"the kids can't read!" TikTok isn't being dramatic this time? | Khadija Mbowe

[@KhadijaMbowe]

Let’s get Colleen to 1000 subs!! youtube.com/@booksthehausdown?si=ucpTWjYMRWq1bcjz

[@booksthehausdown]

😘

[@sriracha_sauce]

Khadija, please listen to "Sold a Story" podcast by APM Reports! I really think the misinformed shift in reading teaching methods to American and global children is a major major part of the decline in literacy. Many people have commented already.

[@henry5274]

I knew the uke apology was bad but I cant believe that it got her under 1k subs.

[@sharonbaker3007]

Subbed!

[@sharonbaker3007]

You could definitely be a teacher, you know. You teach us all here, but you could do it! {waits for catte appearances}😻😻😻

[@abrielle13]

Gentle parenting isn't about letting kids do whatever. It's about respecting your child as a human being while still setting rules and boundaries. Lots of people are doing it wrong.

[@lexieslay]

Yes, this! As someone who works with young children, it’s so frustrating to see so many people conflating gentle/conscious parenting with permissive parenting.

[@mekannatarry1929]

It's applying a black & white understanding of their world to problems they come across.

[@ariz347]

Exactly. It’s disciplining your child properly without traumatizing and dehumanizing them 🙂

[@bri6032]

i was just telling my boyfriend this the other night! there’s a difference between letting them do everything they want with no conflict, & setting boundaries with them in a healthy calm way.

[@tamarameakes2014]

Perhaps but at some children just need to be told “No” not everything needs a talking to. The other day i saw a mom spend around 20 min trying to get her son to put on coat before existing the building cuz it’s winter. That is ridiculous and setting no boundaries. That child will be menace when he goes school and it takes 20 minutes or more for him to do what he is told. Children are humans and should treated as such but at the same time they need discipline.

[@MakiPcr]

When I hear kids can't read, I feel the need to remind everyone of the study that said over half the adults in the USA can't read past the 6th grade; this means this isn't a "kids these days" thing, it's a deeper systematic issue that's been going on for decades now

[@iantaakalla8180]

Now that I know that, it’s a wonder that the US is standing.

[@Toastcat890]

Yep heard about this during the 90s

[@KD-wc4rs]

@@iantaakalla8180because u do t need more than that to run a simple life most people arnt writing novels or doing paper

[@sabinegray1450]

Yep. They want it to be worse tho so we can’t topple this oligarchy

[@stuffinsthegreat]

Yes, I'm a young millennial and I remember this being a pretty clear issue during K-12 days. Now, I'm a grad student and, btw, finished the GRE's reading/writing sections in pretty much no time flat (I am mid-to-bad at math, so). My adhd has also always really affected my ability to read, but from early standardized tests all the way up to GREs, reading comprehension sections were almost always a complete joke

[@deniseking-kn5hh]

As a mother of a third grader i will add my two cents. My child did do kindergarten on zoom which was terrible. She struggled in first grade. By second grade I had to turn into her own personal tutor. She did great in math but reading was a struggle. I started buying her chapter books and making her do book reports and answer questions after each book she read and by the end of second grade not only was she ok grade level but she was a little higher than grade level. Now we’re in the third grade and she fell behind in the summer so we went back to workbooks ( on top of her homework everyday ) and she already got an award for most improved students. I have open communication with her teachers on her grades and I stay on her. It is not the teachers job to do all the work, it’s a partnership between the parent and the teacher

[@orlock20]

Parents are suppose to be tutors. That shouldn't be a shock. Being a tutor and doing their homework are two different things.

[@RazorRamonMachismo]

what you need is grandparents doing supervision that is why back in the day people used to get married early on in terms of child care coz in formative years the grandparents used to guide the children a lot more and then after some learning the mother would

[@SizzleCorndog]

Not to belittle the huge impact Covid had on kids development but parents are 100% supposed to help and be involved with their kids work

[@vazzero]

I wish more parents were like you 😔 I struggled a lot in early elementary, missed a lot of school, was potentially dyslexic, had undiagnosed ADHD a and when I asked for help at home nobody really cared to put in the time. I fell really behind and had to do 1st grade twice. Luckily my grandparents took custody of me before middle school and they spent time with me and actually wanted to help me with my struggles with school. I love reading now thanks to my grandpa, parents are meant to help and I think that’s why so many kids now need that extra help at home due to the online school most likely stunting there learning a bit.

[@Bulletproof-Rose]

Thank you so much for loving your child enough to have this point of view 🙌 I teach children with disabilities and one of the things I see constantly is parents who either don't realize they have a role in teaching their child OR don't think their child is capable of doing any better. I genuinely think many of the students who have identified reading disabilities could be at grade level expectations if their families were this committed from the beginning. I will say is that I recognize all families won't have the same time and resources to support their children in the same ways. BUT that really needs to be something a person is prepared for before they become a parent in the first place. I can't help but feel like loving your child should include recognizing when you can't give them what they will need and choosing not to become a parent until you can

[@Jules_Dufresne]

"They struggled so I could call my cats their grandchildren." is the best sentence EVER 😭

[@annabelapurva-madhuri4861]

FACTS lol

[@cmg25]

Very Felt

[@vee8648]

😂❤😂❤

[@leandergloryheart7089]

came here for this 😂

[@GooberFace32]

This sentence made me feel very seen 😂!

[@zoechase3923]

As someone who is Gen Z and has a toddler daughter, early literacy is SUPER important at a young age. Take your child to the library, use a whiteboard, sing songs and offer books often, have a bookshelf for your baby/toddler at a young age! My daughter is going to be able to read Bc mama isn’t giving up on her ever! There is always something the parent can do to help their children, not all parents will follow though.

[@deeji6098]

I work as an after school counselor and parents like you (who nurture their child, and take responsibility for their education and development) bring me so much relief and hope. Keep doing what you're doing 💚

[@thelastsplash]

Unfortunately, not a lot of families have the time. Some parents are single parents and/or work multiple jobs or have multiple kids where it's hard to give each one that needed attention. It's why public schools and programs need to function properly.

[@shadowbossmsm]

As a millenial parent all things I agree with totally. My son is doing just fine. He's excelling in school.

[@bib4eto656]

That's so true. if YOU show your child that you're interested in reading and learning yourself, they will be as well. Can't tell your child that they're a failure for not reading books, if you've not read a single book in the last 10 years.

[@Bob-jm6no]

I think it is also important to note that the US is especially bad in funding education. Education is the base on which the future is built, no wonder other parts of the world see the american stereotype as "stupid" or "dumb" (of course this is sensationalized and not really true, but the stereotype exists). In my country, being a teacher is very well paying (highschool teachers get around 120k annually) and it is an attractive job due to the pay and the amount of holidays that come with it. The salaries in middle and primary school are lower as they do not require a masters degree, but still good. University is not privatized so even though it is not free it is accessible and affordable. The working hours as a teacher are also great. Yes, it is important to give your child a headstart and i applaud you for enriching your daughters life, you seem to be an amazing parent. But edudaction is also important, it is a service the state should provide because everybody profits from it in the end. So its' quality is of upmost importance. (And yes, i know the US has the best universities in the world, they have those because a lot of (private) money goes into them. If the rest of the school system would be run with a similar mentality, illiteracy would be seen as an issue with different origins such as negligent parenting and not negligent parenting AND a failing school system)

[@chris-qp6zz]

A speech therapist recently talked to elementary teachers in my city in Germany and pointed out how speech impediment-rates have been rising. Her explanation for this was that toddlers and children partially learn to speak by observing people's mouths. But parents are not interacting with their kids as much and instead handing them tablets and stuff, where they watch animated or synchronized media, where the mouth movements and what's being said don't add up.

[@Zane-It]

I grew up watching dubbed over reruns of ultra man and anime where no ones mouths line up with anything they are saying and i never developed an impediment in my speech.

[@themindfulmoron3790]

@@Zane-It "It never happened to *me*, therefore..."

[@Zane-It]

@@themindfulmoron3790 it's obviously not the reason this is happening it could be a contributing factor but not the reason.

[@mariosblago94]

In the US, parents just don't have time to parent. Parent involvement is what helps kids learn to speak faster, to read faster, and to stay on track for academic achievement. But how is a parent supposed to parent their kid when they work all day and come home exhausted with barely anytime to prepare dinner, bathe the kids and put them to bed? Parents WANT to read bed-time stories... their busy lives won't let them. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020099/

[@AA-cf4es]

​@@Zane-It You are a perfect illustration of illiteracy, poor baby.

[@laurensleator9402]

I think another huge problem is deliberate cuts to education funding over the last 2 decades. I come from a family of teachers. Every year, the schools are expected to get by on less and less. The schools were stretched to the point of breaking well before the pandemic. My mom was being pushed to pass 8th graders who couldn't read in 2005. She got fired for refusing to lie about these kids, for referring them to remedial services the school system didn't want to pay for and didn't want to admit were so widely needed. Now, at most schools where I'm from, those remedial services don't exist. They've been cut. If a kid needs additional help, the only option is expensive private tutoring, because the public education system has been starved of the funds it would need to provide those services.

[@okaycola2]

You gotta use your benefits to keep them

[@MizzBFlye]

Yes!!! We are not funding public education in the USA then point and say it’s broken. It’s deliberate, if we keep a class that’s undereducated then the system can keep you out of college, underpay more, cause more havoc politically, financial strain, etc… This “reading reality” is beneficial, so we have to ask to who and why?

[@sregan5415]

We're declining as a society and a civilisation. Regressing back to the dark ages, albeit without the opium/salve of religion (I'm against the major faiths, but they did give people hope in dark times and some sense of decorum - even a false one). Back further than that towards barbarism tbh. The fact that reading (and education in general) is not given priority by our current society is not surprising to me AT ALL. We are living through a rapid de-enlightenment.

[@AnasNoBuyYear2025]

I’m so glad you mentioned this!! This is literally the goal of decades of budget cuts to public Ed - to be able to say, “pub Ed is awful, private entities can do it better” until enough families leave pub Ed for homeschooling or private schools that education can be fully privatized. That benefits corporations who can make a profit off of “education” as well as an increasingly anti-intellectual government (bought by corporations) that doesn’t want educated masses, they want people who are in survival mode getting screwed at their shifty jobs and don’t have time to demand better from them. I agree largely with the thesis of the video, but I do think this long-term systemic issue is a HUGE part of the problem and probably is part of the reason why there’s lots of parents failing to actually parent their children.

[@ctheo2020]

THIS comment tho. #supportteachers #unionsnow

[@katiehanna90]

I work as a literacy tutor in the public schools, helping small groups of elementary-age kids with phonics and reading comprehension. It's honestly my favorite job I've ever had, because yes, the kids are struggling with reading and yes, it's not easy to teach them, but THEY WANT TO LEARN. And it's beautiful to see how much they want to learn, and the progress they are able to make over time when they get the resources and support they need.

[@Shiv-ym1rr]

The most heinous thing is how this system is built on relying on people as workers without regarding them as human beings. We are made to learn. We got to this point because we ARE curious and so thirsty for knowledge. It's sad to see young people get demotivated and left behind

[@colbyboucher6391]

PHONICS PHONICS PHONICS oh my god phonics. IDK how the hell the idea that people can learn to read by just _guessing_ became so pervasive and phonics aren't focused on nearly enough. I _remember_ learning how to read. My parents drilled basic phonics into my head and I kinda just started reading signs n' things on my own. I've read stories about teachers realizing that not teaching phonics actually does lead to kids just taking wild guesses at what a picture book says and being terrified at how screwed up this is. First-hand accounts from people who still struggle to read as young adults and know that it's because they pretty much weren't taught the basics.

[@jupitersnoot4915]

@@colbyboucher6391 Wait, what? I don't even understand what this means. How are they teaching reading if not with phonics? I am not in the USA, is that a US thing???

[@colbyboucher6391]

@@jupitersnoot4915 I guess it's a U.S. thing.

[@rhythmandblues_alibi]

This is really encouraging. It's so easy when you don't actually know any young kids to just assume they have no interest in anything other than Fortnite and tiktok.

[@wiredayan9719]

As an Art Teacher i can tell you that some of my second graders can’t differentiate between a circle and a triangle….and I describe them every single day

[@Toastcat890]

Wow that's not good.

[@RazorRamonMachismo]

isn't that math teacher's job like a triangle has 3 sides and circles don't have sides(yeah later on you tell them infinitesmile small sides so no of sides cannot be counted but their length can be with πd)

[@axe863]

DAMN

[@vaquri]

KEEP THE KIDS AWAY FROM PHONES !!!!!!

[@RazorRamonMachismo]

@@vaquri boomers could not keep the kids away from the tvs or video games you think nowadays where both parents are working they can keep the kids away from phone BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH oh so adorable you had hope lmao even

[@libbyp.1631]

I'm a nanny, and I have definitely noticed the imagination thing; with one of the families I nannied for, the kids were very over scheduled. They never played pretend, and they were terrible at making up original stories; very smart in every other respect but it was sad to see. they didnt have freetime to just be kids and explore thier boredom

[@Badusername2000]

I'm a whole ass adult and social media and the constant consumption of youtube has fucked up my imagination, I play minecraft and build the exact same house design I've been building for 10 years because I cant come up with anything else

[@luckas221a]

I'm a private teacher for elementary aged students. They don't explore. They don't know where anything is in their house. They're glued to TVs and videogames, when they don't own tablets. It's insane.

[@Artofcarissa]

Lack of imagination is definitely because of the smartphones and iPads. They get rid of boredom, and boredom is where creativity flourishes. As a kid who grew up in the early 2000’s, while we still had computers at home, we had to find some way to occupy our minds at the grocery store, in the doctors office, etc.

[@Badusername2000]

@@Artofcarissa yeah, when i was a kid i was so creative, i could build anything out of cardboard box, i still have the want to build stuff, im 22 and all i want is a fort in the woods, but i just cant ever come up with how to do it

[@luvamiart8567]

I'm not a teacher but I'm an illustrator and from time to time I give out a hand in a local art academy I have good terms with and a few times I've given class to a group of kids and preteens. I always gave them creativity exercises, for example I give them 3 random words as prompts and they have to make a drawing in which those 3 elements appear. Or I give them the drawing of an empty house and they have to make a haunted house filling each room. Yes, the lack of imagination was worrysome (and I'm from Spain, so this is not a one country problem). There were a couple kids with neat imagination that created the craziest stuff and it was awesome, but a lot of them didn't know what to draw or drew the most basic stuff, specially the preteens.

[@thatgurlfaye93]

As a middle school teacher, one of the things that bothers me is the “kids need to read at grade level by third grade”. This has less to do with development and more to do with the fact that our school system does not want to meet kids where they’re at. Because the reality is that the reason why kids need to be able to read by third grade is that we just stop teaching kids how to read. The curriculum goes from “learning how to read” to “reading to learn”. This then causes a kid who might be reading one grade level behind to being 5 grade levels behind simple because they never got the extra literacy help in the 4th grade. A lot of our literacy problems can be fixed if kept teaching kids how to read past the third grade. I saw 8th grade kids at the previous school I worked at grow 2-3 grade levels simply because a tutor sat with them and taught explicit reading instruction. If they had another year of targeted reading instruction, they would likely be on grade level by 9th or 10th grade. But they didn’t get that instruction in high school and are still behind. Also what wasn’t mentioned is that the way we teach kids how to read fucked them up. Many schools de-emphasized phonics instruction. So the instruction went from “sound the word out” to “look at the picture to figure out the word”. The result is that many kids (and I saw this A LOT when I briefly worked in a high school) have no idea how to sound out words (ie. read).

[@ChristopherSadlowski]

"No Child Left Behind" still going strong I see. This is why Republicans in the USA should never be allowed to make any changes to education. They have no idea what they're doing. Well, they do, but what they want is bad.

[@peachy_lili]

as an elder millennial raised on phonics this is genuinely sad and shocking. I wasn't able to have kids because I never had the money. So I had no idea it was this bad. I'm tired of being upset, who do we PUNISH for these choices and their impact on our world??

[@whelkpeopleofdoom]

This is excellent insight, thank you. Phonics is especially important in English since our language is Germanic, but also hugely influenced by Latin and borrows so many words. It's a mess. We need kids to understand why words like "tough" and "though" aren't pronounced the same (even if the reasons are kinda weird and frustrating, lol).

[@whelkpeopleofdoom]

​@@peachy_lilithe corporations that are running us into the ground with overwork, then selling us their products for relief from the stress of parenting (tablets).

[@johnindigo5477]

I was reading at a 6th grade level in the 2nd grade but my teachers didn't test me until the end of the year so I thought I was still a year behind.

[@froggydraws_24]

as a gen z kid i just wanna add a take from my pov. personally i was a huge reader as a kid, the motivation to do so fizzled out as i approached high school but up until the pandemic i burned through books like wildfire. i think a big part of it was that my parents encouraged it a lot - we went to bookstores as families where i could pick out whatever i wanted, i got books as presents a lot, my mom would drive us to the library and let us read sitting with this huge stuffed tiger they had there. before i could even read, i apparently would hold books in my hand and make sounds, just mimicking what i’d seen from my parents reading to my older brother and me. as a result of this i read so, so much. like i burned through the complete harry potter series in 2 weeks. i read in my free time, read during school. and an interesting thing about all this was with all these books, i kind of osmosised my way into learning a lot about grammar and language structure. like i could write a lot better than a lot of my peers and spell much better, just because i absorbed the “rules” of writing and words through all that reading. i was never taught how to split up dialogue and dialogue tags, but when i sat down to write dialogue for the first time, i just knew. basically, to all parents or people who hope to have kids, reading is important for obvious reasons but it also feeds in to a lot of other skills. make reading something fun for your kids, not a chore. let them engage in it, let them make their own choices about what to read. it does a lot for them.

[@pez.3117]

Same here! Gen Z kid who’s parents read to them almost every night growing up, which resulted in my siblings and I having a sort of built-in knowledge of the English language when they finally started teaching reading/writing in school. My mom would also read vocab flash cards to us before bed and had us try to figure out the meanings of the words. It was actually pretty fun and definitely a good challenge for kids who were already reading way ahead of their dedicated level. Read to your kids. It’s fun, it’s easy, it’s good for their brains. And on top of that it’s good bonding :)

[@BliniMango]

Also a Gen Z, I use to read a lot. Reading helped with my imaginations and creativity. It still does to this day hut i do experience burnout from it. I remember being just 3-4 years old lewrning how to write letters to my great grandparents. How to count cash and add them to buy basic food. I went to kinderybut my parents still taught me how to write write and learn how to problem solve. I remember learning how to write mine name every single day just so I can get a library card and was so proud when I wrote my name on the card. My parents taught me that i have to learn to fail to get better at things. So when i was in school I was a grade or two above other students. The only when down hill when I went to highschool, bc I'm hearing impaired they labeled me as SPED. I knew how to do my work they just didn't teach me right. So I told my parents that I wanted to be homeschooled for the rest of my highschool years. I didn't better self teaching myself than I was doing in traditional highschool. Now that my siblings are in highschool they perform better than other students bc they were homeschool and I even help teaching them. They come home with bad grades bc the teachers believe they cheated. I'm not sure what's going on with that part but they're struggling more in highschool than anything.

[@alicefreist318]

I know it's not popular to use proper punctuation and grammar, but I assure you: readers will appreciate inclusion of visual cues like commas, periods, and capitalization. Trying to understand a string of run-on sentences detracts from good communication.

[@Panzystubbedtheirtoe]

I used to be able to do that! Dont do it as much due to kind of a reading burnout if that makes sense but i have moved on to fanfiction as my source of reading (and writing but i never share it lol)

[@BoogieBoogsForever]

I don't know what you guys mean by reading burnout, but if it means what it sound like it does, that's not good. Maybe all the screen time is messing with our ability to concentrate. For centuries people have had relatively easy access to books, and they've had no burnout through their lives. Also you're making lots of basic punctuation mistakes. Maybe if you can get off the phones for more time daily, you'll be able to read again. Good luck, young world!!

[@itsaballoonparty]

I was very briefly a literacy and reading tutor (a few months) and I feel like the pandemic really exposed the fact that a lot of people don’t genuinely want kids/know what it takes to raise them. They used school as a substitute for daycare, and when miss rona forced them to have to pick up some educational slack, they wouldn’t/couldn’t. This has left kids way behind without the support to catch up EDIT: READ TO YOUR KIDS. Have designated family reading time. Have designated no-screen time. Get them their own kid dictionaries. Buy them graphic novels if they’re struggling with interest in reading

[@susannpatton2893]

It is so very sad that the parents didn't do crap to teach their children anything. Not just reading. Parents are the kids 1st teacher. What did they teach? The phone and internet is more important than their education.

[@reubenmccallum3350]

Reading education is more complicated than just being read to. Some kids thrive that way but many more don't. We shouldn't expect every parent to versed in reading instruction methodologies. I encountered many distraught parents who tried their best but were at a loss to explain why their kids couldn't read. If schools aren't teaching kids to read, they aren't doing the absolute minimum task we should expect of them. Schools should be resourced and given the correct tools to teach reading before we do one other thing for kids.

[@lizziedanse8335]

The amount of my coworkers who side eyed (or worse) me for being childfree while simultaneously complaining and crying (literally) that their kids were home every day and they "couldn't wait" for them to go back to school... Glad I made the decision they chose not to. Raising another human is a tall order, some get caught up in the highlight reel.

[@xoxocessa]

Yup!

[@StarlightPrism]

Yeah, a lot of parents think that their only duty is to keep their child alive, and then they don't understand why doing that bare minimum doesn't produce the kid they want.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

I love how we currently exist on the spectrum of “Read a book!” to “The kids can’t read”. So much to learn.

[@kahlilbt]

I was thinking though: why not make reading practical and fun? I loved reading as a kid. But part of why is I was using reading to learn things I was interested in and having a good time. I spent so much time reading when I was playing video games for example. The manuals gave extra info on the game. The characters spoke with text boxes. There were in-game books and puzzles. I want things like this considered in our "reading" curriculum. Uses for reading that go beyond venerating literature (which I love). And enjoy just new things that appeal to me (mostly cis queer Black man) but things that appeal to all kinds of different backgrounds

[@crystalgemstv4609]

@@kahlilbt I wonder if they still have AR points in schools. Read a book, took a quiz on it, and earned points based on how well you did. Then you could go to an “AR shop” and spend them on things like erasers, bookmarks, etc. I have no idea how effective that system was, but I remember how excited kids would be when the shop was about to open again.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

@@kahlilbt I couldn’t have put it better myself. People whose work we consider classics themselves wouldn’t have appreciated how pedantic people can get about it.

[@toastghost2448]

​@@kahlilbtbro yes, I was just about to comment how I probably read so well when I was younger because of video games (specifically Poképark, the pokemon wii game)

[@Ojasoomaa]

@@toastghost2448 Same! I played Zanzarah though and in Russian.

[@huggymchug]

A good thing to remember about screentime studies is that we can't currently untangle 'screentime' from other factors like neglect or socioeconomic status. The negative outcomes seen in some screentime studies could then be attributed to other environmental factors (e.g. a single parent might rely on screentime to occupy their child as they have limited time/energy).

[@superzooperhaze6597]

yep. it’s the whole “is it correlation or causation” question.

[@orphicccmess]

my friend taught grade 10 students for his field study (he was a history major) and he was shocked by the sheer number of teens who can't read. the department of education in the philippines mandated teachers to remove all visual aid in the classrooms and just pass the students. the curriculum is also so anti-student. the literacy rate in my country is inflated and it's so sad to think about. ohh and teachers are literally red-tagged and killed here by the police.

[@anonymousinfinido2540]

Red tagged?

[@orphicccmess]

@@anonymousinfinido2540 labelled as terro/rists. and it's all because they dedicated their lives to teaching indigenous children. apparently, it's dangerous for IPs to be educated because then they wouldn't be easy to exploit. we're a whole mess over here.

[@tandogjzethenrikc.7544]

​​@@anonymousinfinido2540Accused of being communist. Or of being subversive, in general.

[@anniebell6846]

I’m so so sorry to hear this .

[@azabachezapata6816]

Colombia?

[@CasaDuroTinyHome]

There's a great episode of "We're all Insane" podcast with a teacher who quit her job, who shares her experience pre-pandemic, during the lock down, and then transitioning back to in-class learning, and how kids were completely unable to regulate their emotions after coming back to class. Kids who were not prone to violent behaviour before were lashing out on other students or destruction of school property. It was pretty wild to listen to, but I don't blame her for leaving the profession. She was abused by students and their parents on a daily basis. Especially in the US when you also have to worry about your students potentially having guns on them with the intent to harm others. It's a lot.

[@weekndconcert]

i love this podcast!! this episode was great. definitely recommend it aswell.

[@JaseekaRawr]

Omgg, that podcast(not that episode) changed my life completely! ⚠ TW!! CSA ⚠ YT randomly recommended me an episode from that pod called "Surviving inc3st". I watched it & it SHOOK me out of denial. I finally accepted my dad is a PDF File. So I agonized for months to accept it, then confronted him through text(I'm living 8,000 miles away from fam). He left me on "read", cried to my sisters that I was lying 🙃 So I just blocked my entire family. I'm not mad about it. I needed to confront it. But yeah, that pod is incredible. Literally life changing 🥲 I bet the teacher pod was eye opening as well! I like how the host just lets the guest speak freely. Really good thing they've got going on there. Sorry for the tangent 😅 had to give my testimony lol

[@pisceanbeauty2503]

Isn’t it to be expected that there would be issues post-covid? I feel like some teachers are kinda jumping out before there is even time for the situation to equalize.

[@sydney.mp4]

​@@pisceanbeauty2503 issues were/are absolutely expected. however from what i've gathered there simply aren't resources that will permit the situation to equalize. just as one example, kids were/are expected to jump back into the "normal" curriculum for their grade-level but many kids fell behind during covid and there aren't resources provided to catch them up, especially if they also have disabilities. because of this, the teachers feel like there's literally nothing they can do and there's nothing to really indicate more resources will be provided in the near future. also, the pandemic isn't simply over and we are not "post-covid"-covid is still very much going around and people are also still being affected by long covid. not only are there more kids seeking accommodations due to long covid generally, but both covid and long covid are known to cause cognitive difficulties further exacerbating the example problem i described. i'm sure this only adds to the feeling of futility many teachers have.

[@DiMagnolia]

Thank you, checking out that episode after this.

[@sarahharman9879]

As a long-term substitute teacher, I'll put in my two cents: it feels like there's no one student that isn't behind. There just aren't enough hands to make sure that every student is getting what they need, and disruptive children make it even more difficult to keep everyone on the same page. I have so many kids who are just desperate to learn, but often it's a game of catch-up for the kids who are behind.

[@chaoswitch1974]

Curiously, is it the smart kids who are bored who are being disruptive? Or is it the kids who are behind? It's got to be impossible to teach children who are at different levels. Don't kids get held back anymore?

[@sarahharman9879]

@chaoswitch1974 its actually both. The only students who are never EVER disruptive are the kids that are always shy or have a social disability that prevents them from talking. As for holding kids back- No, we aren't supposed to let any child fail. If we were, most kids would be held back.

[@koboldcatgirl]

@@sarahharman9879 Yeah, as I understand it (former student teacher/ed major, Did Not Pass Go, Did Not Collect Teaching License), holding back a child can be pretty disruptive for them, so it's kind of the nuclear option. Teachers are constantly under pressure to finish the lessons on time, so it's a lot easier to help students as a group than as individuals. It's part of why group work can be such a powerful tool, but we all know the problems built into group work. It's the age-old problem of "teachers could solve problems like this if there were more teachers", which is a problem of "there would be more teachers if the job was less stressful", which is a problem of "the job is stressful because teachers aren't able to solve problems like this". Or, to put it more simply, it's a problem of government jobs being systemically underfunded so we can pay for military and policing.

[@lxmesoda]

​@@chaoswitch1974"smart kids" shut up

[@chaoswitch1974]

@sarahharman9879 I would think so. I was in GATE (gifted and talented education) for "smart kids", and I was always getting in trouble for disrupting the other students by talking or passing notes, but it was because I would often be the first to complete my work and then I'd be expected to sit there quietly with nothing to do. The teacher really should have been giving us extra activities and not be expected to sit with our thoughts. That's not even in the nature of most children. It feels like a punishment.

[@EvilWeiRamirez]

Man, as a millennial parent, when do we get the chance to be a goddamn parent?! I gotta work 50 hours a week. I only see my kids on the weekend and when I'm off. I don't have issues with my kids because I create the environment that helps them succeed. We never had a problem with screen time because there was a rule - do your stuff/reading/chores, do you workout, then you get screens. A lot of times, they would rather play with Legos. Also, they had to learn to read before they could have a tablet. But I know so many people who don't even get as much time as I get with my kids because of work. Literally, the problem is the same. It's capitalism that has pushed everything to the pain point. Everything costs as much as it possibly can. Everything is squeezed for every dollar. We need a new deal.

[@kissit012]

& people complain when we say don’t have kids until & unless you can afford them. Completely missing that “afford” includes time, energy, resources, relationships, knowledge & skill sets necessary to raise & care for them

[@LittleMissLounge]

@@kissit012 And what one can afford can change on a dime.

[@chalkedlines8960]

@@LittleMissLounge EXACTLY. My spouse and I talk about this all the time. Our money went SO much further when our son was young (0-7) and life was so much more balanced. We could afford to be parents when we had him. Now we work more but have less, and so less for our son- both in time and material resources. If the circumstances were the same those years ago when we decided to become parents, we never would have.

[@markigirl2757]

I’m gonna be going back to work soon and that’s definitely gonna effect how I raised my son since he was used to me being a stay at home mom so I feel yeah it’s been rough and we have to prepare for some massive changes here. It’s sad watching our govt and society slowly fall apart

[@AnasNoBuyYear2025]

@@kissit012and then the govt bans abortion and makes it as hard as possible to access contraceptive care so even ppl who are actively trying not to become parents bc they can’t afford to or don’t want to are put through so many barriers. Trying to exist is so damn hard right now.

[@Yunaria]

I used to have roommates with gen A kids and it was a nightmare. They were in 3rd and 1st and these kids still talked like they were preschoolers. They couldn’t pronounce Rs. L’s were W’s. They had apparently been tested by their school for speech impediments, but the parents wouldn’t tell me the results. The parents were extremely against the idea they had any sort of speech problems. Living with them for less than a week made me realize why they can’t read or speak: their parents literally don’t interact with them unless they’re feeding them or yelling at them. KZbin and Netflix were their parents. Markiplier was there for them more than their own father. These kids could not emotionally regulate themselves and full on meltdown if they couldn’t watch TV. The parents are definitely the fucking problem. ((Edit for those who clearly also don’t have reading comprehension skills: parents aren’t the ONLY problem, OBVIOUSLY. I watched the same video y’all did. But you can’t deny parents aren’t part of the fucking problem. Get it together y’all))

[@moethemoon]

It’s really bad. I’m not the kind of person who likes to complain about the ‘youths of today’ because I’m literally 19 but like. Most kids Ives talked to that are under 10 can barely speak. I know some are doing fine but I haven’t met them. I hope things get better for all of them I really do

[@fallenking578]

Its heartbreaking. Spend time with your kids, if you are arguing all the time please get counciling. Be there for your kids, actually parent your kids

[@bakedpotato1717]

Wow, “KZbin and Netflix were their parents” coupled with “full on meltdown if they couldn’t watch tv” makes a lot of sense to me now If that’s their only source of direction/comfort in life, no wonder they all freak out when their iPads are taken away We’re taking away their actual parents (with bad tech-subbing parenting) and then taking away their second parents (by taking their tech away) No wonder they’re having so much trouble regulating their emotions I feel so bad for kids :(

[@peachy_lili]

@@bakedpotato1717 it's just, this is a problem we knew could be a risk factor well over 40 years ago. my generation (millennials) didn't seem to understand it was only okay that Mr Rogers and Sesame Street were raising us was PURELY because the quality of programming was actually helpful and educational before capitalism took over and ruined everything. you can't just swap that out with Fortnite vids and be fine...

[@Yunaria]

@@bakedpotato1717yeah, it was very heartbreaking to witness first hand. My wife and I fell out with their parents towards the latter half of the pandemic because they turned out to be crazy anti vaxxers along with bum ass parents. We tried to have a conversation with them and the parents blew up at the idea they weren’t perfect parents. The kids were struggling but I could tell they wanted an adult that cared. They would come to me and my wife and ask us to read to them or to play games with them because they were essentially non existent to their parents who were more interested in streaming video games than them... Our first Christmas together I asked their parents what the children like and what would be an appropriate Christmas gift for them and they couldn’t tell me. I’m childfree and don’t want kids but my god I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t take those kids in a heart beat if I could because they deserve people that would actually interact with them and know them. My wife and I hope they find us online in the future since it’s obvious as soon as they grow up they aren’t going to be in contact with their parents. Millennial parents are truly failing their children because of their own unprocessed trauma and it sucks.

[@bong_water_ice_cubes]

I'm a gen Z and also a high school student, and the way I've seen teacher(s) flat out refuse to answer questions or help the kids in my classes out is insane to me. There's a genuine lack of care for students, and we can tell. It makes us not want to show up or pay attention because it feels like it doesn't matter.

[@Valerie_Valor116]

Thank you! I'm also Gen Z (19 F) and I truly think that it's a more systemic issue when staggering numbers of children across the country aren't meeting academic milestones. It seems like less of a problem with the children themselves, and more of a result of our current education system being outdated and inefficient.

[@CameronTV]

Sadly It’s because teachers are exhausted & worn out by how the system uses them they are drastically underpaid so they reached a point of why go 100% when more than half the people they interact with daily don’t even respect them or care to listen without disrupting Covid was the breaking point they’ve had enough the government is failing bad

[@searchingfororion]

OP touched on a point that I'm surprised no one brought up yet (in order of "popular" comments); it was *heavily* illustrated in the post she marked 'paused to read': Some teachers just... suck. The post that teacher wrote about how 'dumb' the students are? Every specific example about how he had to "explain" something repeatedly was *factually incorrect.* Example: "I kept having to tell them the Emerald city was green." No. It was NOT. The book clearly states the opposite. How *dare* you call your students stupid when *you* clearly didn't read the book you are supposed to be teaching? (This is a MAJOR thing to get wrong - it's one of the big things that shows what a fraud the wizard is. Baum goes out of his way to point out this was a massive grift acheived by making everyone wear green tinted glasses before entering.) Imagine having to deal with that guy calling you and the entire class stupid because (unlike him) *you DID* the reading. I had to deal with instructors like this my entire life. Not *every* teacher is bad, but *all* bad teachers blame students, regardless of generation. I'm *so sick* of the "blame gen z" narrative. It's B.S. This is a recyled narrative that they just insert the most recent technology in. Work with your parents if they aren't brainwashed to "authority" and report teachers that act like this. It's never acceptable.

[@searchingfororion]

​@@Valerie_Valor116p.s and you are also on point. It's also a systemic issue. When teachers who want to do best by their students are overworked, underpaid, and undermined as well as stifled by teaching for tests instead of aquiring knowledge or critical thinking, they get jaded quickly. There are also administrations that don't see students as human, just factors for funding and a population to "keep under control". It's more a prison mindset than one for cultivating thought and skills.

[@Dmandadude]

It can be both, not just one reason

[@anniehanii6336]

As a teacher, I’ve noticed that students do not get the chance to try out that new skills in and outside of school. A lot of school has become the teachers being forced to teach a certain amount before state testing. The amount of times I was reprimanded for slowing down my units to make sure my students were mastering the skills was baffling.

[@heatherheath3834]

Fuck that!! We need teachers like you!! I’d much rather a child of mine know what you’ve taken the time to show them rather than make them start 50 million topics and not remember any of it cause you only got like 2 hours to go over each new thing

[@Toastcat890]

Reminds me of a conversation I had with my teacher in the 90s I was having issues memorizing suff because we couldn't take the book home I asked to take it home and he responded that it would be a waste of my time because he only teaches us to pass the test not to actually learn I was shocked

[@artorhen]

@heatherheath3834 the problem is, teachers like these can get sanctioned over time.

[@heatherheath3834]

@@artorhen exactly, the system isn't doing what it is designed to do, and it's wasting everyone's time money and effort to look better than it is for tests, which means we need to change the system so good teachers aren't being punished and bad teachers aren't being rewarded

[@artorhen]

@@heatherheath3834 yes, that has been the issue for a long time unfortunately. There should be given more autonomy to teachers in both decision making for the school system design, and in their individual lectures.

[@norab4402]

There is another explanation for the american literacy drop : teaching methods for reading have switched from phonics (sounding out new words) to balanced literacy (recognizing each word as a whole, basically learning by heart) in the 2000s. This method is ineffective for a lot of kids and does not allow them to decipher new words unless they figure out phonics on their own or with parental support ! I would recommend the podcast 'sold a story' by APM reports

[@mekannatarry1929]

Yeah; learning the "why and how", is as needed as the "what".

[@sriracha_sauce]

Wow, this is really interesting, as someone who has learnt multiple languages. Although I've been speaking Chinese since childhood I am still illiterate because it doesn't have phonics like English and other languages. Whole word reading is so much harder for early learning, because it expects you to have a large vocabulary, and you can't expand it easily.

[@EE.333]

was this not included in the video? I feel like this is one of the BIG impacts and not mentioning it I feel like leaves out a huge part of the story

[@rachelmccartney5931]

Wait what??? Why would they do that??? As someone with Autism who learned with phonics WHAT THE HECK????

[@bobanoda]

I’m so glad I was taught phonics as a kid; it made me such a strong reading/comprehension student in high school. English was the easiest subject bc of how thorough my elementary schooling was! I hope they go back to that :((

[@TylerFromTraining]

History teacher here: reading levels have absolutely decimated my students ability to engage with their history materials. Reading is one of the most important skills we use, and I have seen the decline with my own eyes and diagnostic tests in class.

[@potatothings7223]

As a teacher, it rubs me the wrong way how people are shaming the illiterate children online. We are meant to be compassionate and take action (even though our hands are tied more often than not). We have to sit with the parents and the children and ask ourselves, “If the institutions are failing these kids what can we do outside of these confinements?” Yes, the teachers are stretched thin and can’t keep up but a lot of teachers tend to blame the system and stop trying.

[@ayanomar1408]

I was about to comment this! these children have NO say whatsoever in their own lives! how are they shamed and looked down on as if the combination of adults and enviroment around them didnt set them for failing!

[@ncivey]

Thanks you for saying this! The question now is, what do we do? I also wonder if younger students are having eyesight or speech issues that are going unaddressed.

[@Molly-iw1rc]

Period

[@Whosthatcrazycat]

I agree with this 100%. A lot of the videos about this topic I have seen are very dehumanizing towards the kids and it breaks my heart.

[@HUeducator2011]

Absolutely!!! I almost question if they were actually teachers or if they legitimately went through a teacher preparation program. This is an utter and complete violation of professional ethics.

[@orin1617]

I pretty much "forced" my little cousin to read every single day in the summer. Had a few tears. Back to school in September and he's literally the best reader in his class. It really feels like they are not being taught anything in school. It's shocking. The homework , if they get any does not challenge them. How are they supposed to learn? Im all for giving kids freedom but no way I'm gonna let freedom ruin my kids life.

[@calmandfree]

I totally agree, my little cousin spent some days with me, and all she did was watch K-drama on Netflix all day, I go to lectures and meet her where I left her, and am like "Aren't you tired?" She would say there's nothing to do, so I went to where I kept my old novels, gave her a box, and took the mifi with me the next day, and I said "Now you have something.", she tried to plead her case, saying she's relaxing, and I countered that reading can be relaxing as well. I am going to stop you from watching Netflix my dear, but everything in moderation, she even took some of the novels home when she left.

[@Username0467]

What might not be challenged to him, may be challenging to those other students. He may benefit for a gifted program; I know I did.

[@brickpicturesofficial]

I start school in January (going to grade 10 in 2024) I'm an Aussie.

[@CH-jj8wk]

YES! god I wish more people did this though. As a teacher, I thank you 🙏🏻

[@kpoppy9635]

I feel like that could backfire though because the kid could hate reading if it's being forced, especially if it feels like homework. My mom just took us to the library reguarly let us pick out books we wanted to read. I grew to love reading because I enjoyed. Even my brother who doesn't like reading would read some books and my mom didn't have to force him. She just took us to the library. So yeah, take your kids to a library or a book fair on the regular. and they will read.

[@xandibarrett1144]

I'm a Millenial/GenZ cusper and when I was in college, one of my professors was really candid about the fact that he anecdotally noticed students capacity for protracted reading to be in decline. He said he used to assign one book a week to students and had since needed to reduce the books to one every two or three weeks. He was fortunately really understanding about it. I was certainly in that category that couldn't read a book a week, and while I used to be the kid who would be constantly reading in class, I can now only make it through audiobooks (which I still consume vociferously). This has been discussed before, but the impacts of social media on our ability to read long text is apparent across generations.

[@Starburst514]

Same cusper gen as you and yeah, I noticed the reading decline for years too. I remember 6th grade (2006 (I was tired when I first wrote this lol) and more than half my class read like second graders, and in highschool it was even worse. There's a lot of reasons, but it's been these reasons building up for years And I'm the same, I mostly listen to audiobooks and want to get back to reading, but my attention span is shot

[@creepersonspeed5490]

This is very relevant to me. When I was in college I actually still was able to read huge amounts. Now? Struggled with a few pages on my holiday break.

[@matthewcaldwell8100]

It sounds like you don't fundamentally care enough to make a change. Because you're a whole-ass adult. You absolutely could make the time.

[@hecate6259]

I’m an educator who is also Gen Z, and it’s really bad. I really started noticing a decline when I was in high school, and we switched to common core. Now I’m a teacher, and I see why we were struggling as students. There’s a lot more emphasis on testing well instead of actually learning critical skills. I started teaching Kindergarten, and instead of focusing on individual achievements based off of where students are, and playing off of their strengths, the district pressures us into needing to have all kids meet a certain standard, and learn a specific way, instead of exploring what may work best for them. Critical thinking skills are one of THE most important skills to develop (in my opinion), but their the ones being neglected the most in education, and I can’t help but feel that it’s by design.

[@ilysaportax33]

It’s definitely by design. The right is playing a long game with education like they did/have with repo rights. The goal? Make the case for blanket divestment from USDept of Ed

[@annabauer5889]

Education nowadays is only about what knowledge you can extract from people. If you can do a bunch of tests and see the results it's valuable knowledge, if you can't it's worthless and has to be invalidated. I totally agree that critical thinking is high up on the list of skills that are needed for the future of this planet and so is creativity. However, you can't make children learn those things by simple repetition, they have to be fostered over time. Unfortunately, in an industrialised learning arrangement like school, standards, curriculum and tests are overemphasized and there's little regard for personal development.

[@cosas_de_gatos]

@@ilysaportax33the right? Like, Republicans? What do they have to do with this. I thought a lot of conservatives are complaining abt the school system and taking their kids out

[@artorhen]

@annabauer5889 education today doesn't care about what knowledge people "extract" they need kids to regurgitate what they have learned without asking any questions and move on to working at McDonald's.

[@annabauer5889]

​@@artorhen thanks for paraphrasing my comment, I agree with you 👍

[@JayKennedy101]

As a mother of a kindergartner, who’s an emerging reader, I’ll add my take- I have to read to them at home, and we do mini reading lessons from a old curriculum where phonics are the basis. Outside of that, if I only left it up to her damn teacher, she’d only be reading BY SIGHT. Yes, they have a massive list of sight words that they must MEMORIZE. Tell me how in tf is that going to turn a child into a reader if they’re just memorizing words and hoping for the best. No. One must know the letter sounds and blending of letter sounds to read. It’s not all of the parents, the school system says children should read by sight only and that’s fucking them up. Not ever child has a parent who knows this or gives a damn to do much about it.

[@chaus1ku]

Fr :(

[@Albinojackrussel]

A lot of American reading education seems more interested in teaching kids to be chatgpt readers. Give them a a few words they can recognise, get them to look at context for clues, and then make up what they think the writing probably says. This can give a fairly convincing illusion of literacy when they're reading picture books with visual clues, short words, and predictable patterns, but quickly falls apart at higher levels of reading.

[@AriannaGi]

My kiddo is 9 and is grades above her in reading right now. For us It came down to reading every night before bed. We still do it some nights she's the reader sometimes it's me or my spouse. 😊

[@SlayByJay]

This! My 1st grader is behind in reading bc they give her sight words with pictures and she has memorize them (5x a week to stay on track) Then gives them multiple choice test and of course she fails. They don’t have the pictures there for her to remember! I’m a first time mom. I work 2 jobs. I’m not a lazy parent at all and their teacher told ME that my daughter needs an iPad so her apps can be on it that they use at school to learn. So if i don’t get her the iPad she can’t stay up to task on her work… but if i do then im a bad parent bc my kid is in front of an iPad that i was asked to get for her to do her school work on? She has her kids games and her school apps. Since getting her the iPad she’s been off effing KZbin! We send our kids to school for 9 hours to learn and then when they get home we have roughly 4 hours before bed time. So in that time i have to cook, do bath time,getting ready for the next day, read with her and then i allow relaxation time. I think this routine is normal for most parents so im confused how we are lazy? Am i supposed to do school work with her all night after she’s been at school 9 hours that day to get her caught up? Idk what to do at this point.

[@soteira8241]

Check out the Podcast "Sold a Story" if you wanna get really mad at how kids are being "taught" to read

[@briannaobrien4419]

Gentle Parenting isn't the same as permissive parenting. Just like it isn't the same as authoritative parenting. And totally agree a lot of it is in reaction to how people were raised.

[@LuLuSprings]

Hi parent here..i have a son in 2nd grade and they are very adamant about reading 20mins a day with your child and the homework consists of reading and comprehension. Parents have to take responsibility for teaching our children as well especially grade school. We have to have more boundaries when it comes to media and read with your children!!!

[@Stephanielachelle]

I came here to say just this. I have a second and fourth grader. Not only is their school very adamant about it, I am as well. My girls were reading on their own in the first grade.

[@LuLuSprings]

@@Stephanielachelle exactly you're involved! Yes, it's tough but it's what's best for the children aka the Future! So Happy to hear 🙌🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@sriracha_sauce]

Thank you so much both of you for taking responsibility as parents! I'm currently doing a undergraduate to hopefully become a child psychologist and it's sad to see so many young people have children just to have a cute doll to play with, and not understand that they need constant support too.

[@LuLuSprings]

@@sriracha_sauce that's great! I'm wishing you the best in your undergrad journey. Yes, it's more than just reading it's being a support system as well as having the discipline with them to make sure they know how to function in this world.

[@Stephanielachelle]

@@LuLuSpringsYes it’s definitely tough and the burn out is real but you have to push through it for the kids.

[@leanna3625]

A former teacher's perspective. Administration no longer allows us to hold students back or put them in remedial classes. We were also told to lower the difficulty of our work so it looks like most of our kids are doing well. I gave up when I was told I am not allowed to tell parents I think their kid isn't trying, even if the kid hasn't turned anything in. An 8th grader with a 3rd grade reading level can not functionally fill in their educational gaps with the curriculum based for 8th graders. My honest advice to parents is to basically tutor their kids into catching up, because teachers can't do anything.

[@shamidkpzd]

I'm in my early 30s, but I have a 12 years old sister who is in 7th grade. The kind of reading material she gets in her English class is stuff I would have been given in elementary school. This is the HONORS class, mind you, so I can only imagine what the general classes are getting... But I private tutor and many of the middle and even high school students I tutor read on a 4th grade level at best. It's impossible to meet everyone where they are with a full class and everybody seems to be getting left behind.

[@StarlightPrism]

@@shamidkpzd In my experience, many high school teachers today don't even assign books any more, either because they're told not to or because the kids can't/won't read them anyway. It's all excerpts, short stories, and articles now, unless it's an AP class.

[@tineryn]

@@StarlightPrism I was a student teacher in 9th and 10th grade literature and composition classrooms at a charter school back in 2015, and I could see it even then. We weren't permitted to grade any homework, which meant it functionally did not exist. All literature had to be read in in class, and all writing assignments had to be completed during class time. As a result, we couldn't have any high-level discussions about critical reading skills or interpretation, because there wasn't any time for it. Ninth graders struggled with basic grammar and punctuation. I ultimately left the program and graduated without the certification, in part due to lack of support, disillusionment and burnout.

[@kaydkaydkayd]

@@shamidkpzd exactly this !!! my 12 y/o sister is in honors classes too n theyre giving them books w pictures in them ??? like wtf is that ☠️

[@dmn4747]

I think you're onto something about the impact of being catered to all the time. I have OCD and the best treatment for it is to confront what makes you anxious. It's literally the only successful treatment. The more you avoid it, the worse it gets. The biggest predictor of adult success/happiness is basically having to solve your own problems as a child. It is just so important to let children fall down and pick themselves up. That teaches children they can DO IT! IT teaches them they can trust themselves and that they are all they need to self-regulate. This is so hard though b/c the adults really have to support this and it takes a lot of time and many adults simply cannot do this b/c of work or lack of their own skills or lack of desire to do so.

[@chocomelo454]

I mean my OCD is about animal abuse / CSA and I'm not going to abuse an animal or assault a child just for my OCD to go away, that's inexcusable, so I understand if maybe someone with OCD needs to avoid it.

[@chocomelo454]

but also I think that we shouldn't force people to do something they can't and I think that people with disabilities deserve accomodations.

[@chocomelo454]

to clarify I'm not arguing that you are wrong or mad at you I'm just like well low-key asking how the hell you can deal with that with that method while also saying that OCD can be a bit funky at times bc not many people know that

[@nicoachille8048]

@chocomelo454 OCD treatment isn't about literally "following through on your intrusive thoughts." It's about facing the fact that you have those thoughts head- on. Hiding from or distracting yourself from your thoughts isn't any better than ruminating on them. So, treatment involves acknowledging the existence of the thoughts without letting them affect you. If one is constantly being catered to and is very avoidant of discomfort, I can see how that would lead to negative thought and behavior patterns

[@chocomelo454]

@@nicoachille8048 OHHHHHHHHH okay yeah. yeah sorry I thought what it was was like, ignore the impulse / do what it is that you're afraid of.

[@tfh5575]

i noticed my cousins couldn’t read and they were like 8 and 9 at the time. i was shocked. they knew the letters individually but had absolutely no idea what the letters did together. i haven’t been around them the last year and a half so i hope they can read NOW

[@onstudymemes8481]

Same but mine were 15-16 and couldn’t. Hopefully they can now because I’ve been away for 3 years now.

[@tabularasa]

Their schools probably aren't teaching them phonics. That's what has changed in recent years, educators using faulty methodology in literacy training. I hope they can catch up 🙏

[@simranrabab7820]

​@@tabularasa Okay but like what kind of techniques...? And how is it even working without basic understanding of phonetics....I'm confused. Where I come from it kind of the opposite but not really, children r great in English thx to yt accessibilities at an early age, but are absolutely scared of their native language as it's a little complex than English. TO THE POINT THAT THEY CAN READ OR WRITE THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE.

[@haikyuufan2136]

⁠@@simranrabab7820In the US, many schools have reading programs that uses an approach called balanced literacy, which is a really bad way to learn how to read. There’s a lot wrong with it , and one thing it does is it relies on context clues and memorization when reading instead of phonics/letters. Thankfully schools are starting to move away from this method, but they’ve already ruined a lot of generations sadly

[@tabularasa]

@@simranrabab7820 The faulty method is called the "Whole Language Approach," and it is much as the commenter above me described. You ask "how is it even working" without phonics? The answer is-- it doesn't work. That's why literacy has declined. If you are interested in understanding more about the whole rise and fall of this methodology, there is a six-part APM/NPR podcast called "Sold a Story" I can recommend. Fortunately it has *_not_* ruined "a lot of generations" as the previous commenter put it, but certainly about 15-20 years of English reading students (circa ~2000~2020) have been poorly affected by it

[@rainyrambles]

I have a small comment to make regarding the increase of kids diagnosed with learning disabilities in the past years. Before I start, dont get me wrong, i def agree with the video & its message, but I feel as a psych student who’s often encouraged to be critical of statistics its good to mention this to keep in mind; that number alone doesn’t say as much as we think, as there are numerous possible factors for that increase; things like increase of the quality of diagnostic instruments, better awareness of the disabilities in question by teachers, and adults with those disabilities being provided with better help, higher quality of life and maybe being able to have kids where they would not always have had that chance if they didn’t receive support. Just mentioning this because with i.e autism people like to bring up the increase in diagnoses as a way to say kids are ‘becoming’ autistic, while a big part of that increase can likely be explained by other factors. I know this is just me being nit picky as it is a really small part of the video but I just wanted to bring it up

[@mewmew6158]

Great points! The first man diagnosed with autism just died yesterday at 89. These diagnoses are so new and more research comes out every year, so of course there's more people being recognized with them.

[@SoulDevoured]

As a millennial who was tested for learning disabilities in the 5th grade and just treated like a bad kid before that... Yeah I was there in that little in between era when people started thinking oh maybe this kid just can't learn this way. I'm not sure what it's like now but I can see that there hasn't been nearly enough efforts to help students learn in other ways. And I wonder also how much might be environmental stressors. In retrospect i might have had learning disabilities only because I was a serious ball of anxiety and my brain couldn't calm down enough to think. Like I had my first panic attack in the third grade. I got therapy which made me hide the symptoms of anxiety better but nothing helped my anxiety until I got away from my anxious paranoid mother.

[@black-nails]

Yup... Not a psych student myself, but this conversation has been bugging me, because the terrible reading levels in adult population has been a talking point years ago, yet people are suprised that "kids can't read", as if it's a new phenomenon. If big portion of parents' reading skills are on expected level for a middle schooler, of course it's gonna be hard to teach a child to comprehend and read complicated things.

[@iimmannii]

I had ADHD and as a black woman just was diagnosed in my late 20s, so lots of people are falling through the cracks

[@chaus1ku]

@@iimmannii Fr :(

[@aerialdive]

i absolutely had a lot of kids in school my age (im 23, late gen z) who refused to ever read and struggled to grasp basic concepts or hidden meanings. they didn't care to. it's always been a very common thing because school isn't made for most children, but also because their parents didn't care and/or cannot read too. reading is super important and my parents MADE me read. it was an escape for a long time, and whilst i don't read traditional books anymore due to burnout and adhd, the lessons i learned from reading apply to so many areas of my life now that i still flex those skills.

[@Kibitserr]

i looked briefly over the OCD study and it appears that they did not study /how/ screentime could lead to OCD, though they discuss theoretical possibilities. this is a perfect example of "correlation does not mean causation" i think an important thing to consider within these screentime studies is what the caregiver/s is/are doing. are they physically absent? emotionally absent? how much time are they spending with their child? are they engaging in screentime together? etc. etc. i have a suspicion that OCD and other mental health diagnoses might increase as caregiver involvement decreases. if a child is spending more and more time on a screen, that may be an indication that the caregiver/s is/are unavailable and cannot engage with the child in a way that would nurture the child's development considering that more and more people are burnt out, i wouldn't be surprised if many caregivers are struggling with their own burnout that prevents them from engaging with children

[@wonder-witch]

I completely agree. At the end of the day, "screentime" is a coin with two sides. It means you're constantly taking in information, but it can also mean it gives you access to content that more or less dissociates you from the real world. The latter ends up happening more often than not when there's reason to dissociate (such as absent caregivers) or when you don't know what to do with all of the information presented to you. Both of these problems can be solved if kids are guided by adults. But they're not. And that's the problem.

[@michaelmennuti4414]

@@wonder-witch My daughter is on an iPad a lot, and has learned a ton from it, but my god, it was so much work to block the dozens, maybe even hundreds of KZbin channels I had to block to get her feed even remotely acceptable. You really have to be paying attention to what they are watching.

[@mynameisreallycool1]

​​@@michaelmennuti4414 The amount of creepy KZbin channels that kids have access to on that app is basically infinite. It's impossible to find and block them all. I think the best and most ideal solution would be to not let your kids watch ytk altogether and have them watch regular shows the normal way (streaming or cable), for a limited amount of time, of course, but I also think that there should be an option for parents to choose which channels they're fine with their kids kids watching and not be recommended videos from other channels ever, because that would be a lot easier than the parent searching for all the bad channels they can find and blocking each and every one.

[@lindsay6518]

Being constantly ignored by your parents and never receiving any positive interaction or praise is probably a major factor as well.

[@ncivey]

There is definitely more to this screen time issue. You made some great points. I also think it’s what media/ information children are being allowed to consume. Is tv the same as KZbin? I do think tik tok should not be a thing for kids, and barely for adults lol.

[@lakibramble]

Here is one issue ive seen that as a student personally, and it is extremely damaging. Its putting kids in a school environment when they are very not ready. Now, hear me out. Theres a lot of south american migrants in my state, and usually when the kids come to America, the first thing they do is put these children in school. Some of them arent even living with their parents, they dont know any english, and theyre expect to go to school every day of the week plus homework. Ofcourse they have trouble reading, they can barely speak the language. And they never hold back these kids, or send them to lower grades, theyre thrown directly into the deep end. Now this also extends to cases like mine. Often when a child goes through an extremely traumatizing experience, they are expected to go back to school the next day. When i was a kid, i was already struggling because i have some learning difficulties, but then i was kidnapped for about two years of my life. And when i did finally go to school, what happened? They put me right in the third grade. Mind you, i could barely read or write. No accommodations were made for me either, i just had to 'figure it out.' And we wonder why kids are struggling. The school system is so insanely ridged that barely anyone can fit into it.

[@TheHestya]

In terms of speaking another language, school is usually very quick for kids to learn language. Their brain is a sponge and that's the time to learn a language. It's very different for a child than it is for an adult. I'm an immigrant in UK, my cousin arrived before going to school, he spoke better English than his family within a year here. If the teachers make sure the children socialize, they should learn it easily.

[@lakibramble]

@TheHestya this is one thing for elementary school, but this happens all the way up through high-school. I'm not talking about the language per sey, but them expecting someone who just got there to do the same work as everyone else without knowing the language at all. They don't take breaks for these kids, even the older ones with more material, they just keep moving

[@TheHestya]

@@lakibramble That's not good enough at all. In UK there are teacher's assistants as well as teachers in classrooms, so there can be extra attention given to a child. It's true though that as they get older, picking up a new language becomes more difficult, you are right. Teenagers would be left struggling without extra support. That's not good enough, schools need to do better. If only the government wanted a well educated population.

[@lakibramble]

@TheHestya yes that's exactly what I meant. Instead of giving these kids more time to learn the language so they understand the material, they just keep going, and whatever they miss because they were busy learning the language is their problem. It leads to when they can understand it next year, or a few years later, they have no idea whats happening because they couldn't focus on their previous studies BECAHSE THEY COULDN'T FREAKING READ THEM. It makes me so mad I swear to god- the schools in America are so understaffed that they just pass whoever no matter how unprepared they are, and blame the kids.

[@ErutaniaRose]

The fact that they made ZERO accommodations for you despite already having a learning issue or a few AND been fucking KIDNAPPED?? Like what? As someone with PTSD and school-related-PTSD who had to go back after being SAd over a summer as a child, they truly do not care when kids are traumatized. You deserved so much better. ❤

[@juju-been]

Reading and rereading was my cure for boredom as a child. I was fascinated by everything from novels to shampoo bottles to cookbooks. I loved computer games too, but I wonder if my life would have been different had I had an ipad glued to me constantly.

[@ojiilemon]

I had no idea that when people said they got rid of phonics, they also meant phonetics and the skill of being able to process and understand verbal language. holy shit. This explains so much… I feel like I’ve been a little too critical of Gen Z now knowing this. It explains why media literacy and understanding more thematically complex things and why so many of them I met online didn’t seem to understand that discussing/depicting negative and difficult topics in fiction was not the same as condoning or endorsing them. None of them had the language to begin to understand that… like hindsight good to know but also, this very scenario has absolutely been used to radicalize a lot of younger folk. I can’t 100% say that this is why some portions of gen z have been so drawn up in purity politics but being unable to critically listen to someone talk (let alone someone who is actively trying to manipulate you) can’t have helped them very much. And a lot of the school budget issues we have are absolutely being coordinated by conservatives. Capitalism is a fucking blight and if you can’t read a contract or form your own opinion, you’re VERY valuable to the state.

[@Ash-tu1oc]

Phrased this perfectly! I was wondering what made this generation so different when it comes to media and the lack of literacy evident, but this issue of kids being so behind in areas of language and reading comprehension really does add so much needed context. Definitely something I’ll keep in mind when dealing with puriteens going forward. I really hope their parents and others in their lives can help them honestly. I can’t imagine living like that, it’s going to cause so many issues down the line as they grow older otherwise. Even in just is being able to work.

[@ChocolatexCherries3]

you're being so quick to put this all on the younger generations when it's been a WELL KNOWN problem for decades that the average american adult can't read like an adult. i wonder why you're so eager to ignore the stats we have on adult reading levels dating back decades????

[@LakeofCrystalclan]

As a Gen Z’er myself, I would LOVE to see more people look into the puritan aspects of our online generational culture beyond the crywoking that conservatives do. That’s something I’ve been curious to death about since it exploded in 2020.

[@maxman1071]

These aren’t new issues. Id say this is less of a generational issue as it is a result of a large cultural shift. I sincerely believe it has more to do with people’s willingness and ability to encourage critical thinking and engage in challenging conversation. I agree that the Conservative Party is anti-education and that that can only benefit those in power. I look around and see more of the same in every generation. Just as many boomers, gen x, millennials and gen z are sucked down that very rigid line of thinking through similar channels, but I think it comes out of fear/willful ignorance more than a lack of education. Your fiction example seems like a weird case. unless you can go into more detail on that, Id guess that was an issue with the specific person/persons you interacted with. Can’t imagine anyone I know would believe that a writer endorses/condones everything they write about in fiction lol. Would that mean Vince Gilligan endorses being a meth-cooking narcissist? I feel like I need specifics to understand

[@oh.sorry.dont.mind.meeeee]

​@@maxman1071unfortunately, I've definitely seen people online not understanding that whole not endorsing a behavior they're depicting etc. I can't think of a concrete example besides maybe John Green and Tumblr. people completely misunderstood his books, mainly TFIOS. I don't know how old the people were but I feel like I've seen this weird misunderstanding of media a lot on the Internet

[@paulakerner7923]

I was a HS English teacher during pandemic and it was crazy how the teens were struggling. Many of my students straight up dropped out of school because they had to help their family with work and etc. Education and access to literacy is unfortunately a privilege and we still need to gather more info on how the pandemic affected and still is affecting generations.

[@Izzy-cp8yt]

Definitely. And so many kids just didn't have a home situation that allowed them to be successful. I was a para during the pandemic, and I had a 6th grader who came from a home with 6+ kids, all in elementary school. It was constant chaos. Whenever she logged on to her zoom meeting with me, she was sitting on her back porch, outside, as early as mid March. We're in North East USA, it gets pretty cold outside until around April or May. So for her to be sitting outside just to try and do 30min of academics was really sad. And when she did manage to log on, she was pretty successful! She had thoughtful, eloquent responses to book questions, even if she wasn't on grade level for her writing. Her home wasn't at all set up for her to succeed, yet she was trying her best anyway. That's such a huge burden to put on a child.

[@corbanekarel3692]

Honestly from age 4 to age 10 my parents were heavily involved in my learning and I'm starting to suspect it had a lot to do with how well I did. Like if I came home with vocabulary lists to learn, they would take the sheet and ask me to spell those words out loud. My mom would sometimes sit with me and help me with my homework. They read to me everyday when I was a toddler. My baby-sitter was helping me learn my ABCs and I was in kindergarten. I highly suspect those kids don't have that. A lot of parents either don't have the means or will to do so. T

[@internetgirl4617]

Yeah when I was a kid I was having problems with reading because of my dyslexia and when I came home my mum was also a teacher to me, she helped with reading books and she helped me to learn how to spell properly in many ways. School isn’t enough to teach kids everything, the parent also needs to be responsible for the learning.

[@watsonwrote]

​@@internetgirl4617 I think a huge part of it is also the motivation of the child. I was neglected from 4 - 7 and once I was rehomed my new caregivers provided me with a lot of material resources, but not a lot of direction or involvement. Despite this I was an extremely strong reader and an excellent student even though I barely attended school for huge chunks of my childhood. I know it's because I never stopped being extremely motivated to read and understand things. If a kid isn't motivated to learn something they're not going to try very hard, no matter the time and resources given to them. If a kid is extremely motivated even hardship won't prevent them from making progress. Parents certainly play a large role in their children's motivation, but they're not the whole story. Is there something in schools that's causing kids to disengage, or is there something else in our society?

[@Starburst514]

Excatly. Every summer my.mom had me and my brother in the reading program with the school and local library, every spelling test she went over and over the list with me, flash cards, workbooks, etc. she got sick and couldn't stay on top of it when i got into fifth grade but by then i loved reading and learning and that base foundation is why i still love reading an adult

[@lucasdude]

my parents helped me until my education surpassed theirs (mostly the math). there was a point in time where they could not help me at all, & i was struggling big time in math. they sent me to a tutor who was a retired teacher & one of my gandmas best friends. she did help me a lot, but im still trash at math if im being honest lol. just never was my subject. but boy i could spell really well for my age & i had a high school reading level at 4th grade. if youre confused about the way i type... well, im just lazy lol. not gonna post like im writing an essay to be graded

[@inelouw]

The thing that irritates me about studies like the OCD one is that you can easily turn the results around and suddenly it means something entirely different. What I mean by that is: maybe children who are more at risk of developing OCD or other anxiety related disorders are also more likely to increase time spent on watching videos and playing video games. Correlatioin is not causation, and all that. As a GenXer, a lot of my friends have children in the age group 5-20, and these children are all STRESSED to the GILLS. I don't know if that's because they have too much screen time. I think it's more likely that screen time is the most readily available way for them to unwind.

[@annamelvina216]

That makes a lot of sense. And "screen time" is such a broad statement when you consider ebooks, video games, videos, social media, etc. can all be accessed through the same device. What are they doing during their screen time?

[@flazay_da]

This is why one study is never the end all be all, it's about adding to the literature on a subject to form a consensus with experimental and real world validity

[@mmgs1148]

it is that way for me, i am very neurotic, have anxiety and scrolling helps me calm down and make my mind busy so i wont think about things stressing me out, its like an adult version of pacifier for me

[@mellowmorgan]

I had OCD as a child too but it was and is definitely exacerbated by social media and internet. But the study did not claim causation, so there's no reason for you to be irritated. It only claimed association, if you actually read the study, but most people aren't willing to do that before going on a diatribe like this one.

[@ParsureArts]

I do remember hearing about a loss of third spaces (parks, malls, anything that's not home/school) impacting kids. When you're not allowed to hang around outside and talk to people, online stuff is their next option

[@Patricia-dj5qn]

As an educator, I'm really worried about brown and black kids who can't read in LA. I spend so much time with my kids in the after school program I work with teaching kids how to read, write, and comprehend. IMO parents really need to read with their little ones on the weekends. Maybe even aunties and uncles or older siblings. I'm aunt and I read with my nephew. He has speech issues too so I really want him to succeed. Very worried for our low income bipoc atm. The family and schools are so disconnected and that's such a huge issue

[@citizencoy4393]

Add in the fact that blk families are being gentrified to the point of national homelessness increases and you will see you are correct to be worried. Many are barely surviving and that is pushing them into mental illness. The poor children are just being dragged along with no one to look after them and a world that prejudges them. Many are raising themselves with no family or community to lean back on. Thank you for sacrificing your time to try to make a difference. You have no idea of the impact that you are making not only for your students but society as well.

[@Poppykat9866]

As a middle school resource Specialist (in California )we are seeing sooooo much of this! With all base skills, hand writing, telling time, identifying money, using BASIC punctuation and capitalization, being able to identify letter/sound correspondence!! The way we identify learning disabilities is being rocked because the norm based tests that have established skills levels based on age from years past seem completely inaccurate now to what the "average" is currently. I see a huge issue with kids not ever reading at home, they don't have access or early exposure prior to school, they don't see parents/adult family members reading, they aren't being read to by parents/family. Parents are not talking to their kids about money, not encouraging them to shop with them, read labels with them, etc. It is like learning a language at school but never using it in life, it won't stick. If the skills we are teaching at school are never practiced in life, they don't stick.

[@selkiefluff]

I used to tutor myself, but I see those issues with reading comprehension in fandom more than anywhere else. Younger people really can't pick up on any subtext, themes, allusions etc. even in media directed at their target demographic like shows or anime. Media literacy is dead. Even tweet literacy is dead. They be calling someone out without context. And the biggest problem is, they are so defiant when someone tries to correct them in good faith. Everything becomes personal, mental struggles get brought up, and "I'm a minor, don't talk to me ever!!!" card is pulled out.

[@smileyp4535]

Shit, I'm 29 and feel younger like 25-27 still sometimes but I'm a little worried when these kids get 18 and aren't minors anymore but still feel like they are and pull that card like that's always been a thing since the line is so sharp but damn, maybe I'm over thinking it but whao

[@zabeerfarid7687]

Idk where you’re getting the second part from I’ve never heard a young person say that

[@robo7643]

@@zabeerfarid7687 I have definitely seen it in random comments on social media. Young kids mention they are a kid and thus they can't be talked to, etc

[@las8883]

@@zabeerfarid7687 I've seen it many times on twitter especially when it's a young person getting called out for saying something dumb.

[@ic5889]

I don't want to sound dismissive but. i think judging a generation based on what you see on twitter is making things seem worse than they actually are

[@musicguy1987]

7th Grade Teacher here: for the 2021 school year, students performed so poorly in my class that ON PAPER I should have failed 65% of the class. I already accounted for this and changed the structure of the class and did away with due dates. I tried to fail about 25% of them, like the ones that did no work, but my principal logged in with my credentials and changed my grades.

[@Toastcat890]

Yikes but this sadly makes sense as in the 90s I remember people talking about schools only teaching the test and not actually teaching for kids to learn.

[@stuffinsthegreat]

Wow that's honestly pretty frightening, that a principal would do that!!!

[@axe863]

This is what happens when the organization matters more than the kids

[@Ashes108]

This is why homeschool has become popular. People are not happy with public schools. They are passing kids that should not be and it's only hurting the kids 😞

[@ilysaportax33]

My mom is temporarily at a TOP magnet high school. in the HONORS class. She says up to half her seniors aren't prepared for college but all of them will be graduated by the school. It's so unbelievable to me.

[@amandajay7922]

This is the latest hot topic to make its way around social media and your video is the FIRST I've seen that handled it well. So many content creators are pointing fingers at millennial parents (all in one big, swooping generalization) and gentle parenting (when that's not what's really happening in most situations) and not looking at the bigger picture and the implications surrounding this problem. Most are so harsh towards parents and kids alike so I want to thank you for yet again taking a nuanced and compassionate look at a complicated problem that we need multifaceted solutions for. I love your work and always look forward to watching, take care!

[@sillylittlejenn]

As a gentle parent myself (with a seven year old that can read) Part of teaching gentle parenting is giving my child the skills to cope with not having everything they want! I’m teaching them self-regulation and coping strategies. Plus implementing screen time limits (and having them read before gaming on weekdays) and involving my trusted friends to actually play with my child outside and with dolls. I’m absolutely burnt out from working and because of late stage capitalism parents are too tired to literally parent, schools aren’t getting funded, and there are barely any kids to play with outside! We need actual community!!

[@kappawhoo]

I think the community aspect is huge in North America. We consistently see funding for community centres, after school programs etc. cut….yet we expect the kids to socialize like how we did. It’s not fair on them at all, we need to do better as a whole society.

[@sandrohernandez4401]

Idk if it's me, but it's just hard af to make friends in high school. I remember it was a bit easier in kindergarten to 7th grade. I get laughed at a lot the way I speak, and i remember one of my friend's friend said 'ew' to me.

[@leena75]

when it comes to studying, it has to be done before gaming, since gaming turns off a frontal cortex for like 2 hours and learning is very difficult during that time, when a kid or an adult even spends too much time gaming, the results are permanent and sometimes there are also depression-associated symptoms tied to that and of course lower levels of self-regulation since frontal cortex fights the emotional parts of the brain when it comes to making decisions

[@katelynlinnnn]

Yeah I have to say as someone that works w/elementary age kids the biggest thing I see w/the ones who are struggling academically + behaviorally is instability in the home. They don't have gentle parents they have parents who are not there or are yelling at them when they are there. Or they're in and out of foster care, not able to finish the school year in 1 school because mom moves everytime she has a new boyfriend, etc. It's sad they can't focus when they just want love and stability

[@vaquri]

Yes, there is no consistency in this country

[@Andkhwezi]

like are we surprised after decades of the us gov defunding from the education sector that literacy rates are declining rapidly, but also ive seen a couple teacher tiktoks using this as an excuse for ablesim and abuse

[@lexxiloveless7163]

literacy has been a problem for a long time in not just children but adults and while ipads and careless parenting are part of the issue it may be anecdotal evidence to share my experience of the internet greatly improving my literacy in my childhood, that could be comparative though because my parents DID NOT know how to read. One was below average and the other did not graduate highschool. they thankfully put closed captions on the tv and the internet constantly exposed me to new words and concepts. i also have always been interested in learning beyond some of my peers. reading came very easy to me.

[@mekaylanicolai54]

As someone who has an Ed degree and has been on the classroom it’s interesting to me how a lot of teachers just like… forget we were in a pandemic and expect the kids to have bounced back? Like it’s only been what, two/three years since!? Of course they’re still having issues they don’t just go away! I totally get their frustration and parents do need to be more involved, but talking in circles about all the issues is not the solution

[@anny8720]

What happened to all the talks during the pandemic about how it and online schooling would set back kids immensely? I guess we collectively forgot after everyone was pushing "returning to normal" so hard

[@mekaylanicolai54]

@@anny8720 pushing for normal as if what we went through as a collective was even remotely normal 😭

[@Lavi_407]

What does this have to do with knowing how to read? I just think the parents are trash tbh

[@mekaylanicolai54]

@@Lavi_407 because kids were stuck inside learning on a computer for 1-2 years. That’s obviously going to produce academic set backs. It was easier for kids to cheat and not pay attention in class because it’s hard to hold them accountable through a screen. And now those behaviours are present in classrooms so you have another element where it’s just harder to teach kids because of the habits they picked up. My point of this all is that I feel like everyone is looking for someone to blame, but there’s really nobody to blame. It’s a horrible situation and we need to start looking at solutions, like for example how can we help kids get back on track with reading.

[@geministrial950]

Sadly, parents being involved is sometimes a privilege, especially with how nowadays you cant raise a family on a single person income. Both parents need to work, sometimes even do double shifts in order to make ends meet. In order to raise better children, we need to fix whatever caused this economy to collapse so parents can actually take the time to parent again

[@strayiggytv]

I get downvoted in r/teachers daily because to put it bluntly, a lot of the teachers/commentors there just hate kids. They'd be happier on r/childfree because their solution to every problem child is jail. Comments frequently get gross and racist, a lot of the posters complaints are legit but the commenters use it as a jumping off point to shit on young people full stop and to have examples to use for racist and classist political commentary.

[@strayiggytv]

I also want to reiterate that the teachers there mostly have valid complaints. There are a few who seem so burnt out they're doing more harm than good but for the most part they're just venting. The problem is the solutions they and the commentators come up with are often just punching down. I had a teacher say the best way to force grades up was to take away all privileges to students who are failing and when i pointed out that my school in the 90s did that and the kids in poverty struggling still failed and were just even more miserable they said "well I can't fix external problems like that." I wanted to say who do you vote for? Where does your money go? Cause if it's going to the right you're very much contributing to this problem.

[@bibouche8831]

that’s what I suspected 😒

[@cannibalisticrequiem]

It's Reddit. One of the biggest white supremacist cesspits on the internet along with the KiwiFarms rebrand, 4chan and 8chan. I'm not at all surprised a "community" on there is filled with aggressive hate.

[@kaylaisnothere4397]

Yep that's Reddit for you 😕

[@bakedpotato1717]

Seriously, it reminds me of hateful nurses who are bitter towards any patient It’s not their fault they’re learning how to be a human!

[@tristanxrobbie]

In a South African context, coming from someone who both parents are educators, it’s really a big problem especially in lower income communities. I’ve been told multiple times about how the department and sometimes even the parents refuse to let their children repeat a grade and just insist on letting them go to the next grade with the promise that they’ll catch up, but those poor kids never do. Another problem (again, this is in South Africa) is the lack of involvement from the parents with their children’s education. It’s all just really sad and the teachers can only do so much.

[@seareeder7839]

This is also anecdotal, and very well might just be my local school district, but I think policies around identifying and dealing with learning disabilities have also become a lot more restrictive. I'm dyslexic - when I was a little kid struggling to read my school teacher and daycare teacher *both* brought the issue up with my parents and I was able to get a diagnosis and accommodations. As an adult, working as a teacher *in the same school district* I wasn't allowed to address learning disability concerns with parents - even when I saw kids struggling with reading in the exact same way I did. The policy had changed and it just wasn't permitted. Families had to request a diagnosis and accommodations from the school themselves, and not every parent has the knowledge needed to identify LD's. When district policies restrict communication between parents and teachers it makes it a lot harder for LD's to be identified and leaves a lot of kids without the support they need. I don't know if this is a widespread issue, but if it is I can't imagine it's not affecting literacy rates.

[@anny8720]

That's really sad, personally I have ADHD but only learned I might have it in college. My parents are Chinese immigrants who have very little familiarity with learning disabilities and mental illness. America is built off of often low income and rural immigrants like my parents and I can't imagine just how many kids in need will fall between the cracks now that we're relying even more on parent education to know when to seek help.

[@RandomOldPerson]

As a former teacher I can tell you why. Special education is so expensive schools do all they can to prevent new kids from needing IDPs. The expense isn’t just in resources but man hours because it takes around three hours a week just to do the paperwork for one special ed kid, not counting designing accommodations for assignments. Also, if the student is a minority it’s worse. If the percentage of minority special education students is higher than the minority population of the district the school is red flagged and investigated by the federal department of education for racial discrimination. Bigots used to use special ed to segregate minorities from the white kids so it’s not without reason, but the schools avoid this by either denying special ed to minorities or they falsify race like my school did. I got to learn all this at my termination meeting. My refusal to falsify race is a big part of how I got fired for insubordination. The way it was explained was “you can’t be held legally or morally responsible if you’re only following orders.” That’s an exact quote and she was at least half right. There were no legal consequences for them breaking the laws I reported.

[@floraidh4097]

There are 25 kids in my son's kindergarten class and 6 of them are ESL learners. The teacher has a helper for parts of the day and I help out when I can. The amount of extra time used just to help 25 kids through one activity leaves the kids on their own a lot (they're supposed to read while they wait, but we were all kids we know how that would go) My friends who teach in the school system say that a lot of the issues they see in the school are a result of the push for performance without the meaningful assistance of more teachers, more guidance counselors and special ed teachers etc. The elementary music teacher has to tutor math or include so many minutes of ELA in their class. The classroom assistant has to monitor lunch leaving the teacher on their own with 25 students for an hour or more of the day. The class having to leave the room while a special needs child has a violent incident with no person who is trained to help the kid in the building. It's a mess and it's not kids who are any worse than they were before, the challenges are just different.

[@Nae210]

This is true even at the high school level. You can have a class of 30+ students with a range of special needs with little to no support. At the end of the day they just expect you to pass everyone no matter the circumstances.

[@zekulir6419]

@@Nae210 You would hope that they can at least read though....

[@floraidh4097]

@@LunarBreeze No, we're not even in a big city

[@bajorekjon]

I hate to sound cynical, but in my experience kids are definitely worse than before. It's almost always the parent's fault, but they are worse, behaviorally, socially, and intellectually.

[@kits8931]

I'm in highschool, but the majority of the covid shutdowns happened when I was in middle school. And just- we missed a vital part of our socialisation while we watched people die around us and while yes, our teachers did their best, we fell behind in terms of learning. All this while we came into understanding of how much the people in power don't care about us. I had anxiety and sensory issues long before Covid, but now they're so much worse, and yeah, it's hard to concentrate on Shakespeare when you're having an anxiety for no other reason than your body decided to have one. And that sucks. And then I look at the littles and I think "if I didn't get a good understanding of geometry because of covid, what happened when it was time for you to learn the ABCs? Are you scared to say hi to the kid next to you in class because your in kindergarten and it's the first time you've seen another kid your age?" And with behavior, it just gets worse and worse. I thought my class was awful, Freshman year it was all I heard, but then with each new grade it gets worse and suddenly my class seems well behaved, and as their peer I can tell you that it's not because they're maturing. If the kids aren't listening in class, how can you expect to teach them anything from their ABCs to the great Gatsby to Shakespeare? I know Covid isn't the whole story, but as someone who went through the before and after as a student, it's not a small factor either.

[@1bean]

Tw: child abuse mentioned, not described in detail: I was homeschooled, and from about age 11 onwards, I had an iPod touch or iPhone, and I was essentially raised and kept company by the internet due to emotional neglect, abuse, and social isolation. My parents are both obsessively task oriented, lack the ability to emotionally connect with a child, gave me very little acceptance or validation, and expected me to entertain and soothe myself. I was on the internet all the time as an escape from my harsh, lonely and boring life. I really think it gets overlooked that kids hooked on technology may be enduring loneliness, neglect and abuse

[@cherstuff20]

This issue has so many moving parts. I watched kids in my family grow up under "no child left behind" , watched schools fail to help (including my child), watched parents not bother while I worked in schools, and watched as more and more funding has been cut education. I'm a burnt out parent being told I'm not doing enough, while my teen asks me if there will even be a world for him to adult in. I can't even tell him that bad politicians get voted out when he's seeing them get re-elected and approve fracking measures while making hateful statements

[@CadaverousCanine]

Older Gen Z here, i’m 19 and in my first year in college. In 3rd grade i was reading at a high school level. I’m often praised for my writing skills as well. My mom read to me and I had all the books my heart could’ve wanted. She taught me and my sister phonics and got us books about things we were interested in. My single mom also sacrificed a ton to make sure me and my sister lived in the best school district in the area even though it was way more expensive. Me and my sister were so lucky to have a parent that was able to do this. It’s sad that not every kid has a parent like my mom

[@AliceintheRabbitHole]

I highly recommend the podcast “sold a story”. I started listening out of curiosity and ended up listening to all 6 parts in one day. It explains everything, and it’s frankly horrifying.

[@wonder-witch]

Everything about what? The education crisis?

[@ladygrey4113]

Yes! Reveal did a summary of it and how the fuck that lady was able to skirt by for so long!

[@ladygrey4113]

@@wonder-witchwhy kids can’t read. There’s a shitty method with a cult like following that has little evidence and only started getting really questioned a few years ago

[@tabularasa]

​@@wonder-witch Yes, specifically the literacy crisis. It's about a very flawed method called the "Whole Language Approach" that displaced most basic phonics instruction in reading classes over the past couple decades. It has created a huge learning gap

[@Anna133199]

​@@tabularasaInteresting. Here in the Netherlands we also have a huge literacy emergency and I listened to a podcast yesterday about how probably the main cause (next to screen time, rona, huge teacher shortage) is our current reading methods. Sounds like it could be the same approach.

[@myrb2622]

As someone born in 2000, this stuff sounds like what I've heard all my life growing up. That some scapegoat that is trendy amongst kids is the problem and making kids dumber, meaner, gayer or something. "Is it the lack of funding for schools? Lack of support for parents, teachers and kids? The increasing wealth gaps? Rampaging capitalism? No, it's the TikToks that are the problem!" The worst part is this blame overshadows and makes it harder on those working towards actually helping. I wish we could have lists of groups helping kids, parents and teachers be trending instead of the doom and gloom finger pointing. But idk, I don't got kids and don't want to have any. So take my view with that in mind.

[@johnindigo5477]

I'm 21 and same. Everyone is so quick to point out a problem but no solutions

[@mikubrot]

tik tok is simply a symptom, not the problem itself

[@pisceanbeauty2503]

Yeah, there is a certain arrogance from a lot of these people posting. No real interest in devising real solutions, just wanting to bitch and sit on their high horses.

[@gabriellawaldi]

Thanks!

[@danderson8431]

I’m obsessed with buying my nieces books. Idk how much they actually read them, but I’m hoping that they’re at least curious enough about the pictures to want to know the story behind them. (They are both really young.)

[@absolutelynotellen]

I always trust teaching my little nieces/nephews/cousins even my children ( if i ever have any ) with children books instead. They're still too early for the internet.

[@anniebell6846]

In Iceland they have a night before Christmas where they all give books and read maybe you could suggest an evening of age appropriate snacking and reading like book club but with them

[@harrytimmy5070]

Oh they probably do. One of the best things my dad would do for me as a child was buy me a lot of pictured books and they were so interesting I got roped into reading to understand the context of the pictures. I was a book addict by 5th grade and never failed comprehension passages because I kind of always understood different writing styles. I was waaaayy ahead of my peers by 7-8th grade

[@JutaStokes]

Books are the best gifts! If you have the opportunity to spend time with them, please read the books you buy to and with them! It not only sets them up with a good base for literacy, it's also an amazing way to form an emotional bond and let them know in their hearts that you are an adult who cares, who they can come to for comfort and advice.

[@xSwordLilyx]

My nephew has gotten books for christmas and birthdays since he was 3! And stopped ripping them up. I mixed new books with new copies of books I remember being really good when I was a kid. Now that he is 7 he has particular interest in activity books so that's no problem, break out the markers. He loved There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (he has several versions) and The Lady with the Alligator Purse just like I did. They don't seem to make books that flow like that anymore, those were the first books with full sentences he could read himself. I also got an old book that I hadn't read that helped us connect, The Aunt in Our House. I have never had an aunt by blood so it helped me connect with my role. It is beautifully illustrated also and The Aunt also looks like his other Aunt.

[@lisahannah3175]

I’m so proud of my 13 year old who despite significant dyslexia made it up to grade level in reading. It will always be a challenge, but she actually loves books 😃. On the societal note, this is very good to know. Thank you!

[@vodka9384]

Congrats!

[@chaus1ku]

I'm glad she was able to overcome the dyslexia. Also I agree. :)

[@spencerhinds2803]

Its frustrating because people seem to think the two options are being abusive or being a super gentle parent. You have to have boundaries and teach them things but that means being involved and loving

[@ShelvesterD]

Thank you for this video! I've been getting recommended a lot of videos about this topic and I'm always incredibly skeptical of the "kids these days" argument. As a millennial I feel like generational stereotypes can be used to shut down legitimate conversations ("I deserve a living wage and reasonable work life balance." "Millennials don't want to work!") and I really don't want to see that thrust on the next generation. I knew there had to be more than "these kids suck". As always, your take is so nuanced and compassionate! Thank you for helping me see the bigger picture.

[@rebeccat9389]

Agreed! The negativity with no generosity has definitely given me “avocado toast vibes” - I don’t want that BS for them. It’s so valuable to find a more nuanced take.

[@chalkedlines8960]

@@rebeccat9389 It wreaks of avocado toast vibes.

[@ctheo2020]

@@chalkedlines8960 ​ @rebeccat9389 LOL! 🥑 🍞 vibes. Thank you for this phrase and reflection. It says so much...

[@katetrompvanholst1772]

Thank you so much for saying that it’s partially about the fact that the parents aren’t ok. I’m a single mom of a (now) 13 yo girl. She went through most of middle school online. I lost my job, my mother, and my partner in the Rona times. I sucked. My kid sucked. We both still suck. I realize I’m responsible for a lot of her struggles, but I’m struggling to keep food in her belly. It’s hard to be everything I want to as a mom and a person when I’m on survival mode 24/7. I have degrees, yet I’m ashamed to say, I can’t worry about whether she’s reading at grade level when I have to spend all my time worrying that she’ll have a warm bed and dinner.

[@markigirl2757]

It’s okay I think if u are open to talking to ur daughter explaining what’s going on and why she might not understand now but later as she grows up and develops critical thinking skills (hopefully that comes to it but talking things out is better then not doing anything) she will learn to respect u and appreciate ur efforts.

[@katiefleece]

I feel so much empathy for folks in your position. Meeting basic needs is essential, and you're doing your best with what you have. With kindness, though, it's important to remember that we're still in the Rona times. Repeat infections are the norm because wastewater levels are jumping back up to peak Omicron levels (at least in my area) and no mitigation measures in place anymore. Khadija's right, we're still learning about its long-term impacts on our health. With the multitude of contributing factors to decreasing literacy rates, repeatedly contracting illnesses certainly doesn't help.

[@heatherheath3834]

My heart goes out to you, I grew up in a very similar situation where my mother just needed more support than she had and I promise whilst we don’t forget, we do forgive. Be kind to yourself, you’re doing your best. No amount of education matters when you’re ensuring survival. ❤❤

[@hollyhaunted6502]

You don’t suck. You’re living under pressures that you shouldn’t have to shoulder alone.

[@Hwgt888]

So you worry to keep her alive only for her to have no skills because you have time to watch KZbin but cat teach your kid. Yikes.

[@biblicallyaccurateangel2476]

can i be honest? i grew up on the internet, specifically i grew up in fandom/fanfiction culture. and when i say “grew up”, i mean that i started reading fanfiction when i was ~7, and i am 17 now. it made me fall in love with reading. when i was younger i’d read 50k-500k word fics, sometimes within a few days. my vocabulary is almost entirely shaped by it, and my reading comprehension is higher than a lot of those in my class. my friends are very intelligent, and are also immersed in fandom culture-i’m definitely the odd one out when it comes to the amount of my lifetime i’ve spent in it haha, but i think the internet for us (my friend group) has helped us become more able to tackle media in a nuanced way because we’re exposed to so many different views from both characters’ eyes and fanons’ eyes. of course, another contributor is that everyone in my friend group is neurodivergent in some sort of way-we all have adhd, and most of us are also autistic, so in general we view the world a bit differently. when your perception of the world is constantly followed by a “but why?” and a need to find out, you probably end up with more knowledge on certain subjects than someone without that sort of curious instinct haha which, that curious instinct wasn’t really impacted by having access to google! for me, it made it even stronger because i always wanted to look up everything and consume all the information on that topic (by god ive read so many wikipedia pages LMFAO). hank green’s scishow and pbs’s spacetime were my favorite after-school cartoons. this is definitely another thing related to my audhd, but yeah i think that for me, having a whole world of information at my fingertips was honestly not the worst thing to happen to me. although it wasn’t the best thing either, i have been exposed to things that i should not have been at such a young age, and that has affected me in an fairly significantly negative way 😅 apologies for the long essay-of-sorts, i just wanted to put my thoughts out there!! bit of a ramble, sorry, just have a lot on my mind about the internet and how i grew up on it _right_ before the algorithm was perfected. great video, thank you for posting ❤❤ the ocd statistics were shocking as someone who was diagnosed and medicated with the disorder

[@CapPotato388]

I love the scishow and pbs's spacetime being ur after-school cartoons. That's just heartwarming, I'm not really sure why. I also grew up with the internet, although I'm 4 years older than you and from Costa Rica, so, the access to technology has been staggered from other more developed nations, but still, i do remember eating through Wikipedia article after article, having like 20 tabs open. The reason I like comic-book related media is because i used to read about the characters and storylines off Wikipedia, i never had comic books growing up. I'm also definitely neurodivergent, so, can't say my experience can be generalized but yeah. The desire to learn i feel was incremented by the access to _all of the knowledge_TM. But there's definitely a negative effect from it all.

[@AJTONYX]

I relate so much to a lot of things you said! 1. Growing up with/getting the internet at a young age (8) and it being a good because of “having a whole world of information at my fingertips”, but it also being negative in other ways. And 2. Being curious and having a thirst for knowledge!! I am very fascinated by biology, science and the causes behind evolutionary adaptions and stuff like that. I also really really love nature & appreciate + care for it so much!

[@drooooop]

You are literally me!! I used to looove reading fanfiction, I would stay up reading stories every night and I have always done very well in English classes and on standardized tests. Another thing I would say is the type of social media you use (if at all). No social media is probably the best option, but I always only used Reddit which is mostly text-based and contains a lot more articles and longer-form written content than other social media which is typically visual based so I can read realllly fast and absorb information quickly. I know I’m tooting my own horn a lot here, but I just think reading is so important!!

[@foxygrandpa864]

Teacher here. Honestly I would love my students to read as much as I did in my fandom days but all they do is rot their brains with tiktok. Like they don't know the alphabet but they do know what a skibidi toilet is...

[@adalheidisofadamahcaptaino18]

For me it was later but I also was reading, still do. Also appreaciate the long comment.

[@sontaranmc2109]

I think I have something to add to this, as a former kid who couldn't read. Obviously all of this is anecdotal, and I'm an adult now, but I *do* recognize everything being said about the current generation of kids as pretty much perfectly matching things that were said about *me* around 5 years ago. Similar things about the shot attention span, lowered literacy, general apparent inability to complete work on time. It's also something I've actively been working on in recent years, so hopefully I can offer some input on what's helped for me as well. So, for me personally, I'd always had some issues with focusing, but it got noticeably *way* worse when I was in middle school. My homework completion dropped significantly, I started having more trouble participating in class, the works. What I particularly remember is that it led to my being diagnosed with autism and ADHD, both of which I *do* have, but that obviously didn't explain how sudden everything was. So when the autism and ADHD "treatment" didn't work, they blamed the iPads and the internet, which I was using increasingly. I'd get accused of being lazy, not trying hard enough, etc. My issues also kept getting worse, and they really only started getting better once I graduated and came to college. So, for my retrospective POV, this all started after some really serious bullying incidents that weren't being recognized. My memory of that part of public school is hazy because I was mentally kinda fucked, but I can say with absolute certainly that it started with me having unrecognized PTSD symptoms. Brain fog, difficulty with executive functioning, inability to focus, etc are all examples of post-traumatic stress symptoms. My increased internet usage was a symptom of my brain issues, not the cause: it's a form of escapism for kids who are mentally struggling with their IRL life, and can let you momentarily have a break from all the triggering stressors around you and just consume content for a bit. And meanwhile, being met with constant pressure to perform in school as if nothing was going wrong led to severe burnout, and then even more trauma being piled on from how hard I was overworking myself, leading to even worse performance, and that was where my own literacy started to suffer. Eventually I just gave up and started doing the bare minimum to pass, if I could even manage that. I'd like to point out how *everybody* is struggling with their mental health, something you alluded to at the end with the genocide bit at the end. But I'll expand it a little further: the incoming climate crisis, events like the Ukraine war, the genocide in Palestine, but also for a more immediate and close-to-home example, the fucking pandemic? The *vast* majority people came out of that in some way affected. I've seen so many thinkpieces about how it's affected people's mental bandwidths, how people have started having higher standards for shitty circumstances, and especially quiet quitting. The pandemic traumatized people and now we're, societally, dealing with accelerated burnout. Everything happening with kids right now is... basically the same. They're fucking traumatized, and we don't currently have the infrastructure for recognizing that. For my own personal recovery, it's a mix of philosophical things and little tricks I did. The first is, recovery isn't really possible if you're still constantly being pulled around every which way, and I'm... not sure how to create that for students right now. My healing started with graduation because school as a environment is actively antagonistic to it. But beyond that, the thing that I've centered for myself is to think of things that I really, genuinely *want* and use that to try and essentially wind my mind back up to a functional state. It *needs* to be intrinsically motivated, though. Introducing more project based learning can be good, especially if you give students the ability to choose what their project is, and how it will work. Maybe they need to present a research topic of their choice, and they can choose whatever manner of presentation they want: video, powerpoint, speech, whatever. The last bit that helped me, more specifically in terms of reading, is actually... comics and graphic novels. I was a book nerd before everything went down, and comics let me preserve some of that with enough visual presence that I could still follow them without it giving me a headache. I've been working on transitioning back to reading prose since then, because I want to get my literacy back, but genuinely, don't dismiss the "lower" forms of reading just because they're not where you want the students to be at. Sometimes they're the stepping stones you need to build them back up.

[@nerdywolverine8640]

another anecdote i feel resonates with all of this: as someone who learned to read before kindergarten and i think would've been labeled hyperlexic if diagnosed that early, middle school also made everything suddenly harder for me. to this day, im not sure if it was simply the onset of my chronic illness, or also going under the radar with autism and adhd and not getting the support needed to learn the actual skills demanded in later grades i.e. studying. instead of actually receiving help it took 3 years for my finally obvious decline in health to start being treated, and then i wasnt diagnosed properly (with the CI) until 3 years later after being unable to return to school and then expected to start back up in high school in a new country with a language i dont speak. maybe 2-3 years after that, once again unable to continue school without help i finally managed to get an autism diagnosis. (still waiting on that help though.) now I'm 21 and didn't even complete 8th grade. my illness and probably autistic burnout causes extreme fatigue and brainfog, and so I've mostly turned to fanfiction as that "lesser form" of writing basically ever since first dropping out. recently i was able to reread a middle grade fantasy book that i love, and hope to continue with the series. fanfiction is extremely good though because so much of it is written to be easy to read and just convey the ideas of the writer as plainly as possible, either out of expedience or lack of skill, and almost every fic has a central conceit that tells you how every part of the story is likely to play out, not to mention ao3s tagging system. sometimes I'll run into a fic that flaunts the writers vocabulary and i get to look up a bunch of stuff in online dictionaries which for me is really fun and its like a little treat when it happens, and as someone who also wants to write the breadth of skill on display is really fun to analyze. I'm glad that despite everything I'm still able to read all day if i want to, and i couldn't do that with most published books that put more strain on my focus and comprehension. i have a gen alpha sibling who's 9 and still learning to read. im sure part of it is trying to learn in two languages, but i dont think she was given the same resources i was as often or as early, + she didn't fall in love with books like i did. our other siblings both have dyslexia and our entire family also has adhd at minimum, i dont know if she has dyslexia too. she watches tv practically every day, but also plays outside and visits her grandparents. her homework is also still teaching her to read. i hope that she'll get the early intervention i didn't, and that maybe one day I'll be able to help her find something that she thinks is worth reading.

[@dootdootdoot1593]

This this this exactly after Covid I took 2 years off from college and now that I’m back I’m barely passing. I just have a constant feeling of my brain being fried. Screens being a parenting replacement plus the pandemic = of course this would happen… the kids are not ok. I’m currently trying to find out what I’m actually interested in bc that’s the only thing keeping me from drowning again.

[@sontaranmc2109]

@@dootdootdoot1593 I believe in you!

[@potatothings7223]

Thank you for sharing and sending lots of love 🫶🏻

[@anny8720]

I really feel all of you in this thread, I just completely collapsed right before college but I couldn't take a break because we all expected the pandemic to end sooner. I got diagnosed with ADHD and depression but I was my only support system and no where near enough self advocacy to be able to survive. I just keep getting burnt out every semester and regressing in coping skills and dropping out of treatment, I relied so heavily on maladaptive daydreaming and online shopping addiction bc reality was so overwhelming. I also have not read a book in years just fanfic, I want to eventually but I just don't have the energy to engage with new content and stick my old comforts. It's really hard out here

[@emmabreukink]

Great video! I also think food insecurity pays into this as well. With grocery prices rising and people's wages not keeping up, more and more families are struggling to put food on the table. There is lots of evidence that shows how food (& housing) insecurity make it hard for kids to function/learn.

[@JessiTuck]

I'd still say that reading to your kids and giving them books can happen even with food insecurity. That's the number one for kids reading well, and what my parents were able to provide even while our food wasn't always stable. It's hard to focus on reading to your kids when your worried, but it's better to be read to and hungry than bored and hungry. But yes.

[@2014awjag]

It also makes it hard for parents to parent and teach their kids! How are you supposed to raise and help your children learn if both parents are working multiple jobs just to survive? When do you find the time and mental energy?

[@JessiTuck]

@@2014awjag By reading 1 children's books a day with them. 300-some books a year. Just reading 1 book a day isn't impossible. My parents did it. I can do it. If you can't spend a few minutes a day telling your kid hi, reading a story, hearing about their day... It's not the jobs being too much. It had to be a priority to read, for their future.

[@sandrohernandez4401]

​​easier said than done. My parents had to work a lot just to put food on the table and rent. And the rent is getting more and more expensive. @@JessiTuck

[@ArkMan42]

This line stopped me in my tracks: "As exciting as it is to live in times where things are shifting so much, it's also scary. It's also deregulating. It also might mean people are going have to learn from our mistakes" I just discovered your channel, but I am already amazed by your ability to get at the core of an issue. I think many of us today struggle to contextualize the glorious moment in history we're at when compared to any other 50-year period. I think we underestimate how well equipped we are to face the present.

[@micheller3251]

This is part of the reason why I went back to university in media studies. If kids can't read, then they are more reliant on video content and video games to form their views and understanding of the world. And they don't exactly teach media litteracy in schools aside from showing a movie once in a while to make kids shut up... So it's really really important that we both find a way to make kids read again AND critically analyse the media they are exposed to and help them to be able to do so too. Kids might not read but they are still sponges, we need to know what they are absorbing and to give them proper tools to better analyse it and to see what's the intent behind it.

[@sannat9753]

Incredibly well said.

[@katiefleece]

The 'house hippo' PSA commercial that ran in Canada to encourage media/digital literacy was ahead of its time.

[@annabelapurva-madhuri4861]

I’m childfree but I’m a millennial and a therapist and I really appreciate your zooming out to discuss the context in which the parents and children in question are living. Families can’t [only] be critiqued in a vacuum. Another great vid!

[@myrezz8833]

And a lot of these comments are kind of not getting that. There are a lot of possible contributors to this issue. It makes you also wonder if there should be more literacy opportunities (like kid-centered reading clubs, etc) to encourage these skills.

[@Jupiter-ng1yi]

This video brings up so many good points. I’m currently in high school. Growing up, I wasn’t given much access to screens, and then when I did get my own phone it was regulated. I had severe social anxiety when I was little, so my mother decided to homeschool me up until kindergarten. It was extremely beneficial overall for my learning. Kids really do absorb things more than you might think. I still remember her taking me with her when she volunteered at my older sister’s preschool, and my sister coming home and excitedly teaching me what she learned at kindergarten or first grade. As we got older, my mom advocated for me to have more personal mentoring and advanced classes because I was bored in my regular classes, but I was just barely under the required threshold for having a mentor she had to petition for me. When I did get it, I thrived. The school system has worked against me my whole life as a neurodivergent person, but thanks to my family I’ve been able to excel. It really does take an army to raise a child. It’s not just the family or the school in charge of raising someone, it's a shared job of everyone that child encounters. I was just a lucky one.

[@nanauwu]

Highschool student here, I personally have noticed both the ups and downs of my classmates academic wise. From personal experience, there’s a good mix of literacy at my school- we’ve had the most kids enrolling into honors english in a while and my teacher had expressed that we’ve been one of the most talented groups in a while. I personally read everyday and I have friends who enjoy reading just as much as video games. But I’ve also greatly noticed how rude other students are, I know it’s has a lot to do with social media and parenting but there’s also a lot of other students are also well mannered- its just the rude kids are extra bad now(ahem, aiden ross simps ://). I also have a younger sister in middle school, i don’t know her experiences as well as her obviously, but from what i see, she really enjoys reading! All this said, I come from a background of having immigrant parents and I go to a somewhat privileged public school. I feel like covid had a huge impact on a lot of our educations, everyone is used to the uncaring/automatically passing nature of it and now that we’re back in schools, its been a bit more difficult. This is all just speaking on personal experience, if any other students would like to chime in on this, y’all are very welcome. ^^

[@manderly33]

To me, this all sounds pretty typical. Some kids are doing fine, some kids are disruptive. That’s kind of how it always is. Congratulations to your class for having so many honors English students!

[@itsari1290]

Same with my school

[@johnindigo5477]

I just turned 21 and this was similar to how it was for me in 2017 to 2021. Also had an immigrant mother who taught me how to read before pre k. Some kids in public school are legit crazy. Antagonistic, bullying, condescending, obssed with looking tuff. Making teachers cry and laughing. College weeds all that out. Even a poor community College has no time for misbehavior. I remember one of the biggest controversies was not expelling students. If a student disrupted class they'd spend the school day in ISS with other trouble makers chilling. They didn't worry about getting in trouble cuase they'd be back in class after a few days.

[@anna.owo.]

I got my degree from university and this sounds like typical high school for what I remember. Humans are diverse and complex, in my class many kids had good grades and good behaviour most of the time, some kids had good grades but were rude to the teachers, some kids had bad grades but good behaviour and some had bad grades and were rude. Some had supportive families and some had neglectful parents. The teachers also have their biases, I was the attendance bookkeeper which is determined based on grades, so most of them had a high opinion of me just because of my title and grades. The opinion others have for you affects you in many ways, if a teacher doesn't bother with a kid they find troublesome then that kid will just make more trouble. I think parents and teachers are at fault here, as a neurodivergent child I did not receive the support I should have from my school, and in university I had a professor shaming my handwriting which is something mentioned in my diagnosis. So I am not very trusting of teachers and professors here, people tend to look at the past as better.

[@thatblvckhippie1911]

If it makes you feel better I can promise you that kids being mean isn't because of social media. Im decades older and its always been rough in that department

[@FujishimaAkiko]

My son was reading at Fountas and Pinnell level Z+ in 3rd grade, and rather than encourage him, his teacher, and the librarian would consistently tell him that the books he was reading were "too advanced" for him. Teachers should not be discouraging students. My son was very much capable of reading the books he found interesting as well as understanding them. If he came across any word that he didn't know, he would pull out his dictionary, write the word down, the definition, and then try to use the word at least 3 times through-out the day so he could commit the word and its meaning to memory. But, I'm GenX rather than a millennial, so I grew up different, and I raised my son pretty old school. So, low screen-time, except for weekends where he can game with friends, as long has chores are done and any projects related to school are done. My son is now 17, in a gifted program, in orchestra, and all but one of his classes are AP, the one class that isn't is honors, because they don't offer an AP psychics class. Kids read better when they're read to, I grew up being read to every night before I was even in kindergarten, and I did the same with my son. While he sometimes uses devices to read e-books, he mostly reads tangible books and has quite the impressive library in his bedroom. Which I thought was normal, until some of his friends started coming over and were shocked and questioned why he had so many books. He just tells them "Reading is Fun-to-mental." quoting Eddie Griffin...lol!

[@cedricfowler3465]

Kids read better when they're read to: I'm 22 and my mom read to me and we listened to audiobooks all the time. Whenever I read now I always imagine someone's reading to me.

[@johnindigo5477]

Im 21. My gem x immigrant mother taught me how to read before pre k while working two jobs and I'm externally grateful for that. My dad would always take me to the library every weekend. I grew up thinking all parents educated thier kids in some way and I try and help my nieces and nephews whenever I can.

[@rebeccat9389]

You say Fountas and Pinnell, eh? Have you listened to Sold A Story (podcast)?

[@annjepsen1621]

I was reading Stephen King in Elementary school and would get in trouble for it constantly. I finished my classwork in moments and then would be bored so I would read. 😂

[@FujishimaAkiko]

@@annjepsen1621 You sound like me growing up! 💖 And I was OBSESSED with Stephen King! I still love the man and his work!

[@akindjustice]

Thank you for this video!!! I'm a 4th year teacher and this is what I've been saying. Yes the teachers are burnt out, yes the kids are wild, but we can't totally blame the parents! They're just as burnt out and tired as everyone else. Excellent video!!!

[@inotanzen]

This is one of my biggest concerns right now especially dealing in fan spaces online where in-depth assessing and analyzing media is so prevalent, it is just so clear the kids are not okay! What do we even do?? Especially if you’re someone like myself that doesn’t even plans on having kids!

[@LanaClara]

ofmd 👀

[@inotanzen]

@@LanaClara not one of my fandoms actually! i was waiting until season 2 to watch bc i don’t like waiting lol but i have seen some talks of people not doing the Best job of analyzing that show so im sure it applies to this if that’s what you’re referring to LOL

[@LanaClara]

@@inotanzen yep that's what I meant! For example, I remember the time when Tumblr was full of insightful metas and discussions, people were sharing ideas and different points of view (Superwholock..ahem.. And then I left this place for some time). But now there are a lot of shallow, surprising and even strange takes, especially if a show attracts adults AND the younger audience, there is a clear difference. I noticed it with OFMD and I had the same thoughts that they just don't quite understand some things.. Moreover, I've been working with kids for about 7 years and there is definitely some kind of general..deterioration of mental skills and the ability to analyse information? Anyway, I'm just a burnt out millenial, with no intention of becoming a parent, and I certainly don't blame the kids. I guess the society failed them, and it failed us too, in a way 🤷‍♀️ So, we should support each other and hope for the best!

[@nic_rios]

A podcast that really blew this whole thing up for me was Sold a Story, which goes over one of the major reasons why literacy has plummeted since the mid-90s. A lot of it has to do with the way we teach kids to read in the first place. There's been an ongoing focus on guessing words using context clues instead of learning to sound out words through phonics education. Then of course adding all of the factors you discuss in your video, we get this awful situation where 54% of Americans read at below a sixth grade level. I highly recommend that podcast. It made me really understand what my college students are going through much better.

[@omfgacceptmyname]

my mom (2nd grade teacher) said since no child left behind there's been an undercurrent of passing children to higher grade levels even when they are not ready. now a number of school districts receive federal funding based on how many students they pass... not good

[@c0mput3r80y]

No child left behind is literally just leaving kids behind at this point

[@logenesis3108]

Khadija, you are SERVIN today! The hair, glasses, nails, shirt, and your beautiful face is a whole look

[@emmie297]

ill always be a little tickled when someone doesnt really like the idea of gentle parenting and then describes what they think is good parenting and its literally gentle parenting lol

[@BlackFairy-zk7wl]

Right

[@cocteautwin]

i’m glad you talked about Miss Rona and how this effects peoples brains and health. that goes unnoticed so often and is definitely a factor for children, let alone the teachers and staff that continuously are getting sick

[@emmafinke4931]

My younger brother is in 3rd grade. His teacher flat out never corrected the spelling on any of his assignments. How are they supposed to learn how to spell if no one teaches them? I admit that it shouldn’t be 100% the school’s job to teach kids how to read, because that’s a very long process that takes lots of one-on-one instruction that simply isn’t possible in a classroom setting. However, my guess is that as a society we don’t value education as much as we used to. We have more tools available to us than ever before, but our kids are becoming less and less educated.

[@beeancaaa]

At my school we literally cannot give spelling tests. I have yet to be given a reason why. The system is SO broken. I remember getting 25 words and each day for homework we had to write them 3x teach, abc order, make up a sentence, etc. and we had a spelling test Friday and I turned out just fine.

[@rebeccat9389]

Ok but they are in school for like almost all their waking hours. How much time is left after that? It’s more likely that ineffective curriculum are a big part of the problem. Thats sad your bro didn’t get any feedback.

[@Sjood-qs8ol]

The parents probably got upset when that teacher did that in the past. God forbid anyone correct their kids who can do no wrong.

[@emmafinke4931]

@@rebeccat9389 I agree. I saw on one of his assignments with many other misspelled words he wrote "thay" instead of "they." His teacher didn't correct anything and I don't think that they receive grades on correctness, but rather participation. I know that he's a smart boy and is at least smarter than average, but you're not born knowing how to spell, you have to be taught. Since then we've been making more efforts to practice spelling with him. My parents taught me how to write when I was a toddler but now they're working longer hours and are older with less stamina and energy. I can definitely empathize and understand from my own experience some reasons why parents might not be able to practice spelling much with their kids.

[@katiefleece]

​@@rebeccat9389I'd argue that the focus should first be on addressing cuts to funding public education at all levels (including teacher education). It takes time and money to develop and maintain effective curricula. We're certainly not doing anyone any favours by electing governments that continue to devalue and underfund education.

[@paultj4e]

Thank you so much for acknowledging the role Covid has played in this! I have multiple teacher friends who are constantly complaining about the increase in 'behavioral issues' among their pupils, who completely neglect the fact that these kids have probably had multiple infections of a virus that's been shown to cause actual brain damage!

[@LoveBaseballLove]

Wow! I haven't heard about the brain damage thing. Can you share a link to where you learned that? I'm so interested!

[@anny8720]

⁠@@LoveBaseballLove you can't share external links in KZbin comments but if you've heard of "long Covid" in the news and the brain fog, ongoing loss of taste/smell, etc. It's because Covid is not only a respiratory disease, it can also reach the brain and damage it leading to these ongoing syndromes despite the person having recovered from the virus and no longer infectious. Covid has also been shown to aggravate chronic diseases that were dormant (no symptoms) before infection.

[@christina3115]

@@LoveBaseballLove Obviously not the original commenter, but there's a ton of research showing how COVID damages the brain! If you do a general search on Google for COVID and brain damage, lots of articles and studies/journals pop up from reputable sources (Nature, Harvard, John Hopkins, etc.), or just search directly on medical journals like The Lancet, Nature, The BMJ, and PubMed. It can cause inflammation leading to memory loss, issues with controlling basic functions (heart rate, etc.), can cause Alzheimer's, dementia, and Parkinson's, and can even age the brain up to 10 years after a single infection. COVID is both a vascular disease and a respiratory illness, so it has the ability to harm our entire body.

[@3u-n3ma_r1-c0]

@@LoveBaseballLove its generally called "brain fog" or "long covid" by the media, and as far as i know, i think it entails loss of memory or issues focusing, like having a feverish-cold but nigh all the time. IDK tho, ive never looked it up but i know it exists. people can have it for years afterwards, and i dont think scientists know how to get rid of it or what causes it. maybe the science has caught up, idk.

[@sleepykittyMMD]

Could the behavioral issues have other causes? Those tend to start at home

[@soulyoung1123]

As a kid my mother found drugs and alcohol better than teaching me anything. One thing she was always so proud of me was how I taught myself how to read. Now I see that’s truly a blessing just wish my family didn’t let me down so heavy. Had to teach myself just about everything it’s all about determination. If you want to learn then you can

[@ywntmha]

I was born in ‘92 and have memories of fiending for computer and internet access once I got a taste around age 9 or 10. When we would travel to Mexico to see family and I couldn’t get online, I experienced what I think can honestly be described as a form of withdrawal. I can only imagine what kind of hold it has on you when you’re raised to turn to tech and the internet for all sorts of emotional needs from the time you’re a baby.

[@bryncheeze8970]

Another thing people don't consider often is how nobody knows how to be bored anymore. We talk a lot about shortening attention spans and no one reads, but we're also constantly overstimulated

[@kevanmcdougallmph]

As a parent/guardian, two of the most important areas of skills you should be fostering are 1) communication that is open, honest, and assertive (assertive doesn't mean aggressive folks) and 2) critical thinking /curiosity

[@Zazabazaa]

There is a big difference between gentle parenting and neglectful parenting. I should know, I had both parents. My dad was a neglectful parent at one point. Never said no, bought me toys to stop me from crying and turned me into a spoiled brat at 4. He started trying to punish me when I wasn't turning into the mini-me he hoped for, which is when he became more actively abusive instead of neglectful. But his neglect still causes me problems to this day. I have anger issues that began with his neglect and continued to develop until I started to gain more self awareness. The stress he caused me in every aspect of my upbringing, including the neglectful part, has made me feel this instability to I can never shake. My mom was a gentle parent. When she entered the country my dad took me to, she was horrified at what I had become. She immedietly began repairs. Said no to me, talked me through things, and discussed things with me, and only ever hit me twice in my entire life. Once at the beginning of her teaching me "no" to show she wasn't gonna roll over like my dad did when I threw a tantrum. And another time when I was actively hurting her and wasn't listening. Both times she made sure it was in a way that never actually harmed me, and she still feels bad about every now and then. She's the only reason I didn't become a total destructive mess, because she spoke to me as an actual person, listened to me, and became a safe space when everywhere else felt terrifying. And she did all this WITHOUT avoiding the word "no"! She even became a safe space for others. Every single one of my childhood friends talks about my mom's home like some kind of oasis. Because she may have had rules, but she made sure we understood why and never made us scared, giving us the space we needed to actually explore, have fun and find ourselves through our hangouts. THAT is gentle parenting. It's the only reason my life is salvagable and I will defend it from the neglectful parents who claim they're gentle parenting.

[@lillybilly9954]

I liked this. Most of this conversation is usually condemning parents. It’s a societal issue.

[@DeidresStuff]

A large number of kids couldn't read when I was in school in the 80s/90s. People are just starting to care now because it's not just poor children with parents who are also illiterate.

[@sres4]

*As a neurodivergent teenager..* Unfortunately a common thing I’ve been seeing with this “your kids cant read” thing, is that people still want to perpetuate harmful parenting methods to “combat it”. Theres are so many kids facing homelessness, and or in broken homes. That doesn’t give them much time, energy, or resources to learn. Not to mention with the lack of phonics in our education system, kids are not learning how they used to. Tablets and phones are a problem, but they are not the main problem with kids not knowing how to read. With a phone or tablet, you read on it practically every damn day, but if you don’t know phonics, and are only taught sight reading, they’re not learning anything because they don’t know. An the amount of people who thinks these kids are just doomed oh god, I am sure this is reversible. By doing in with phonics, bettering our education system, and parents becoming involved in their kids learning, a kid can easily learn how to read, even if it is later in life. I knew how to read from kindergarten, some didn’t, that’s fine. An whether you like it or not, a lot kids see the state of the world, do they care as much, maybe not. Heavy electronic usage can play a lot into condepency, and escapism. A lot of kids have “matured”, so doing things that are typically childish is just seen as weird. To kids, escaping the world is better than facing it. A lot of the older generations want to perpetuate the work til you bleed mindset, which is harmful for many reasons. Kids see the flaws in it, and how it probably affects their parents today. I dont want to type anymore but point is, kids are suffering too, and they have coping methods. It’s up to the parent to regulate that, and understand why their child feels the need to cope.

[@princessjello]

I've got a millennial friend who refuses to acknowledge that reading is a crucial life skill because he was bullied for not understanding English as a French immigrant. Terrible but its worse that he chose that argument to cope with his trauma.

[@annjepsen1621]

Does he read French? If not, the language is not the problem, his attitude is.

[@taylor3343]

I was a early childhood educator before the pandemic and quit during for several reasons. I can definitely see where your friend Colleen is coming from, gentle parenting still needs follow through with rules and boundaries, it's just that enforcing these rules is where you act gentle and understanding. I also experienced parents not wanting to follow through at home to such an extent that children I potty trained would come back to me after a long break fully forgetting that all together. It's rough out there, I currently work at a weed store making twice as much on SALARY and have better insurance. I'm sorry to the babies out there, but I give up.

[@bear3279]

"they struggled so i could call my cats their grandchildren" LOL same here Khadija

[@chynnaeakin1995]

We gotta remember that we are still trapped in a wave of wage slavery in this country. In order for the common person to afford basic resources, they need to use that energy on money. That leaves significantly less time for the child’s needs and healthy developmental activities. If we continue to push the idea that “work is life” instead of helping parents be present for their children while still having a fair income (able to easily buy food, afford medical expenses and keep a roof over their families heads,) this trend is gonna keep up. Just a thought I’ve had for a long time, hearing the kids are struggling just makes it feel more real to me.

[@Bulletproof-Rose]

Thank you so much for discussing this! I teach high schoolers and I've definitely noticed changes in behavior over the last several years, but people who don't work with kids tell me "it's probably always been this way and you're just noticing now because of __" (usually rona) And then people who DO work with kids will tell you it's just parents' fault. And yeah, parents have a lot of responsibility to raise their kid into someone who cares about education and not being an asshole, but SO MANY teachers around me have this mindset that "if the kid doesn't want to try then I'm not gonna try either" and like....ok good have boundaries I guess, but YOU are an adult and you've already learned the lessons you want this kid to learn so why do you have no empathy at all for what it's like to be a kid, especially in today's world?? It's not every teacher, but there's too many who don't bother to have a relationship with kids or get to know what they like or even just talk to them like their humans. And then they wonder why they don't want to come to school 🙄 Kids are very obviously struggling worse than they have in a long time, but the only reason we are talking about "why is it happening?" is because we want to know "who do we blame?" Instead of finding someone or something to blame, society needs to accept that we all have a responsibility to each other and to our children to help them through this with compassion