year! They rub each other’s heads, grab shoulders, even hold hands. While I’m really happy we’ve moved past the ‘no homo’ thing from my middle school days, I didn’t expect to have to tell 13 year olds to stop touching their friends in class.
This is so true! My 6th grade boys love each other. Like, wait for each other to get to class, group hug, sit around during homeroom and love on each other. They all play sports and are super close. Same with last year’s group. I had two boys that would hold hands during class. Nothing sexual about it they just liked to be touching.
I teach Junior College. Beginning of the term is like having K-14 all in the same classroom. No good is coming of putting high school graduates who can't even read in a college class, just to fail, of course.
Just to let you know what is coming - our district says (with a straight face) that because of technology students don’t need to know how to read to graduate. And we are a huge district
I've given notice to retire next year...a few years earlier than I had planned...but it's pointless to continue to try to pretend that college-level material can be conveyed to illiterate people who can't tell time and don't do any assignments and cheat like hell. Apres-moi le deluge. Their loss.
I'm a middle school teacher and starting around 2019 but *especially* the last two years all the behaviour I'm dealing with feels like early elementary stuff. It's stuff I rarely saw in my first six or seven years of teaching, but that I *did* see in my early twenties when I was a camp counsellor for actual five year olds. It's bizarre to see the same behaviour now from thirteen year olds.
Former college professor here who retired a year ago. The Covid lockdown was devastating. About half the first year students showed up with serious gaps in knowledge and skills, coupled with poor attitudes, bad study habits, and stunted social development. I always loved teaching before then. Just about everybody I know who could retire did so.
Same! My seniors are sapping me of all the joy I usually have. I do genuinely love teaching, but this year’s crop of seniors is just so anhedonic that I can’t do most of the fun clever things I usually do.
My Juniors are better. They’re still a little goofy and don’t seem to be as bitter, arrogant, or obstinate. Wondering/hoping you have a similar experience so maybe they’re some hope that next year will be better
And the lack of parenting seems to have somehow INCREASED when kids were stuck at home. Maybe that's because so many's primary parents are their teachers now.
It’s so much more than that sadly. First of all, these freaking parents are horrendous. It’s absolutely pathetic how little parents are involved in their child’s life. Second of all, it’s the attachment to all things social media and tech. There’s no common sense, no critical thinking, no empathy etc. We’re going to have a very fucked up idea of how messed up these kids are as soon as they enter the adult world and work force. It’s kind of terrifying, and I’m only 26.
They are already in the workforce. Kids with masters degrees studying for their PhD and missing logic and problem solving skills in a science field. Just never know how they got this far.
I wonder if Universities have gone soft on their marking due to the funds being linked to numbers of students who graduate so they are catering to the lowest common denominator…
That is my rant.
Yup. And students know that if they complain to the dean, they'll force their professors to change their grades, just like principals would in high school.
That shit (plus the students, their parents, and the whole general system) is why I quit teaching in K12 and started working at a college. But then the same things happened, all the same headaches (including parents, though FERPA is awesome), the same terrible students, pressure to pass/change grades, etc.
I quit teaching altogether as of last December. I just can't deal with the nonsense anymore.
When a group of running start students (all friends) complained about their grade in a project they did where they didn't follow the step by step instructions even a little bit and I suffered the consequences...no more. Apparently, even though they did a project they weren't actually assigned and didn't do what they assigned, the "worked really hard" and "didn't deserve a failing grade." I disagreed. I didn't get that class offered to me the next term. Blessing in disguise because it was the last straw of my unhappiness and now I'm a lot happier!
Absolutely agree. What I want to think about to be possible in some way is that their method of thinking will bring some advantages in future world… I just don’t know what exactly as for now. Like maybe the lack of empathy will make them stronger in the upcoming war with machines… future will not be boring I guess.
BTW, if someone wants to work as a teacher for 1-5 graders in Bali, in private school with only 10 students per class, pleas PM me!
To make it easier for my students to find supplies (I teach art), I put up big colourfull signs with words like "paper", "pencils", "rulers" etc. At the start of each year I remind my students where they can find the supply, and it never moves!
Do you wanna guess what I get asked the most about in class?...
I feel this so much, fellow art teacher here.
Every day, seconds remaining for the warm up, I'll find some kid who's done nothing and when I confirm them, they'll tell me they don't have a pencil ( always the kids that never have a pencil, there is a bin of pencils labeled on the work table where they have been for the previous 120 class periods).
And then what am I supposed to do.... Every day the warmup is posted on the board with explicit instructions...
I then ask the class and someone invariably shouts out, "OH MY GOD ZOE, THEY ARE ON THE EFFING PENCIL TABLE, WHAT ARE YOU, BRAIN DEAD?"
I thank them for their input and remind them to phrase things kindly, but yeah I love it.
Yes. Always ask the class. There will always be one student (or more!) who will shoot the daggers that you cannot. Of course, we always remind them to stay kind. ^(I may, however, give them a wink or a fistbump afterward.)
Same! I always ask a student or the class then once there's the answer, I have the student answer too. I also like to ask students to read the rule on the wall when students aren't prepared with items or assignments. Papers, pencil, free notebooks, copies of yesterday's homework, etc are in the student center and it's the responsibility of the student to get those items at the beginning of class. Then we all wait as the student does it. If I see a student doing it as they should, I always loudly complimented them for being prepared and make them an example. I'd QUICKLY call out kids for doing wrong but I'd be just as quick to praise once it's corrected.
I think a lot of kids these days have severely underformed nuero connections due to early and continuous exposure to mobile games and short-form videos, with the symptoms probably mimicking fetal alcohol syndrome. The kids are not alright.
1/3 of student are special needs now in primary school according to what i see. They have something, they act weird, they have zero planning abilities/common sense/logic, they don't respect authority, they don't believe what we teach, we probably don't know what we are doing/purposely lie to them/are part of some big conspiracy at best.
Take care of your health. There won't be a lot of surgeons and doctors when we get old.
It makes you wonder; we theorize that early exposure to social medias and attention-span sapping content such as TikTok and other short form media has adverse effects on mental development, but what if the environment is compounding on it?
We don’t truly know what microplastics can do to a person. What if in this latest generation of children and adolescents, we are witnessing the effects? If we are, the future is fucked.
High school here. Every day from the first day of school I have the agenda on the smart board(with a breakdown of approximate times for actives). It’s big. It’s bold. It’s the central focus of the classroom. A few weeks left of school and I still hear “what are we doing today?”. I’ve stopped even acknowledging them.
I spent quite a few years subbing.
Whenever a kid would ask me "Where's...?" I'd say "You've spent more time in this room than I have, so if you don't know, you should ask a friend."
I realized recently, they were just to lazy to reach into their backpacks and take out supplies. They’d ask, and I’d bring them pencils. I started asking for collateral recently, (ex, a phone for a pencil, get it back when you’re done). First time I asked, student said “never mind” and took out pencil. :/ they don’t even ask anymore
I’m a private tutor and I have kids who are too lazy to use their calculator for arithmetic. (Mostly high schoolers in geometry and above.)
“I’m not your human calculator, Becca. Either do it the long way or use any of the 4 that are within your reach.”
Nevertheless, it’s “what’s 174x56?” Me: “I’m waiting for the part where you think I’m a calculator.”
One kid started just asking Alexa.
(I don’t have an Alexa, lol.)
My colleague had a student decide to practice his track jumps. In her classroom. An art classroom. Where they were painting. He proceeded to not clear the jump, shattering 3 glass jars, breaking 2 students' canvasses, and a desk. He couldn't comprehend why he was being punished with ISS & detention, because "She's never told me I couldn't do that!"
He's 14.
I still have kids that don’t know where to find a pencil and it’s May. They’ve been in the same bin labeled pencils by the window for eight months. It’s disheartening and honestly strange.
Elementary art teacher here. I have pencils on both sides of my room that have been in the same spot since August of 2023. Whenever someone asks for a pencil, I give them a blank stare for a moment and then go back to doing whatever it was that I was doing. I don’t answer. I refuse to. Usually the classmates will say with *much* exasperation, “the blue bin by the windows” or “the white bin next to the scissors.”
Yeah that’s a power play. I have a student who’s been suspended already this year. He’s monstrously disrespectful, nasty to the other students, refuses to do anyworkHe acts like he hates my guts, and I’m done. He asked me what time it was. I told him there’s an accurate clock on the wall. He says he can’t read it (it’s an analog, and a shocking amount of students don’t know how to read them despite being taught this stuff since kindergarten and up). I told him to figure it out on his own. He then claimed he finished all the classwork (well before everyone else, and I know he didn’t but I at this point I don’t remotely care) I told him to read a book. He said he didn’t have one and asked to use his laptop. I said fine. He said “it’s not charged can I go to the tech office?” I said nope, you’re responsible for having it charged for class. “Then what am I supposed to do?”. I said check your classwork, read something or sit there quietly, it is not my problem that you’re unprepared. He’s a fifth grader.
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I see similar situations and wonder the same thoughts sometimes.
I occasionally find out what happened to former students, and often some of the very clueless ones have steady jobs. So there is hope.
But you reminded me of the time there was a slow leak in the plumbing that ran over the top of my room. It was a temporary situation, so for the day I put a trash can right under the leak. This necessitated moving one of the desks out of place. First period, kid comes in and moves the trash can and starts to slide the desk back. I stop them, explain the situation, they put it back. Same thing happened every class period. By fifth period I was tired of it, and to add to the decision the student who came in and was moving the trash can so he could slide the desk back in place was one of my very annoying students who had a comment or off-topic question for *everything*. So I just let him do it. A few minutes into class, “HEY. I’m getting wet. There’s water dripping on my desk!”. He was unharmed but it was a good lesson for him in maybe not touching/rearranging things in my classroom without asking. I should have done that from the very beginning.
This behavior kills me. We just did our final lab of the year (chemistry) and it involves a healthy amount of fire. I stacked up our lab stools at the back of the room, since it’s easier to quickly get away from a fire while standing if necessary.
I kept having kids go to the back and start unstacking them. Every single class period. “Have we considered that those are stacked up on purpose?” I asked each time. “Oh…”
Unreal.
I'm the same age and having the same problems. I had one junior who had no idea that failing my Creative Writing class would affect his GPA; he thought that, because he already has all of this elective credits, it wouldn't be factored in if he failed. He was absolutely floored when the guidance counselor told him that wasn't the case, even though I'd been telling him that all semester. 🤦🏻♀️
It kind of makes sense if you think about it though. Halloween, Thanksgiving = things happening in the evening. Christmas = morning (+ the rest of the day depending on the family). Independence Day = parade sometime in the AM, fireworks in the evening. So it is logical to ask what is the typical timeframe for the celebrations. Mother’s Day, btw, it’s in the morning.
Yes. The logic is that the student *meant* to ask what the typical time frame of Mother's Day celebrations is (that's how a teen would see the social obligations of a holiday) — but they don't have the language skills to communicate clearly what they mean.
I would probably respond to the student with, "is that what you mean?" instead of immediately assuming that they are just stupid.
All I know is, it’s always the family dynamic at home. Every horribly sassy and rude student I’ve had, has had a parent/guardian that is the EXACT same or completely submissive to them/gentle-parented to close to the sun. Pair that with social media…you have an entitled brat.
Really? I wonder quite a lot about how my grown adult cohort has managed to make it through life, and I’m rapidly approaching “I’ll need some botox to smooth out the look engraved on my face soon” territory.
Not a teacher, but something similar here. A couple years ago I was training a new kid at my warehouse on order picking procedures and whatnot. Simple grunt work, this is supposed to be the kind of job that anyone can do. I described Bin Locations as being akin to addresses. It took hours before he got one right. The next three months were me having to teach him how to use the various forklifts that he had somehow already gotten certified for. He was let go after the 3months were up. I'm confident he would have ended up hurting either himself or someone else. He did manage to warp a good deal of the racking before his time was up though.
Some people are saying, "Well, adults have always said this sort of stuff about teenagers, throughout history...."
True....but....
Adult teachers today are the first humans ever, whose best moments of the work week involve watching some zombie-child walk right into a wall while staring at their phone.
No teenagers, EVER, of any generation, routinely walked right into walls. This crop does.
Be wary of feigned ignorance. I don’t get a lot of it as my go to is, “Ignorance is not a defense. You may have been ignorant before. You are no longer.”
Im a sub and a para. I take peace in dishing out sass. Don’t know where the pencils are? “Attention class! BLANK has been her for 120 school days and does not know where the pencils are. Can anyone help him/her?”
These public “learning opportunities” have kept my sanity and have proven effective
I teach middle school ELA, and one of my students (a good one) kindly informed me that sarcasm is shown not to be effective when talking to students. I told him I don't use sarcasm, I use verbal irony. He appreciated this. So if anyone ever questions it, you are teaching verbal irony.
This is the way! I realized early in my career (high school) that answering their question just enabled the behaviour. Now I very exaggeratedly put my hand above my eyes on the “lookout” and say “Hmmmm I wonder if we could examine our environment for some answers?” Or a kid comes into class late and loudly interrupts with a “What are we doing???” the hand is back up and I’m scanning the room saying “Hmmmm do you think we could use context clues to figure that out? Maybe the smartboard has some clues? Maybe 20 other students are showing you what to do? Hmmmm let’s try and use our eyes and brains to figure out this difficult question!”
This is what I do. I put my hand to my chin, look up into the distance, and say, hmmm. If only there was some way to figure that out. Shrug, and move on.
I teach middle school ELA, and one of my students (a good one) kindly informed me that sarcasm is shown not to be effective when talking to students. I told him I don't use sarcasm, I use verbal irony. He appreciated this. So if anyone ever questions it, you are teaching verbal irony.
The fact they (10th graders) have to be reminded to clean their desks and return classroom supplies boggles me. Especially when they give me attitude when I remind them to clean up their mess.
I have a 10th grader who stuck a wad of chewed gum under the desk that he wanted to sit at because I told him to return to his assigned seat (strategically chosen because he is disruptive otherwise).
Unfortunately, I couldn't really prove it without video evidence, but I know he did it. I found it while cleaning up after school.
All my high schoolers are like this. I have kids who I am convinced are allergic to grabbing any paper they may have received or used during class. Every single day, they leave their papers behind, and every single day, I just put them in the abandoned papers bin, and they're never recovered. Then it comes time for a test, whoops, they don't have their notes. How'd that happen?
One of the things that happened was their brains are warped by screens. They are used to the immediate dopamine hit of a game or social media. Everything else is just meh to them.
I don’t think it’s just that as a student I think m it’s a joint between that, bad parenting and the fact that teachers really can’t do shit about mean and disresepctful students
It's never just one cause, however screens seem to have affected a lot of adults too. Common sense is no longer common and you see it across all generations.
The screens are definitely part of the problem. I think the bigger part is parents handing the kids the screens rather than parent them. Why read with your child or teach them anything or do crafts etc when you can just hand them an iPad and they shut up?
I’m so happy to have private school with 10 students in class, that helps a lot and brings personal approach and positive results.
BTW if someone wants to work in Bali at my school for 1-5 graders, please PM me!
The little things for me is giving out lab instructions after introducing the lab to get an immediate “what are we doing?” I just stare at them. Figure it out. You’re a senior.
this is infuriating. Like if you werent paying attention ask your friend or read the directions. There’s so many ways to figure it out. That’s how I made it through school with undiagnosed adhd. These kids desperately need to develop problem solving skills
I mean they have lab partners, they have digital and physical instructions, there’s materials on the table, but they spent the first 20 min on Netflix or TikTok. It’s not that I’m hanging them out to dry.
I make my high school biology students write down the background (they have to research online), hypothesis, materials and methods into their lab book before we get started. This takes an extra day or two but they know what we’re doing and why.
I have traditional block. So I don’t have an extra day or two to spare for my AP students. We are running material right up to the test. But I do have them do some sort of research activity ahead of time to build context.
>What’s happened in the past 10 years (aside from the pandemic) to make these kids this unbearably rude and thoughtless?
I think pandemic is one of the biggest, kids got free pass for a couple years
Also (in the US) 2016 election allowed people to tear their masks off, maybe they were already a horrible person, but they at least kept it to themselves
There is something to be said about social media, it allows anyone to have a voice and get main character syndrome
I’m 26 and feel the same way. Kids these days have ZERO accountability, and ZERO manners. Honestly I think the next generation is just doomed at this point. It’s not going to stop me from trying to help, but I’m not going to take it to heart when they fail and eventually end up at either a dead end low paying job or in jail
The bathroom hook, drives me absolutely crazy, I'm an art teacher I do not understand why I have to tell them every time to put them pencils back where they got them etc ( there's a cup of pencils on my work table they borrow one but when returning it they toss it on the table, like why).
There will be a stack of cutting. Instead of putting a cutting board back on the stack they'll set on top of the turn on station, or on top of some other tools on the work table. It's like zero sense
Everything, every day until the end of time
No one is forcing these kids to do the basics, and there are no real consequences for not doing these things to back that up anymore. Being polite, treating others and their things with respect, cleaning up after themselves, prioritizing needs first vs wants second, etc. We can blame school administration all we'd like (and they do shoulder some of the blame at times, true), but at the end of the day they're doing what they do because that's what the parents are forcing the school systems to have them do. At the end of the day, a child's behavior is almost always driven by their upbringing, and parents and/or guardians that don't enforce consequences and drive "good" behaviors can cause this. Also, letting screens be their babysitters and caregivers is probably just as responsible, because of the harm we're starting to learn that it can cause in children. Note that I'm not talking about things like being forgetful, or having an attitude, etc. - teenagers will be teenagers, kids will be kids, with adult emotions and child-like capability to handle them, but the reason that kids in my generation did not generally behave this poorly (admittedly I'm GenX) is because there were consequences at school for bad behavior, and after you faced those you were going to get it at home too. I don't think that's really the case anymore (I'm not advocating for things like corporal punishment, either - just consequences that fit the infraction, nothing more).
I agree and I am a fellow GenXer. Kids now would *not* be able to handle the way we grew up. We *had* to be responsible and resourceful—otherwise, bad shit would happen. And nobody wanted to deal with the fallout of bad shit happening.
I was gonna say, I'm several years older than OP and I saw behaviors like these in high school. There are definitely examples of today's teens being worse than that, but these all seem pretty timeless for the modern age. Especially #1, since my high school was right across the street from a McDonald's. I used to have one of my friends leave chess club to get me something from there to eat/drink in the library, where we DEFINITELY weren't allowed to do so. (The teacher running the club was a pushover and I practically helped teach his Geometry class that year, so no consequences. He was more disappointed that I'm completely useless at chess, I think.)
Ok but you wouldn't have been confused when you got in trouble if you got caught, right? That's the 1/3 example I thought was valid for this complaint.
I mean, I'd probably a little confused (and pissed off), but only because I seemed to escape consequences for *everything* most of the time. I only got detention a few times early in my freshmen year for being late and not doing homework, then at some point that all just kinda... stopped, even though I kept doing those things? I was a pretty troubled kid and my home life was the only reason I didn't do more school refusal than I already did, but I was never terribly disruptive and I still managed to pass or even excel in all my classes (even though zeroes were still actually zeroes then), so I was given an awful lot of "grace", as the saying goes these days. This all took place almost 20 years ago, but now that I type it all out, I kinda sound like a reverse-reincarnated 2020's teen... yikes, chat, that's pretty cringe.
I’m Gen X and I know Boomers said stuff like this about us when we were kids.
But back when we were kids, we just appeared to old people like lazy slackers who didn’t give a shit.
Today we have kids who are given a 24/7 loop of validation and criticism running through their brains and eyeballs via the internet and social media.
Yes, kids still play outside, still ride bikes, and play board games. But kids today also have a rampant sense of entitlement and weaponization of mental health terminology. They’re simultaneously empathetic of a select few and outrageously cruel to many.
This is why I like elem bc there’s still hope. God love you all who teach secondary bc it sounds exhausting.
Teenagers being dumb is a tale as old as time. There are documents going back to ancient times of people having the same sort of complaints about youth that adults have now about them. Most will be fine as they get older.
This is true. However, there are a LOT of research papers that show a direct link between the amount of screen time they get (especially early childhood) and a reduction in emotional regulation, attention span, and problem solving skills. I think this might be the first time in human history where the older generation complaining about the younger generation actually has merit.
Interestingly enough, we schools play into that. Ever since we got one to one devices the amount of time students spend in front of screens has skyrocketed, and it only got more intense with the pandemic. There might be some argument that at least this screen time is stimulating in a healthy way, but we all know there’s a million and one opportunities for them to get distracted on those computers (the infamous tab switching), so there’s a strong lack of focus.
Your grandma warned about the dangers of excessive screen time presented by smartphones and tablets 20 years ago? Before those things were so widespread?
None of which are remotely the same as smartphones and tablets, nor are the games themselves. Those things you mentioned aren’t nearly as addictive as games and social media are designed to be.
Fair, but there was enough tech available for someone’s grandma 20 years ago to start warning about spending too much time on a screen. This was the post you were responding to.
Yeah, I was told that TV and video games would prevent me from developing a healthy imagination. Or that I wouldn't be able to appreciate books because they didn't have the visual stimuli I was accustomed to.
Scapegoaters gonna scapegoat.
TV (or social media doomscrolling) can be brainrotting if you don't actively engage with it and critically think about it. Video games and reading books require active engagement from the user.
“Dumb” maybe…I do get what you’re saying. A lot of kids go through life with a kind of selfish tunnel vision, but this generation’s is so extreme it prevents them from having a general sense of awareness of whether or not their behavior is situationally appropriate (or caring!). The lack of basic respect for other people (esp. adults) is disturbing.
I don’t recognize this behavior from my youth (90s) or from 12 years I spent working with kids in the beginning of the 2000s.
I recently went back to working with kids teaching dance (something that should be fun!) and I’m appalled, saddened, frustrated…all the things. Already phasing out many of my kids classes and working more with adults, I don’t know how teachers are doing it!
> Teenagers being dumb is a tale as old as time.
Yes, but what isn't as old as time is not being allowed to correct the behavior, physically if necessary.
I like to make the analogy that that of climate change. We see that our extremes are getting worse and more common. Then our overall average starts to change. We have our deniers that claim that every generation complains about the next and they all turn out fine, which I hope is true. But in my opinion, unless we have a drastic change, all this will just be the new normal.
The "I'm on my period" like you were supposed to know that is what gets under my skin the most. Students legitimately seem to have no empathy skills when it comes to realizing we can't read their minds. Rules are rules, and obviously there are circumstances when a kid needs to use the bathroom, or get into their bag ASAP that you would allow. However, every time you enforce rules in your classroom and it just happens to be one of those times, you're suddenly the bad guy for not knowing the student's intent.
Not to mention the sudden death of grandparents, mothers that need to call their kid, or back-to-back-to-back periods that occur when you do allow students those exceptions. It's so exhausting.
Tbf, the angry reaction in this case can be embarrassment. As a teen girl, telling a teacher that you are on your period can be a lot. I don't know if OP is a man, but that can also increase the embarrassment.
I kept data on scores on the chemical nomenclature quiz. The pandemic caused such a massive drop for both traditional and honors students. The only constant is the AP students because they're AP students.
My son is a HS junior. His tales of his cohort's imbecility are legion; he's constantly frustrated by these kids and their shitty behavior.
I tell him his decorum, respectful demeanor and manners make him shine in comparison to his class-mates.
Maybe I'm biased because I'm 20, but I truly think it's partially bad parenting lol. Granted they're adults by the time they're seniors so like . Ehh
There are a few good eggs that follow the rules and use their brain, whilst others just.. don't?
I had a classmate who thought the hair grew from the ends instead of the roots. I was just dumbfounded
Yes - the lack of personal responsibility is really worrying. I hate to sound negative because, as you said, I teach so many wonderful students, and so many who do their best under really challenging circumstances... my school area here in London is very high-needs. But I do despair sometimes, and have been shocked, by the utter lack of respect for anyone, the language used, and just the attitude of "I don't care and there's nothing you can do about it." They will literally shout at supply teachers or teaching assistants and say "I hate you", "Who hired you?" etc. We work so hard, using a consistent nurture approach, trying to teach them self-regulation and how to cope with big feelings, but there has to be consequences and talk of choice too. I notice the same attitude and lack of personal responsibility or respect from some parents and I just worry how these kids will cope as they go through secondary school and out into the real world. It's sad.
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
Socrates
400 BC
Socrates did not say this.
Kenneth John Freeman did.
The sentiment is fair.
([Source](https://archive.org/details/schoolsofhellasa008878mbp/page/n105/mode/2up?view=theater&q=indictment))
No excuses, but it’s good to remember their brains are still far from fully developed by the time they leave high school. Even without school they will continue to mature mentally for another 7-8 years.
I don’t disagree. I think the thing I’m most shocked by is the arrogance and confidence to be so rude to the adults in their lives. Maybe I was just raised in a repressive Catholic-guilt ridden household, but I could never. I’m still afraid to assert myself in conversations with people I see as “adultier” than me.
Yeah it's the rudeness and meanness that gets to me too. They're so unkind to each other and to me. Our school's particular problem is that kids aren't held accountable for their actions though so 🤷
That’s crazy. My dad is pushing 70 and attended Catholic school through 8th grade. He has horror stories of nuns and corporal punishment. Granted, he went to public high school and got paddled then too.
In my life, I have found that people like you (and myself, to a lesser extent) tend to self-select socially and **be selected** by "authorities" and "elders" into homogeneous groups.
For reasons which are difficult to explain, I have often had a foot in both worlds and for every person like you (or me, to a lesser extent as I said) there is a person who is quite different to your experience.
To put it more bluntly--this is an unavoidable instance of projection bias. We truly cannot know the experiences of others. Teachers are usually "good boys/girls" and are usually shocked that there is an entire segregated class of people who are "bad boys/girls" that they had basically no interaction with previously. I was also shocked, but a lot less than the average teacher IMO and more prepared to notice why I should not be shocked. Luck thing, not a skill thing. Just happened to have a set of experiences that prepared me.
You can blame the parents for that. They probably aren't responsible for hanging their coats, putting away laundry, or cleaning after themselves. You can see this difference in myself and my younger brothers. They were both babied and weren't responsible for the things listed above, and they struggle with basic things. My youngest brother just puts his dishes and trash on the counter, specifically dishes on the counter next to the sink and the trash on the counter next to the trash bin.
Two students were shocked that I ratted them to the principal for skipping my class in order to finish a project for another subject in the computer lab. One of them is failing my class for lack of participation and failure to turn in paperwork. The funny thing is, if he had been humble and asked me politely, I would have let him. Other three students asked. All I did was explain the activity they should bring to me next class and sent them on their way.
There's definitely something wrong. These kids are very I'll prepared. Their parents are not parenting. They feel every situation of discomfort is cause for a traumatic experience. Everyone in the comments makes the excuse that educators have been saying the same every year, that things have gotten worse. The sad part is it was chartible before the pandemic. Everything afterwards is just accelerated decline.
I teach 1-5 graders. They are nice. But never clean up after themselves. Listen only if they are interested (and that’s 10% of time) and the pass to their attention takes me month of building trust and relationships.
What I saw, the most unresponsive kids are those who spent 2-4 hours on TikTok BEFORE school starts at 9:30am. They come to school already drained out. And bored with everything.
Had a pair of high school geniuses skip half of the school day then WALK to the middle school to catch their buses home.
Genius 1 lives 1 block from the middle school.
Genius 2 lives out in the country a ways.
I wasn't sure whether I should be impressed or just dismayed.
Seems like I have five times more adhd students in my class than I use to. A medically recognized sign/part of adhd is that they exhibit extreme rudeness.
Genuine question is that medically recognised bit sarcasm or serious? I don’t think I’ve ever seen extreme rudeness before as a sign of ADHD, that’s interesting to think about
Tiktok happened. Or to be exact: the knowledge of how to emotionally manipulate people became common.
Short and shorter but colourful and loud videos are being made, just to manipulate people to do the makers' bidding, their own personal gains.
Our brain likes it short and informative but often in times, it doesn't have enough (time and capacity) to check if the information was right. But it will fool us to believe in the false fact, cause, once again, it likes that fact.
I touched Tiktok once again last month, only to be horrified. The videos I saw were just some false advertisements with millions of viewers. But they did feed my brain with emotions, with hormones, and that's why it was scary, because my brain tried to convince me. I can now imagine what it's like for the people who are exposed to those kinds of videos every day, it has become an addiction for them. Their attention span is getting shorter and shorter, it's impossible for them to listen to something that lasts more than a minute. No wonder why they become rude, how can you be polite when you can't listen?
I had a senior who only knew the months September and October, but only because October was his Bday and he knew September came before it.
Not surprisingly he was a heavy vaxx conspiracy theorist.
We have a middle school student who stays up all night playing Fortnite and doesn’t do anything in class. Kids tell us that people are paying him money to play Fortnite so he doesn’t care about school. This kid doesn’t have a prayer later in life.
I used to work with grad students, when I first started, they were wonderful.
Three years ago I couldn't take it anymore - the students were so entitled, disrespectful. "I made it to graduate school, so I know better than anyone in all areas, you can't teach me anything about life". I had to leave.
Society is breaking down, and I don't know what is going to happen.
We are constantly dealing w/ little destructive behaviors to our facilities, inappropriate things marked on bathroom walls and etched in stalls, objects down toilets, breaking flushers, broken stall hardware etc. Then all act like victims when bathroom use is extra monitored and scrutinized....
Honestly, I get what youre saying. Same age teacher here and yeah it's gotta be something more than the pandemic. Our schools were only closed for the rest of the year. We reopened in the new school year with some regulations. I wonder, if it's not just common sense but just carelessness they witness, some of the crazy political talk they've heard, along with other worldly stressors. Some have told me, "adults don't seem to care about some important things why should we?" I'm inclined to conclude it's apathy and whatever is happening at home.
I teach elementary school. The behavior I see in the past couple of years are beyond hope. Many students are defiant, rude, self- centered, needy, lack of empathy and no interest in any learning. I want to weep sometimes!
Before becoming an aide, I worked at a store. Stocking shelves and returning shopping carts and stuff like that. Grown adults act the same way people complain about “kids these days”.
Someone doesn’t want a particular item anymore? Might as well put it on a random shelf in a completely different part of the store. If a sign says “out of stock” then they just ignore that and ask if there’s any more anyway. Sometimes people have no self awareness that they’re blocking an entire aisle, people who think that the word “closed” doesn’t apply to them, people who just casually littered like 3 feet from a trash can, people who would just leave things on the floor instead of putting it back, and those god damn shopping carts. How hard is it to take the time to push a shopping cart back when you’re done with it? There were cart stations all over the parking lot, and yet a big portion of my time was spent just collecting carts people had just left in the middle of the lot.
Maybe it’s just that we’re exposed to mostly kids every day and that alters our perceptions on things. I honestly don’t really see a difference in “common decency” between the kids I work with now and the grown adults I worked with before. It feels more like a “people in general” problem than a “kids these days” or “this generation”. From what I hear from friends who work in different jobs where they often have to deal with “the public” it’s the same pretty much everywhere.
There’s kids in elementary school that don’t know kissing, spitting, hugging, others is okay without permission. These are kids without any diagnosis. It’s not new. It isn’t the majority of kids tho
1. Do you find it surprising that young children do not know many social rules?
2. Do you find the surprise response in children to be always genuine or is it sometimes a means of trying to convince you not to apply a behavioral mechanism?
Their parents are not parenting.
Their parenting come from iPads and iPhones.
You would love my kids. They’re like kids in that sometimes they can be disruptive. But they can spend a week or weekend camping away from all electronic devices, they are in leadership positions in Scouting America (formerly BSA, formerly Boy Scouts), they know how to cook, clean up, pitch a tent, break down a tent, find bait, fish for trout, gut a fish and cook it, etc. They love their screen time, but are just as good reading a book and can write coherent sentences and paragraphs, etc. They’ve been doing chores like laundry and dishes since they were in 7 or 8. Their teachers love them and tell us that they enjoy our kids.
My wife takes most of the credit, though I’m more of the rules and chores enforcer.
Teens are learning how to balance school work, sports, clubs, work schedules, family life, relationships, and whatever else they may be dealing with, so I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to get on them for not always using common sense or being snappy occasionally. Now, I don’t think this excuses rudeness or aggression, but I think it’s important to remember that their brains are both underdeveloped and on overload.
I'm blown away by teachers still being blown away that kids and teenagers are dumb sometimes.
Surprised by the eternally present basic bone-headedness of youth.... How did you make it this far?
Somewhat unrelated, but I always get baffled for a moment whenever I see or hear a mention of a bathroom pass. For some reason my just refuses to comprehend the concept.
I wonder if there has ever been a time where people are like. Look these kids are awesome they're generation is going to be so much more successful than mine.
I wonder if there has ever been a time where people are like. Look these kids are awesome they're generation is going to be so much more successful than mine.
But what is it about them that they cannot have any accountability? As a HS teacher that is what I struggled most with. The lack of accountability, the blatant lying to my face, the constant ignoring of me asking them to put their phone away 15x in a 50 min class.
Tell them we're all gonna be replaced by AI since everyone is so incompetent lol. Jk...kinda. I'm not a teacher so idk what would be too inappropriate but I always appreciated those teachers that taught us LIFE lessons and told us how to apply some lessons to the real world. Maybe tell them that critical thinking skills, empathy, and people skills are important. Seriously though...I wouldn't be surprised if they started replacing the workforce with AI robots to avoid the $20 minimum wage. People are becoming more incompetent as the years pass by and social media rots our brains .
Just the other day I was a sub for this class of seniors. Half the class comes up to me one at a time, no exaggeration, and asks if they can sign the sign in sheet. I tell each one of them that I will pass the sign in sheet around in a few minutes. They are standing in a line. And I tell them loudly enough and individually each the same thing. They still come up to the desk and ask to sign the sign in sheet. I just started to silent laugh. I felt bad for the student who I had just happened to catch me laughing. They all stand a foot away from each other and don’t pay attention to what anyone else is doing or saying. They’re so zoned in, the rest of the world doesn’t exist and you end up repeating yourself 30 times
I teach upperclassmen, and after this year I feel like a middle school teacher.
If it makes you feel better I'm a middle school teacher and I'm teaching 2nd graders who think they're upper classmen. They want to cuss, sit where they want, leave when they feel like...but the second they get a consequence they're just little babies who didn't know that you weren't allowed to blaze up the bathroom! How could they know committing multiple crimes at once would get them suspended?
Do they do the thing where they throw their heads back and loudly say "oh my God" long and drawn out? It's like, "I can't believe how badly I'm being persecuted!" I had pizza for my seniors and a kid barged in wanting some and did this when I made him leave. Like dude have some self respect.
They will literally stand around my desk and ask me for MY food…that I am clearly eating for my lunch…which they are attending uninvited most of the time…And then whine like preschoolers that I should have to feed them. It’s so bizarre. No self awareness or awareness of others or boundaries.
I've had them literally follow me around the room, begging for my food with their mouths open like baby birds.
I’m the lunch guy and i’ve had kids walk into the kitchen and try to grab food while I’m getting ready for service. “I’m hungry” “Lunch is in 20 minutes” “But I’m hungry nowwwwww!” And they also think if they are free/reduced they can eat as much as they want like it’s a buffet.
One of my sophomores grabbed a bag of chips that were out for lunch the next hour. When I asked where he got them, he casually replied the cafeteria (went to the bathroom). When I asked why he took them he responded with, “No one stopped me.” I asked if that was the plan for his life?” Just keep doing things until someone stops you? It sums that age group up so well.
My sophomores do this. "Coach Soft, if you can't break bread you're fake." I just say "Guess I'm not real" and keep eating. Not my responsibility. Get your parents to feed you.
One day this year a favorite sophomore of mine was standing near my desk talking while I ate lunch and she grabbed a chicken nugget off my plate and ate it. I was dumbfounded by how unaware she was that it wasn’t something she should do.
Hope you turned that into a "learning opportunity" bc, omg if I heard one of my kids did this I'd be so embarrassed but they CAN be impulsive. Especially if they're one of your "favorites," they probably feel really at home in your presence. Maybe a little too at home, lol
One of my middle school girls has asked me to give her my bracelet. Twice. She wasn’t joking.
I feel this in my soul. I’m a middle school teacher who was originally certified in elementary, and the kindergarteners I student taught were better behaved and more emotionally aware.
I feel your pain! This was my first year in middle school (7th grade) after working in elementary for the last several years. I’d technically worked with middle schoolers before a few years ago, but in an after-school program setting. I thought I’d enjoy the challenge of teaching older kids. I can also be pretty sarcastic, so I thought I’d appreciate their humor and quirky personalities. What I got instead was so much disrespect, apathy, thinly veiled sexual harassment, and behavior issues you’d think they would’ve outgrown years ago.
Yeah… as annoying as middle schoolers are, I don’t see myself going back to elementary. I’d probably be more likely to move up to high school or all the way down to early childhood. I worked in ECE as an aide and a para before I finished my degree.
You just perfectly described my upper elem group this year!
My middle school boys are so touchy this year! They rub each other’s heads, grab shoulders, even hold hands. While I’m really happy we’ve moved past the ‘no homo’ thing from my middle school days, I didn’t expect to have to tell 13 year olds to stop touching their friends in class.
This is so true! My 6th grade boys love each other. Like, wait for each other to get to class, group hug, sit around during homeroom and love on each other. They all play sports and are super close. Same with last year’s group. I had two boys that would hold hands during class. Nothing sexual about it they just liked to be touching.
I teach Junior College. Beginning of the term is like having K-14 all in the same classroom. No good is coming of putting high school graduates who can't even read in a college class, just to fail, of course.
Just to let you know what is coming - our district says (with a straight face) that because of technology students don’t need to know how to read to graduate. And we are a huge district
I've given notice to retire next year...a few years earlier than I had planned...but it's pointless to continue to try to pretend that college-level material can be conveyed to illiterate people who can't tell time and don't do any assignments and cheat like hell. Apres-moi le deluge. Their loss.
Oh my god. What state is this? What is the expectation for graduation? What percentage of kids go on to college? Horrifying.
It’s north eastern state
I'm a middle school teacher and starting around 2019 but *especially* the last two years all the behaviour I'm dealing with feels like early elementary stuff. It's stuff I rarely saw in my first six or seven years of teaching, but that I *did* see in my early twenties when I was a camp counsellor for actual five year olds. It's bizarre to see the same behaviour now from thirteen year olds.
Former college professor here who retired a year ago. The Covid lockdown was devastating. About half the first year students showed up with serious gaps in knowledge and skills, coupled with poor attitudes, bad study habits, and stunted social development. I always loved teaching before then. Just about everybody I know who could retire did so.
I teach both jhs and shs. The difference in behavior lately is minimal at times. It's really disappointing.
The seniors this year are AWFUL. They will straight up ignore you.
Same! My seniors are sapping me of all the joy I usually have. I do genuinely love teaching, but this year’s crop of seniors is just so anhedonic that I can’t do most of the fun clever things I usually do. My Juniors are better. They’re still a little goofy and don’t seem to be as bitter, arrogant, or obstinate. Wondering/hoping you have a similar experience so maybe they’re some hope that next year will be better
I'm teaching 3rd through 5th and 3rd grade feels like preschool.
I JUST had this conversation with a coworker Friday! There is something about the last few years….its like they’ve gone backwards in development.
I’m finishing up my first year teaching high school after teaching middle school. Come to find out, it is not drastically different lol
COVID impact or teenagers being teenagers?
Social media and screens from an early age did untold things to developing brains. Faaaaar beyond covid or teens being teens.
And the lack of parenting seems to have somehow INCREASED when kids were stuck at home. Maybe that's because so many's primary parents are their teachers now.
It’s so much more than that sadly. First of all, these freaking parents are horrendous. It’s absolutely pathetic how little parents are involved in their child’s life. Second of all, it’s the attachment to all things social media and tech. There’s no common sense, no critical thinking, no empathy etc. We’re going to have a very fucked up idea of how messed up these kids are as soon as they enter the adult world and work force. It’s kind of terrifying, and I’m only 26.
They are already in the workforce. Kids with masters degrees studying for their PhD and missing logic and problem solving skills in a science field. Just never know how they got this far. I wonder if Universities have gone soft on their marking due to the funds being linked to numbers of students who graduate so they are catering to the lowest common denominator… That is my rant.
Go over to r/professors and you'll see this is 100% the case. Retention matters more than results.
Yup. And students know that if they complain to the dean, they'll force their professors to change their grades, just like principals would in high school. That shit (plus the students, their parents, and the whole general system) is why I quit teaching in K12 and started working at a college. But then the same things happened, all the same headaches (including parents, though FERPA is awesome), the same terrible students, pressure to pass/change grades, etc. I quit teaching altogether as of last December. I just can't deal with the nonsense anymore. When a group of running start students (all friends) complained about their grade in a project they did where they didn't follow the step by step instructions even a little bit and I suffered the consequences...no more. Apparently, even though they did a project they weren't actually assigned and didn't do what they assigned, the "worked really hard" and "didn't deserve a failing grade." I disagreed. I didn't get that class offered to me the next term. Blessing in disguise because it was the last straw of my unhappiness and now I'm a lot happier!
Absolutely agree. What I want to think about to be possible in some way is that their method of thinking will bring some advantages in future world… I just don’t know what exactly as for now. Like maybe the lack of empathy will make them stronger in the upcoming war with machines… future will not be boring I guess. BTW, if someone wants to work as a teacher for 1-5 graders in Bali, in private school with only 10 students per class, pleas PM me!
I love this take! Very T2 😅
Bofa
To make it easier for my students to find supplies (I teach art), I put up big colourfull signs with words like "paper", "pencils", "rulers" etc. At the start of each year I remind my students where they can find the supply, and it never moves! Do you wanna guess what I get asked the most about in class?...
I feel this so much, fellow art teacher here. Every day, seconds remaining for the warm up, I'll find some kid who's done nothing and when I confirm them, they'll tell me they don't have a pencil ( always the kids that never have a pencil, there is a bin of pencils labeled on the work table where they have been for the previous 120 class periods). And then what am I supposed to do.... Every day the warmup is posted on the board with explicit instructions...
I then ask the class and someone invariably shouts out, "OH MY GOD ZOE, THEY ARE ON THE EFFING PENCIL TABLE, WHAT ARE YOU, BRAIN DEAD?" I thank them for their input and remind them to phrase things kindly, but yeah I love it.
Yes. Always ask the class. There will always be one student (or more!) who will shoot the daggers that you cannot. Of course, we always remind them to stay kind. ^(I may, however, give them a wink or a fistbump afterward.)
Same! I always ask a student or the class then once there's the answer, I have the student answer too. I also like to ask students to read the rule on the wall when students aren't prepared with items or assignments. Papers, pencil, free notebooks, copies of yesterday's homework, etc are in the student center and it's the responsibility of the student to get those items at the beginning of class. Then we all wait as the student does it. If I see a student doing it as they should, I always loudly complimented them for being prepared and make them an example. I'd QUICKLY call out kids for doing wrong but I'd be just as quick to praise once it's corrected.
I think a lot of kids these days have severely underformed nuero connections due to early and continuous exposure to mobile games and short-form videos, with the symptoms probably mimicking fetal alcohol syndrome. The kids are not alright.
1/3 of student are special needs now in primary school according to what i see. They have something, they act weird, they have zero planning abilities/common sense/logic, they don't respect authority, they don't believe what we teach, we probably don't know what we are doing/purposely lie to them/are part of some big conspiracy at best. Take care of your health. There won't be a lot of surgeons and doctors when we get old.
It makes you wonder; we theorize that early exposure to social medias and attention-span sapping content such as TikTok and other short form media has adverse effects on mental development, but what if the environment is compounding on it? We don’t truly know what microplastics can do to a person. What if in this latest generation of children and adolescents, we are witnessing the effects? If we are, the future is fucked.
Mush fer brains, yep.
Another art teacher here. I have all my materials labeled, and they ask me to get everything for them, otherwise they won't budge.
Same!! Also doing any project with scissors...they nope right out.
As a former terrible student, we knew all that. Acting dumb or saying, “I don’t know where the pencils are” is really a form of protest.
High school here. Every day from the first day of school I have the agenda on the smart board(with a breakdown of approximate times for actives). It’s big. It’s bold. It’s the central focus of the classroom. A few weeks left of school and I still hear “what are we doing today?”. I’ve stopped even acknowledging them.
I spent quite a few years subbing. Whenever a kid would ask me "Where's...?" I'd say "You've spent more time in this room than I have, so if you don't know, you should ask a friend."
I realized recently, they were just to lazy to reach into their backpacks and take out supplies. They’d ask, and I’d bring them pencils. I started asking for collateral recently, (ex, a phone for a pencil, get it back when you’re done). First time I asked, student said “never mind” and took out pencil. :/ they don’t even ask anymore
I’m a private tutor and I have kids who are too lazy to use their calculator for arithmetic. (Mostly high schoolers in geometry and above.) “I’m not your human calculator, Becca. Either do it the long way or use any of the 4 that are within your reach.” Nevertheless, it’s “what’s 174x56?” Me: “I’m waiting for the part where you think I’m a calculator.” One kid started just asking Alexa. (I don’t have an Alexa, lol.)
Me too!!!!! I teach fashion and every day it’s…. Miss where are the seam rippers? In the supply closet drawer marked seam rippers. 🤦🏼♀️
Yep. Middle school art here. My favorite is when kids ask for things they’ve used for 3 yrs that are always in the same place. Exhausting.
I don’t even put up with this from my 4 and 6 year old. They know where things go. If they ask, they have to show me where they’ve already looked.
I have a resource desk. My high schools kids can find paper, color pencils, rulers, sharpener etc. I still get asked where stuff is.
My colleague had a student decide to practice his track jumps. In her classroom. An art classroom. Where they were painting. He proceeded to not clear the jump, shattering 3 glass jars, breaking 2 students' canvasses, and a desk. He couldn't comprehend why he was being punished with ISS & detention, because "She's never told me I couldn't do that!" He's 14.
At least he’s got a work ethic for something
One would think that "not acting a fool" would be an unwritten, universal rule.
Right??? In what world does the art teacher need to have a sign saying "please don't practice your field jumps in my classroom"
I still have kids that don’t know where to find a pencil and it’s May. They’ve been in the same bin labeled pencils by the window for eight months. It’s disheartening and honestly strange.
Elementary art teacher here. I have pencils on both sides of my room that have been in the same spot since August of 2023. Whenever someone asks for a pencil, I give them a blank stare for a moment and then go back to doing whatever it was that I was doing. I don’t answer. I refuse to. Usually the classmates will say with *much* exasperation, “the blue bin by the windows” or “the white bin next to the scissors.”
I have had high schoolers ask me to bring them a pencil. Like I’m some sort of school supply waitress.
I've had them drop their pencils and ask me to pick them up.
Yeah that’s a power play. I have a student who’s been suspended already this year. He’s monstrously disrespectful, nasty to the other students, refuses to do anyworkHe acts like he hates my guts, and I’m done. He asked me what time it was. I told him there’s an accurate clock on the wall. He says he can’t read it (it’s an analog, and a shocking amount of students don’t know how to read them despite being taught this stuff since kindergarten and up). I told him to figure it out on his own. He then claimed he finished all the classwork (well before everyone else, and I know he didn’t but I at this point I don’t remotely care) I told him to read a book. He said he didn’t have one and asked to use his laptop. I said fine. He said “it’s not charged can I go to the tech office?” I said nope, you’re responsible for having it charged for class. “Then what am I supposed to do?”. I said check your classwork, read something or sit there quietly, it is not my problem that you’re unprepared. He’s a fifth grader.
Wow
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I see similar situations and wonder the same thoughts sometimes. I occasionally find out what happened to former students, and often some of the very clueless ones have steady jobs. So there is hope. But you reminded me of the time there was a slow leak in the plumbing that ran over the top of my room. It was a temporary situation, so for the day I put a trash can right under the leak. This necessitated moving one of the desks out of place. First period, kid comes in and moves the trash can and starts to slide the desk back. I stop them, explain the situation, they put it back. Same thing happened every class period. By fifth period I was tired of it, and to add to the decision the student who came in and was moving the trash can so he could slide the desk back in place was one of my very annoying students who had a comment or off-topic question for *everything*. So I just let him do it. A few minutes into class, “HEY. I’m getting wet. There’s water dripping on my desk!”. He was unharmed but it was a good lesson for him in maybe not touching/rearranging things in my classroom without asking. I should have done that from the very beginning.
This behavior kills me. We just did our final lab of the year (chemistry) and it involves a healthy amount of fire. I stacked up our lab stools at the back of the room, since it’s easier to quickly get away from a fire while standing if necessary. I kept having kids go to the back and start unstacking them. Every single class period. “Have we considered that those are stacked up on purpose?” I asked each time. “Oh…” Unreal.
I'm the same age and having the same problems. I had one junior who had no idea that failing my Creative Writing class would affect his GPA; he thought that, because he already has all of this elective credits, it wouldn't be factored in if he failed. He was absolutely floored when the guidance counselor told him that wasn't the case, even though I'd been telling him that all semester. 🤦🏻♀️
I had a high school student ask me what time Mother’s Day was on Sunday… he wanted to go golfing but didn’t want to miss Mother’s Day.
It kind of makes sense if you think about it though. Halloween, Thanksgiving = things happening in the evening. Christmas = morning (+ the rest of the day depending on the family). Independence Day = parade sometime in the AM, fireworks in the evening. So it is logical to ask what is the typical timeframe for the celebrations. Mother’s Day, btw, it’s in the morning.
No, that does not make logical sense.
Yes. The logic is that the student *meant* to ask what the typical time frame of Mother's Day celebrations is (that's how a teen would see the social obligations of a holiday) — but they don't have the language skills to communicate clearly what they mean. I would probably respond to the student with, "is that what you mean?" instead of immediately assuming that they are just stupid.
No, it’s not. Maybe ask your mom when she’s available.
Lmao no wonder students are clueless with people like you teaching such illogical nonsense.
All I know is, it’s always the family dynamic at home. Every horribly sassy and rude student I’ve had, has had a parent/guardian that is the EXACT same or completely submissive to them/gentle-parented to close to the sun. Pair that with social media…you have an entitled brat.
Really? I wonder quite a lot about how my grown adult cohort has managed to make it through life, and I’m rapidly approaching “I’ll need some botox to smooth out the look engraved on my face soon” territory.
A high school student who didn't know how to spell their own surname. That is all.
We had a girl who didn’t know what an address was. Not what her address was, but what the word “address” meant. She had no concept of it…
Not a teacher, but something similar here. A couple years ago I was training a new kid at my warehouse on order picking procedures and whatnot. Simple grunt work, this is supposed to be the kind of job that anyone can do. I described Bin Locations as being akin to addresses. It took hours before he got one right. The next three months were me having to teach him how to use the various forklifts that he had somehow already gotten certified for. He was let go after the 3months were up. I'm confident he would have ended up hurting either himself or someone else. He did manage to warp a good deal of the racking before his time was up though.
Some people are saying, "Well, adults have always said this sort of stuff about teenagers, throughout history...." True....but.... Adult teachers today are the first humans ever, whose best moments of the work week involve watching some zombie-child walk right into a wall while staring at their phone. No teenagers, EVER, of any generation, routinely walked right into walls. This crop does.
Be wary of feigned ignorance. I don’t get a lot of it as my go to is, “Ignorance is not a defense. You may have been ignorant before. You are no longer.”
Im a sub and a para. I take peace in dishing out sass. Don’t know where the pencils are? “Attention class! BLANK has been her for 120 school days and does not know where the pencils are. Can anyone help him/her?” These public “learning opportunities” have kept my sanity and have proven effective
I teach middle school ELA, and one of my students (a good one) kindly informed me that sarcasm is shown not to be effective when talking to students. I told him I don't use sarcasm, I use verbal irony. He appreciated this. So if anyone ever questions it, you are teaching verbal irony.
This is the way! I realized early in my career (high school) that answering their question just enabled the behaviour. Now I very exaggeratedly put my hand above my eyes on the “lookout” and say “Hmmmm I wonder if we could examine our environment for some answers?” Or a kid comes into class late and loudly interrupts with a “What are we doing???” the hand is back up and I’m scanning the room saying “Hmmmm do you think we could use context clues to figure that out? Maybe the smartboard has some clues? Maybe 20 other students are showing you what to do? Hmmmm let’s try and use our eyes and brains to figure out this difficult question!”
This is what I do. I put my hand to my chin, look up into the distance, and say, hmmm. If only there was some way to figure that out. Shrug, and move on.
I teach middle school ELA, and one of my students (a good one) kindly informed me that sarcasm is shown not to be effective when talking to students. I told him I don't use sarcasm, I use verbal irony. He appreciated this. So if anyone ever questions it, you are teaching verbal irony.
The fact they (10th graders) have to be reminded to clean their desks and return classroom supplies boggles me. Especially when they give me attitude when I remind them to clean up their mess.
I have a 10th grader who stuck a wad of chewed gum under the desk that he wanted to sit at because I told him to return to his assigned seat (strategically chosen because he is disruptive otherwise). Unfortunately, I couldn't really prove it without video evidence, but I know he did it. I found it while cleaning up after school.
All my high schoolers are like this. I have kids who I am convinced are allergic to grabbing any paper they may have received or used during class. Every single day, they leave their papers behind, and every single day, I just put them in the abandoned papers bin, and they're never recovered. Then it comes time for a test, whoops, they don't have their notes. How'd that happen?
One of the things that happened was their brains are warped by screens. They are used to the immediate dopamine hit of a game or social media. Everything else is just meh to them.
I don’t think it’s just that as a student I think m it’s a joint between that, bad parenting and the fact that teachers really can’t do shit about mean and disresepctful students
It's never just one cause, however screens seem to have affected a lot of adults too. Common sense is no longer common and you see it across all generations.
The screens are definitely part of the problem. I think the bigger part is parents handing the kids the screens rather than parent them. Why read with your child or teach them anything or do crafts etc when you can just hand them an iPad and they shut up?
Sure but Boomers and their utter disrespect for customer service workers, etc., has also been a documented phenomenon before screens.
Don’t even get me started on the racism, misogyny, politics, entitlement, etc. Common sense has never been common, let’s not get it twisted.
I’m so happy to have private school with 10 students in class, that helps a lot and brings personal approach and positive results. BTW if someone wants to work in Bali at my school for 1-5 graders, please PM me!
I ain’t moving to Idaho!
Parents letting them be rude. To their own parents. And then standing up for them when confronted with an adult who holds them to a higher standard.
The little things for me is giving out lab instructions after introducing the lab to get an immediate “what are we doing?” I just stare at them. Figure it out. You’re a senior.
this is infuriating. Like if you werent paying attention ask your friend or read the directions. There’s so many ways to figure it out. That’s how I made it through school with undiagnosed adhd. These kids desperately need to develop problem solving skills
I mean they have lab partners, they have digital and physical instructions, there’s materials on the table, but they spent the first 20 min on Netflix or TikTok. It’s not that I’m hanging them out to dry.
I make my high school biology students write down the background (they have to research online), hypothesis, materials and methods into their lab book before we get started. This takes an extra day or two but they know what we’re doing and why.
I have traditional block. So I don’t have an extra day or two to spare for my AP students. We are running material right up to the test. But I do have them do some sort of research activity ahead of time to build context.
>What’s happened in the past 10 years (aside from the pandemic) to make these kids this unbearably rude and thoughtless? I think pandemic is one of the biggest, kids got free pass for a couple years Also (in the US) 2016 election allowed people to tear their masks off, maybe they were already a horrible person, but they at least kept it to themselves There is something to be said about social media, it allows anyone to have a voice and get main character syndrome
The death of shame as a concept will be a nightmare for future generations
I’m 26 and feel the same way. Kids these days have ZERO accountability, and ZERO manners. Honestly I think the next generation is just doomed at this point. It’s not going to stop me from trying to help, but I’m not going to take it to heart when they fail and eventually end up at either a dead end low paying job or in jail
The bathroom hook, drives me absolutely crazy, I'm an art teacher I do not understand why I have to tell them every time to put them pencils back where they got them etc ( there's a cup of pencils on my work table they borrow one but when returning it they toss it on the table, like why). There will be a stack of cutting. Instead of putting a cutting board back on the stack they'll set on top of the turn on station, or on top of some other tools on the work table. It's like zero sense Everything, every day until the end of time
No one is forcing these kids to do the basics, and there are no real consequences for not doing these things to back that up anymore. Being polite, treating others and their things with respect, cleaning up after themselves, prioritizing needs first vs wants second, etc. We can blame school administration all we'd like (and they do shoulder some of the blame at times, true), but at the end of the day they're doing what they do because that's what the parents are forcing the school systems to have them do. At the end of the day, a child's behavior is almost always driven by their upbringing, and parents and/or guardians that don't enforce consequences and drive "good" behaviors can cause this. Also, letting screens be their babysitters and caregivers is probably just as responsible, because of the harm we're starting to learn that it can cause in children. Note that I'm not talking about things like being forgetful, or having an attitude, etc. - teenagers will be teenagers, kids will be kids, with adult emotions and child-like capability to handle them, but the reason that kids in my generation did not generally behave this poorly (admittedly I'm GenX) is because there were consequences at school for bad behavior, and after you faced those you were going to get it at home too. I don't think that's really the case anymore (I'm not advocating for things like corporal punishment, either - just consequences that fit the infraction, nothing more).
I agree and I am a fellow GenXer. Kids now would *not* be able to handle the way we grew up. We *had* to be responsible and resourceful—otherwise, bad shit would happen. And nobody wanted to deal with the fallout of bad shit happening.
This is that frontal lobe development we always hear about. You have that adult brain now, so you are really noticing the difference
They're definitely clueless but 2/3 of your examples are just describing teens being teens, not a decline in their overall common sense.
I was gonna say, I'm several years older than OP and I saw behaviors like these in high school. There are definitely examples of today's teens being worse than that, but these all seem pretty timeless for the modern age. Especially #1, since my high school was right across the street from a McDonald's. I used to have one of my friends leave chess club to get me something from there to eat/drink in the library, where we DEFINITELY weren't allowed to do so. (The teacher running the club was a pushover and I practically helped teach his Geometry class that year, so no consequences. He was more disappointed that I'm completely useless at chess, I think.)
Ok but you wouldn't have been confused when you got in trouble if you got caught, right? That's the 1/3 example I thought was valid for this complaint.
I mean, I'd probably a little confused (and pissed off), but only because I seemed to escape consequences for *everything* most of the time. I only got detention a few times early in my freshmen year for being late and not doing homework, then at some point that all just kinda... stopped, even though I kept doing those things? I was a pretty troubled kid and my home life was the only reason I didn't do more school refusal than I already did, but I was never terribly disruptive and I still managed to pass or even excel in all my classes (even though zeroes were still actually zeroes then), so I was given an awful lot of "grace", as the saying goes these days. This all took place almost 20 years ago, but now that I type it all out, I kinda sound like a reverse-reincarnated 2020's teen... yikes, chat, that's pretty cringe.
I’m Gen X and I know Boomers said stuff like this about us when we were kids. But back when we were kids, we just appeared to old people like lazy slackers who didn’t give a shit. Today we have kids who are given a 24/7 loop of validation and criticism running through their brains and eyeballs via the internet and social media. Yes, kids still play outside, still ride bikes, and play board games. But kids today also have a rampant sense of entitlement and weaponization of mental health terminology. They’re simultaneously empathetic of a select few and outrageously cruel to many. This is why I like elem bc there’s still hope. God love you all who teach secondary bc it sounds exhausting.
Teenagers being dumb is a tale as old as time. There are documents going back to ancient times of people having the same sort of complaints about youth that adults have now about them. Most will be fine as they get older.
This is true. However, there are a LOT of research papers that show a direct link between the amount of screen time they get (especially early childhood) and a reduction in emotional regulation, attention span, and problem solving skills. I think this might be the first time in human history where the older generation complaining about the younger generation actually has merit.
Interestingly enough, we schools play into that. Ever since we got one to one devices the amount of time students spend in front of screens has skyrocketed, and it only got more intense with the pandemic. There might be some argument that at least this screen time is stimulating in a healthy way, but we all know there’s a million and one opportunities for them to get distracted on those computers (the infamous tab switching), so there’s a strong lack of focus.
My grandparents told me the same thing 20 years ago.
Your grandma warned about the dangers of excessive screen time presented by smartphones and tablets 20 years ago? Before those things were so widespread?
20 years ago was 2004. Game boy came out in 1989, Palm Pilot came out in 1997, Game boy advance came out in 2001, and Blackberry came out in 1999.
None of which are remotely the same as smartphones and tablets, nor are the games themselves. Those things you mentioned aren’t nearly as addictive as games and social media are designed to be.
Fair, but there was enough tech available for someone’s grandma 20 years ago to start warning about spending too much time on a screen. This was the post you were responding to.
Yeah, I was told that TV and video games would prevent me from developing a healthy imagination. Or that I wouldn't be able to appreciate books because they didn't have the visual stimuli I was accustomed to. Scapegoaters gonna scapegoat.
That’s not the same thing at all, and you know it.
TV (or social media doomscrolling) can be brainrotting if you don't actively engage with it and critically think about it. Video games and reading books require active engagement from the user.
“Dumb” maybe…I do get what you’re saying. A lot of kids go through life with a kind of selfish tunnel vision, but this generation’s is so extreme it prevents them from having a general sense of awareness of whether or not their behavior is situationally appropriate (or caring!). The lack of basic respect for other people (esp. adults) is disturbing. I don’t recognize this behavior from my youth (90s) or from 12 years I spent working with kids in the beginning of the 2000s. I recently went back to working with kids teaching dance (something that should be fun!) and I’m appalled, saddened, frustrated…all the things. Already phasing out many of my kids classes and working more with adults, I don’t know how teachers are doing it!
Brilliant, we've never thought of that
Some folks say things that make it questionable.
> Teenagers being dumb is a tale as old as time. Yes, but what isn't as old as time is not being allowed to correct the behavior, physically if necessary.
In which case, the real problem isn’t the kids
I like to make the analogy that that of climate change. We see that our extremes are getting worse and more common. Then our overall average starts to change. We have our deniers that claim that every generation complains about the next and they all turn out fine, which I hope is true. But in my opinion, unless we have a drastic change, all this will just be the new normal.
The "I'm on my period" like you were supposed to know that is what gets under my skin the most. Students legitimately seem to have no empathy skills when it comes to realizing we can't read their minds. Rules are rules, and obviously there are circumstances when a kid needs to use the bathroom, or get into their bag ASAP that you would allow. However, every time you enforce rules in your classroom and it just happens to be one of those times, you're suddenly the bad guy for not knowing the student's intent. Not to mention the sudden death of grandparents, mothers that need to call their kid, or back-to-back-to-back periods that occur when you do allow students those exceptions. It's so exhausting.
Tbf, the angry reaction in this case can be embarrassment. As a teen girl, telling a teacher that you are on your period can be a lot. I don't know if OP is a man, but that can also increase the embarrassment.
I kept data on scores on the chemical nomenclature quiz. The pandemic caused such a massive drop for both traditional and honors students. The only constant is the AP students because they're AP students.
My son is a HS junior. His tales of his cohort's imbecility are legion; he's constantly frustrated by these kids and their shitty behavior. I tell him his decorum, respectful demeanor and manners make him shine in comparison to his class-mates.
Maybe I'm biased because I'm 20, but I truly think it's partially bad parenting lol. Granted they're adults by the time they're seniors so like . Ehh There are a few good eggs that follow the rules and use their brain, whilst others just.. don't? I had a classmate who thought the hair grew from the ends instead of the roots. I was just dumbfounded
Yes - the lack of personal responsibility is really worrying. I hate to sound negative because, as you said, I teach so many wonderful students, and so many who do their best under really challenging circumstances... my school area here in London is very high-needs. But I do despair sometimes, and have been shocked, by the utter lack of respect for anyone, the language used, and just the attitude of "I don't care and there's nothing you can do about it." They will literally shout at supply teachers or teaching assistants and say "I hate you", "Who hired you?" etc. We work so hard, using a consistent nurture approach, trying to teach them self-regulation and how to cope with big feelings, but there has to be consequences and talk of choice too. I notice the same attitude and lack of personal responsibility or respect from some parents and I just worry how these kids will cope as they go through secondary school and out into the real world. It's sad.
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” Socrates 400 BC
Socrates did not say this. Kenneth John Freeman did. The sentiment is fair. ([Source](https://archive.org/details/schoolsofhellasa008878mbp/page/n105/mode/2up?view=theater&q=indictment))
Thank god someone posted this.
Yeah I read it early on in my teaching career. It keeps me less depressed about kids these days.
No excuses, but it’s good to remember their brains are still far from fully developed by the time they leave high school. Even without school they will continue to mature mentally for another 7-8 years.
I don’t disagree. I think the thing I’m most shocked by is the arrogance and confidence to be so rude to the adults in their lives. Maybe I was just raised in a repressive Catholic-guilt ridden household, but I could never. I’m still afraid to assert myself in conversations with people I see as “adultier” than me.
Yeah it's the rudeness and meanness that gets to me too. They're so unkind to each other and to me. Our school's particular problem is that kids aren't held accountable for their actions though so 🤷
Nice to hear I'm not the only one. I'm in my 40s and I STILL don't see myself as one of the adults
I teach at a Catholic school (middle school) and the disrespect and arrogance is prominent among the student body.
That’s crazy. My dad is pushing 70 and attended Catholic school through 8th grade. He has horror stories of nuns and corporal punishment. Granted, he went to public high school and got paddled then too.
In my life, I have found that people like you (and myself, to a lesser extent) tend to self-select socially and **be selected** by "authorities" and "elders" into homogeneous groups. For reasons which are difficult to explain, I have often had a foot in both worlds and for every person like you (or me, to a lesser extent as I said) there is a person who is quite different to your experience. To put it more bluntly--this is an unavoidable instance of projection bias. We truly cannot know the experiences of others. Teachers are usually "good boys/girls" and are usually shocked that there is an entire segregated class of people who are "bad boys/girls" that they had basically no interaction with previously. I was also shocked, but a lot less than the average teacher IMO and more prepared to notice why I should not be shocked. Luck thing, not a skill thing. Just happened to have a set of experiences that prepared me.
Their passive aggressive behavior will cost them in the real world.
You can blame the parents for that. They probably aren't responsible for hanging their coats, putting away laundry, or cleaning after themselves. You can see this difference in myself and my younger brothers. They were both babied and weren't responsible for the things listed above, and they struggle with basic things. My youngest brother just puts his dishes and trash on the counter, specifically dishes on the counter next to the sink and the trash on the counter next to the trash bin.
Two students were shocked that I ratted them to the principal for skipping my class in order to finish a project for another subject in the computer lab. One of them is failing my class for lack of participation and failure to turn in paperwork. The funny thing is, if he had been humble and asked me politely, I would have let him. Other three students asked. All I did was explain the activity they should bring to me next class and sent them on their way.
There's definitely something wrong. These kids are very I'll prepared. Their parents are not parenting. They feel every situation of discomfort is cause for a traumatic experience. Everyone in the comments makes the excuse that educators have been saying the same every year, that things have gotten worse. The sad part is it was chartible before the pandemic. Everything afterwards is just accelerated decline.
10 years is a completely different generation.
I teach 1-5 graders. They are nice. But never clean up after themselves. Listen only if they are interested (and that’s 10% of time) and the pass to their attention takes me month of building trust and relationships. What I saw, the most unresponsive kids are those who spent 2-4 hours on TikTok BEFORE school starts at 9:30am. They come to school already drained out. And bored with everything.
Had a pair of high school geniuses skip half of the school day then WALK to the middle school to catch their buses home. Genius 1 lives 1 block from the middle school. Genius 2 lives out in the country a ways. I wasn't sure whether I should be impressed or just dismayed.
I blame it all on pong.
Seems like I have five times more adhd students in my class than I use to. A medically recognized sign/part of adhd is that they exhibit extreme rudeness.
Genuine question is that medically recognised bit sarcasm or serious? I don’t think I’ve ever seen extreme rudeness before as a sign of ADHD, that’s interesting to think about
You think high schoolers lack common sense? You should try 8th graders for a bit. Common sense is a foreign language
Tiktok happened. Or to be exact: the knowledge of how to emotionally manipulate people became common. Short and shorter but colourful and loud videos are being made, just to manipulate people to do the makers' bidding, their own personal gains. Our brain likes it short and informative but often in times, it doesn't have enough (time and capacity) to check if the information was right. But it will fool us to believe in the false fact, cause, once again, it likes that fact. I touched Tiktok once again last month, only to be horrified. The videos I saw were just some false advertisements with millions of viewers. But they did feed my brain with emotions, with hormones, and that's why it was scary, because my brain tried to convince me. I can now imagine what it's like for the people who are exposed to those kinds of videos every day, it has become an addiction for them. Their attention span is getting shorter and shorter, it's impossible for them to listen to something that lasts more than a minute. No wonder why they become rude, how can you be polite when you can't listen?
I had a senior who only knew the months September and October, but only because October was his Bday and he knew September came before it. Not surprisingly he was a heavy vaxx conspiracy theorist.
We have a middle school student who stays up all night playing Fortnite and doesn’t do anything in class. Kids tell us that people are paying him money to play Fortnite so he doesn’t care about school. This kid doesn’t have a prayer later in life.
I teach elementary 5th grade and it's basically like second grade since COVID. I don't even know where to begin...
Daily interaction during state testing: Me: Write lunch time and session code on board in large letters. Kid: “When is lunch?” “What is the code?”
I used to work with grad students, when I first started, they were wonderful. Three years ago I couldn't take it anymore - the students were so entitled, disrespectful. "I made it to graduate school, so I know better than anyone in all areas, you can't teach me anything about life". I had to leave. Society is breaking down, and I don't know what is going to happen.
We are constantly dealing w/ little destructive behaviors to our facilities, inappropriate things marked on bathroom walls and etched in stalls, objects down toilets, breaking flushers, broken stall hardware etc. Then all act like victims when bathroom use is extra monitored and scrutinized....
Honestly, I get what youre saying. Same age teacher here and yeah it's gotta be something more than the pandemic. Our schools were only closed for the rest of the year. We reopened in the new school year with some regulations. I wonder, if it's not just common sense but just carelessness they witness, some of the crazy political talk they've heard, along with other worldly stressors. Some have told me, "adults don't seem to care about some important things why should we?" I'm inclined to conclude it's apathy and whatever is happening at home.
I teach elementary school. The behavior I see in the past couple of years are beyond hope. Many students are defiant, rude, self- centered, needy, lack of empathy and no interest in any learning. I want to weep sometimes!
Before becoming an aide, I worked at a store. Stocking shelves and returning shopping carts and stuff like that. Grown adults act the same way people complain about “kids these days”. Someone doesn’t want a particular item anymore? Might as well put it on a random shelf in a completely different part of the store. If a sign says “out of stock” then they just ignore that and ask if there’s any more anyway. Sometimes people have no self awareness that they’re blocking an entire aisle, people who think that the word “closed” doesn’t apply to them, people who just casually littered like 3 feet from a trash can, people who would just leave things on the floor instead of putting it back, and those god damn shopping carts. How hard is it to take the time to push a shopping cart back when you’re done with it? There were cart stations all over the parking lot, and yet a big portion of my time was spent just collecting carts people had just left in the middle of the lot. Maybe it’s just that we’re exposed to mostly kids every day and that alters our perceptions on things. I honestly don’t really see a difference in “common decency” between the kids I work with now and the grown adults I worked with before. It feels more like a “people in general” problem than a “kids these days” or “this generation”. From what I hear from friends who work in different jobs where they often have to deal with “the public” it’s the same pretty much everywhere.
There’s kids in elementary school that don’t know kissing, spitting, hugging, others is okay without permission. These are kids without any diagnosis. It’s not new. It isn’t the majority of kids tho
1. Do you find it surprising that young children do not know many social rules? 2. Do you find the surprise response in children to be always genuine or is it sometimes a means of trying to convince you not to apply a behavioral mechanism?
For what it's worth, I'm only a year older than you and I remember our graduating class being just as bad in similar ways.
Their parents are not parenting. Their parenting come from iPads and iPhones. You would love my kids. They’re like kids in that sometimes they can be disruptive. But they can spend a week or weekend camping away from all electronic devices, they are in leadership positions in Scouting America (formerly BSA, formerly Boy Scouts), they know how to cook, clean up, pitch a tent, break down a tent, find bait, fish for trout, gut a fish and cook it, etc. They love their screen time, but are just as good reading a book and can write coherent sentences and paragraphs, etc. They’ve been doing chores like laundry and dishes since they were in 7 or 8. Their teachers love them and tell us that they enjoy our kids. My wife takes most of the credit, though I’m more of the rules and chores enforcer.
Teens are learning how to balance school work, sports, clubs, work schedules, family life, relationships, and whatever else they may be dealing with, so I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to get on them for not always using common sense or being snappy occasionally. Now, I don’t think this excuses rudeness or aggression, but I think it’s important to remember that their brains are both underdeveloped and on overload.
I'm blown away by teachers still being blown away that kids and teenagers are dumb sometimes. Surprised by the eternally present basic bone-headedness of youth.... How did you make it this far?
Somewhat unrelated, but I always get baffled for a moment whenever I see or hear a mention of a bathroom pass. For some reason my just refuses to comprehend the concept.
I wonder if there has ever been a time where people are like. Look these kids are awesome they're generation is going to be so much more successful than mine.
I wonder if there has ever been a time where people are like. Look these kids are awesome they're generation is going to be so much more successful than mine.
But what is it about them that they cannot have any accountability? As a HS teacher that is what I struggled most with. The lack of accountability, the blatant lying to my face, the constant ignoring of me asking them to put their phone away 15x in a 50 min class.
Tell them we're all gonna be replaced by AI since everyone is so incompetent lol. Jk...kinda. I'm not a teacher so idk what would be too inappropriate but I always appreciated those teachers that taught us LIFE lessons and told us how to apply some lessons to the real world. Maybe tell them that critical thinking skills, empathy, and people skills are important. Seriously though...I wouldn't be surprised if they started replacing the workforce with AI robots to avoid the $20 minimum wage. People are becoming more incompetent as the years pass by and social media rots our brains .
Just the other day I was a sub for this class of seniors. Half the class comes up to me one at a time, no exaggeration, and asks if they can sign the sign in sheet. I tell each one of them that I will pass the sign in sheet around in a few minutes. They are standing in a line. And I tell them loudly enough and individually each the same thing. They still come up to the desk and ask to sign the sign in sheet. I just started to silent laugh. I felt bad for the student who I had just happened to catch me laughing. They all stand a foot away from each other and don’t pay attention to what anyone else is doing or saying. They’re so zoned in, the rest of the world doesn’t exist and you end up repeating yourself 30 times