The Cellar - What's the Matter With Kids Today

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What's the Matter With Kids Today

I was reading a forum of High School and College Teachers about how students had changed over the years. This comment by a person who'd been teaching at a state college for about 10 years made an impression.

Quote:

If you think it's just me, all teachers teaching incoming freshman last year had to attend a lecture series given by a couple of the deans regarding the demographics and habits of our incoming freshman.
Basically, the takeaway was this:
We should not expect students to be able to pay attention in class. We should not expect students to be able to socialize easily with their classmates. We should not expect students to be able to understand and/or figure out a syllabus. We should not expect students to be able to manage their own personal affairs outside of the classroom. We should not expect them to be able to self-task in terms of research/self-education.

We should expect more phone calls from parents, more parental intervention, and a heavy reliance on parents by our students who, we were informed, are likely texting their parents during and/or immediately after classes if they get grades they feel are unfair. Most of the "we should not expect students to be able to do X" comes from research that the deans cited (I don't remember if it was from our university or published in a journal or what) that shows that most of those issues stem from that extreme reliance on other people, typically parents for younger students, through all of their K-12 education. AKA, their parents did so much for them down to explaining class expectations and how a course works (syllabuses), that now that they're expected to do it on their own, they can't because they've never really done it.

I think the deans maybe were a bit hyperbolic, but most of that does seem to be true for a lot of students now, and I will say this: until three years ago, I had NEVER received a phone call or email from a parent regarding their children's grades and/or academic performance. Since 2014, I have received numerous phone calls and probably a half dozen emails.

You want to see a helicopter parent lose their shit? Explain to them that their children are legally adults and due to FRPA guidelines, I can't discuss their grades or academic performance with them.

There seemed to be a lot of teachers, HS and college, agreeing.

These parents protected their children from the consequences created by making mistakes and/or failing. They took away their most valuable learning tool.

I taught photography at a couple of colleges as an adjunct for a few years. The last class I taught was what made me decide to pack it in; the students had no idea how to think or grasp underlying concepts. They consistently asked to be told exactly what they had to do when taking a picture.

Before the final, one of the kids came up to me and said,"Just tell me what I need to answer so I can get an A."

Not. Shitting. You.

So...

unlike all previous generations, all the raw information is available on YouTube and the Internets...

which means you don't actually need to go to a school, if all you are seeking is knowledge...

which means the $200000 for a degree is wildly overpriced, if they are just giving out information, and not something that will actually transform you as a person. The information is worth $0, and having the information in your head is now also worth $0 if it's available one click away for everybody...

When will the bubble pop?

They told us college was not about the information, but about teaching you how to think; that would surely be worth $200000. If that is not happening, we have a problem.

It's not easy letting your kid fail. And the line between helping them and doing it for them starts off kinda gray and then becomes stark black and white once you realize you've entered too far into the doing it for them territory.

Yeah, learning to think needs to start day one. By the time you get to college if you don't know how to think, you're pretty much fucked.

The continuing increase in measuring schools' performance via standardized tests probably has moved schools even more towards teaching lists of facts over teaching how to think than they already were.

I agree with that, plus the presumption every kid should achieve a college degree at minimum, or the school has failed little Johnny/Janey and their parents.

Yep. Everyone should not go to college.

What's the Matter With Kids Today?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clodfobble (Post 983899)

Yep. Everyone should not go to college.

To be precise Thompson, not everyone should go to college!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey (Post 983884)

This....right...here.

It almost looks intentional.

Quote:

You want to see a helicopter parent lose their shit? Explain to them that their children are legally adults and due to FRPA guidelines, I can't discuss their grades or academic performance with them.

There used to be more opportunities to lose their shit, but lawyers and insurance companies killed most of them. From playgrounds to petting zoos the chance to learn has been taken away.

If you think you go to School to get an education? You are missing the point. The fact is school systems are old and outdated. Kids should study what they want to study and we should encourage them.

We need specialized schools. Schools for Math (Where are the math lovers go), Schools for music production (Where everyone crazy about music gets a chance to study it from an early age), etc.

Today if someone wants to study Math, they can go to sites like StudyPug or Math.com and get better answers in a simple way then some "boring" teacher.

We need to cultivate and support the passion kids come into this world. The have it for a reason. Passionate kids nurtured = Experts! Passionate kids thrown into a cesspool known as high school, college and university produces average people who hate their lives.

Just look in the mirror if you think I'm wrong. As far as getting a job goes, go spend a few hours on Youtube . . . see what these kids are doing. Absolutely F'all and they are making 5gs plus a month. Just by being themselves. Technology has changed the game completely. Support your kids dreams. Don't try to live yours, you had your chance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThomasTrig (Post 986230)

At what age do you feel a child has been exposed to enough of the basics, the different paths possible, to declare their passion?