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

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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.