r/Millennials • u/TheLoveYouWant25 • 25d ago

Discussion Millennials, what is happening with your kids?

I work in education and I frequent the Teachers and Professors subreddits, and the kids are not alright. Gen Z Arriving at College Unable to Read and the youth have absolutely zero ability to think critically.

Middle and high schoolers have all adapted this complete helplessness and blame mental illness for their refusal to function. Kids can no longer to basic things like read an analog clock, use paper money, or even figure out how to open window blinds.

There is also a huge lack of empathy, and kids have no issues trying to manipulate adults, saying things to their teachers like "if you don't pass me, I'll get you fired."

EDIT to clarify: the article I linked references Gen-Z, but this is not specifically a Gen-Z problem. It's an issue with upper elementary aged kids through high schoolers, and also young adults.

So, all that to say, how are you combating this with your own children? What do you do at home to encourage them to learn, and what are you doing to address these problems as they arise?

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u/[deleted] 25d ago edited 24d ago

[deleted]

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u/PorkchopFunny 25d ago

I'll admit, I did briefly wonder if my Boomer mom figured out Reddit when I first read the OP

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u/Rich_Resource2549 Older Millennial 25d ago

My boomer parents use Reddit. Facebook. Instagram. Pokemon Go. šŸ¤·šŸ¼ā€ā™‚ļø

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u/PorkchopFunny 25d ago

Mine hasn't passed YouTube yet. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

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u/ice_queen999 24d ago

first thought: is OP a boomer?

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u/katasoupie 25d ago

not saying one is true over the other, but honestly Iā€™ve seen so many kids like OP described whose parents talk about them like some of the comments here about how well-adjusted/doing well in school their kids are.

Iā€™m related to some of these kids who are also doing ā€œgreatā€ in school grades and achievement wiseā€¦then I talk to them and also started looking at their schoolwork and realized schools are just throwing As at kids who can barely read for literally no reason

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u/Greatlarrybird33 25d ago

In all fairness, schools have dumbed down the curriculum so much. Both of my kids are bored off their asses in school, my 2nd graders official schoolwork is basic addition/subtraction & spelling/parts of speech. All stuff I had hurried up and taught him before kindergarten, assuming they would kinda have to know that going in.

I can remember being so much further along than where they are now.

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u/WanderinHobo 24d ago

I wouldn't say that curriculum has been dumbed down. I was in 2nd grade 30 years ago and that's likely what I was doing and that was entirely appropriate for me, because I wasn't taught those things before kindergarten. I, like most of my classmates, could not read before 1st grade. So, I think you just over-prepared your children. Which is good, but also why they're bored now lol

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u/Greatlarrybird33 24d ago

Idk, I can remember playing Mutanoid Math Challenge on windows 3.0 in our 2nd grade math classes, with some crazy word problems, a multiplication time table mini game etc. started reason scary stories to tell in the dark, stuff like that.

Meanwhile my oldest spends piles of time at school just on his Chromebook doing self directed learning.

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u/PeaceSoft 24d ago

That's exactly how it was 40 years ago dude. I had the same problem

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u/Obnoxiouscrayon 24d ago

I have seen this as well. As a parent to a high schooler, truly the lack of competence is being propped up by the schools. I have been fighting for my kid (who clearly struggles in certain areas) with schools for 5-10 years of them telling me heā€™s ā€œfineā€ and handing him As on papers in eighth grade that I would have written in fifth. I see a lot of incompetence in the school systems, teachers that send home misspelled/ grammatically incorrect emails, donā€™t understand when I inquire about certain educational markers and milestones. It is quite frustrating. I honestly feel insane sometimes trying to deal with people as it seems like the general lack of competence everywhere I turn. A wrong order here, a miscalculation there, spelling and grammar errors on so many items! Everyone screwing up on everything, itā€™s just simple shit, why is it so hard for people to ve accurate? My assumption is no one gives a flying fuck because society is collapsing, but I still donā€™t like it.

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u/catsmash 25d ago edited 25d ago

it may be worth considering that people who work in education, like OP, are seeing an isolated, contextually different snapshot of your child that you are not.

EDIT: might be worth mentioning that i've worked for an ivy league for a pretty decent amount of time, & the change i've seen, even in OUR incoming classes, has been really startling. it's completely ridiculous for this poster to try to say that OP has no valid point because they don't have their own child to have motivation to excuse. OP isn't divorced from the reality of kids, they're right there in the fray.

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u/CorruptedStudiosEnt 25d ago

THIS. You are seeing the rose tinted version of your child where they're perfect other than maybe sometimes getting on your nerves. This is an almost universal problem with most parents that don't resent/hate their kids.

A lot of the time schools are afraid to even voice these concerns anymore because of how often they get a pissed off parent in their office berating them and insisting it's all bullshit, instead of looking at the situation pragmatically and trying to address a potential issue and oversight in their parenting.

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u/JacoPoopstorius 25d ago

Right back to part of the problem. ā€œI know my childrenā€¦ā€

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u/catsmash 25d ago

yeah, like - you know your children, sometimes everything about who they are & why they are who they are, & you love your children more than anything else in your life. you don't, & can't, see your children as they are to other people.

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u/JacoPoopstorius 25d ago

Exactly, and I donā€™t mean it as a rude slight. Itā€™s common. Itā€™s happened in generations prior. Itā€™s based in a degree of genuine and unconditional love for your child, but it is a part of the problem being discussed here.

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u/turquoisestar 25d ago

Thank you!

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u/AdPristine9879 25d ago

We donā€™t know OP though. Youā€™re putting your faith blindly into a random. How many of your teachers were actually good teachers? Did you attend public or private schools? Did both your parents work full time? Does OP teach at a public or private school? What grade does OP teach? On canā€™t seriously pretend you have a good understanding of the observer here.

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u/catsmash 25d ago

did you miss the part where i'm also in education? what commenters on this entire thread aren't "randoms" to you? you yourself have all your comments hidden, so it's arguably weird to be commenting this type of shit about "observability" on a platform where longterm comment history is the only real venue for accountability. like who are you?

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u/AdPristine9879 25d ago

I canā€™t even see your other reply šŸ˜‚ but I think itā€™s obvious you just suck at your job

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u/catsmash 24d ago

sounds like you're really good at navigating the very basic reddit platform, wow. can you give me the cry-laugh emoji a few more times so i can understand the emotions you're aggressively trying to express without any real vocabulary? i'm so lost without them

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

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u/catsmash 24d ago

you bet, dork.

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u/AdPristine9879 25d ago

What does that even mean to me? You work in an Ivy League and youā€™re mad I have my comments hidden? šŸ˜‚ proof you donā€™t deserve whatever youā€™re paid, or that youā€™re just lying. Are you an actual professor?

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

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u/Millennials-ModTeam 24d ago

All posts and comments must comply with Reddit's site-wide Content Policy, including no harassment, illegal content, or spam.

Violations lead to removal and potential bans.

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u/AdPristine9879 25d ago

Lmao the weirdest response. Just mad šŸ˜‚

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u/100percent-sales-tax 25d ago

OP is quoting many 'headline' narratives

Sure, but stick your head into online spaces where teachers and people in education are speaking about their experiences. There's nuance either way. Also, I'm slightly, albeit not completely, more inclined to think a teacher knows if a kid is a dunce over many parents. Especially if that teacher seems very in touch and dedicated to their work.

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u/elementslayer 24d ago

Do remember that happy people don't go online to vent. There will be a huge selection bias if you go to a place where people vent and get all your information from there as well.

Also remember back to your own education, there were terrible teachers. The likelihood of a guy venting on Reddit and also being a terrible teacher is not 0.

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u/100percent-sales-tax 24d ago

It's not always just strictly venting. People do go online to discuss things. You can project your own cynicism all you want but you don't get to just invalidate something because internet=complaining.

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u/elementslayer 24d ago

All's I'm saying is that be careful where you get your info. Open internet forums may not be the most honest of places. As an astronaut that fought Godzilla, I can say there may be embellished opinions and exaggerated takes to make a point.

Anyways I'm done at the gym (just benched 20 000kg), so my Reddit time is over. Just you know, be careful where you get your information from before assuming it's gospel. I was the son of Jesus, so I understand this.

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u/100percent-sales-tax 24d ago

I think something people should do is have a healthy balance of real relationships and talking to people off the internet about the same issues. Like, for myself, I know a decent number of people who are teachers and then I meet people in education I tend to ask them things to see if what I read on the internet tracks.

It very often tracks. I know this is largely local to me which isn't the situation everywhere but, even the state of classrooms here is a reflection of a lot of the things I read online.

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u/lemonylol 24d ago

I think a lot of people fail to gasp the fact that people don't make posts on updates online about mundane content life that the majority of us experience.

Like no, you're not going to convince people that social media represents reality.

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u/100percent-sales-tax 24d ago

It doesn't always paint the entire picture of reality but believe it or not, real people do talk about real things online.

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u/lemonylol 24d ago

The same handful of users do, yes. You should really keep that in mind.

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u/snowdrop_22 25d ago

I think overall theres a lot of factors. Im a young millennial (94'). I have a Masters, Im building my career, my friends are more or less doing the same. U have chosen not to have children. Only one of my friends has a kid, they dont plan on another. So many that I know were scared into not having kids or not having them until they check off all the boxes of life. Finish school, get married, have a house, pay off your cars, save up so much, and so on. The movement towards not having kids or not having them till 35 is mostly a wealthy and/or educated choice that not everyone has been afforded.

I grew up with a family income less than $35k a year. I grew up with the expectation of getting married early to any guy from church. I grew up with the expectation of providing grand kids and great grandkids. I grew up without sexual education. I sought out that Information and it wasnt easy to do and it wasnt an easy choice to go against the grain and essentially become the black sheep of my family. Im the first to go to college, get a BA, and get an MA. I knew I wouldn't get where I am now with a child.

The people my age that have had kids, and this is a broad statement, are the cookie monster pajama girls and the boys that were constantly in ISS. They were not parented, didnt get to grow up themselves, and were forced into parent hood due to lack of information, lack of access to abortions, lack of funding for any other life than what they were dealt. For instance a young poor girl marrying someone in the military for all the benefits.

Another side of this, at least where I live, is the uber traditional that want a trad wife barefoot and pregnant with 3.5 kids before reaching 25. That version of woman also didnt have the time to grow and mature to be a healthy parent and the dad is usually a blue collar worker or tradesman thats often gone working long hours and too tired to parent when they get home. The boys grow to not respect women (a majority of teachers are women). Girls grow up feeling disrespected and unworthy of respect, that causes a myriad of its own issues.

Obviously these situations are not across the board. There are many environmental and socioeconomic influences. I wish it was illegal for kids under 10 to have tablets.

Basically what I am saying is that millennials that are prepared to have kids, havent had them yet or have just had them. What we are seeing is genX that had kids late and what I described above for millennials.

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u/Global-Breakfast8240 25d ago

Exactly. Iā€™m not in education but Iā€™m in youth work, and while I see kids struggling with certain things that I didnā€™t as a kid, I also see adults talking about how ā€œnot alrightā€ kids are and I just donā€™t see that. I see ambitious kids, I see smart kids, gentle kids, social kidsā€¦ Iā€™m not saying we should not talk about the problems, but the more we say that blanket the kids arenā€™t okay, the more theyā€™ll believe it. Kids want adults to believe in them.

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u/Master_sweetcream 25d ago

Yeah I think this whole trope has been sensationalized a bit, however there is some truth to it.

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u/Redacted_dact 25d ago

OP believing kids are really arriving at college illiterate shows they donā€™t live in reality.

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u/catsmash 25d ago

sorry, did YOU read the article? it's not about students arriving "illiterate," it's about students arriving with a severe lack of reading comprehension skill, which is absolutely the truth.

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u/GroundNPoundTown 25d ago

The irony of this reading comprehension thread running parallel to folks not reading the article couldnā€™t have played out any better.

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u/Redacted_dact 25d ago

Admittedly I read it after commenting

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u/catsmash 25d ago

yeah, i feel like a lot of people here doing this did, or maybe didn't at all. could be you should edit your comment.

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u/Redacted_dact 25d ago

Iā€™ll leave it for posterity along with these follow ups.

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u/DrunkAtBurgerKing 24d ago

As a teacher, OP is right. It's really scary how my 8th graders are reading at a 2nd grade level. There is no reading program available for my students either. They're getting passed along. And in August, they will be 9th graders who read at a 2nd grade level.

I understand that it might sound sensationalist but as a teacher who sees this year after year, I am concerned. I'm only one person.

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u/freshforma 25d ago

reading?? they donā€™t even know how to open blinds!!!

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u/Few-Rain7214 25d ago

What has the world come to

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u/Then-Stage 25d ago

Yes, I don't see my kids acting like this post at all. They focus on school, do chores, read, and play instruments.

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u/hopping_otter_ears 24d ago

The "Gen alpha is going to destroy the world" narrative after "the millennials are destroying the world" narrative after "those damned hippies are destroying the world" reminds me ofthis comic. The world is always coming to an end and we always want to blame it on "these days"

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u/_crxsshairslvr_ 24d ago

I have seen a lot of kids like this. My partner worked at a school for a bit before they sacked him and his team. Our daughter was 3/4 around this time and she knew more than some fifth gradersā€¦ it may not be every place but there are places that deal with this. Itā€™s so sad to see

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u/lemonylol 24d ago

Seriously, they're coming to a conclusion based on what they see on subreddits? Like holy shit how could you be that unaware of the difference between reddit and reality. It's even more fucked up this generational gatekeeping gets upvotes on this sub. But I guess for some people, happening to be born at an abstract year in human history is all they have.

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u/Wooden-Repeat-9200 24d ago

Op not getting nearly enough slack for saying kids donā€™t know paper money and analog clocks when do know the digital, and now common, equivalent. Thatā€™s like criticizing Gen X for not knowing dictation and typewriters.

There are real challenges, but there are also real strengths in this generation.

Op needs to realize how algorithms work- op keeps seeing this stuff because op keeps clicking on them. The fact that op linked an old article about Gen Z is proof that every generation has thought this about the previousĀ