Teachers Are Revealing The Biggest Changes Between Kids In 2024 And Kids When They Began Teaching, And It's Concerning
There's been a lot of buzz on the internet for the past couple of years about how kids are doing in school these days. Many are doing just fine; but from phone addiction and apathetic parents, to lack of socialization and outright disrespect, lots of them are doing poorly in school.
With developments such as the LAUSD cell phone ban and the New York bill limiting addictive algorithms for kids under 18, it seems that the general public is getting in on the "kids are not OK" conversation when it comes to how the world's changes — namely, technology and COVID — are affecting children's development. And who knows the details of that front better than the kids' teachers?
Recently, u/vinnymacaroni, a prospective teacher, took to the popular Teachers subreddit to ask, "What is the biggest difference you see in kids from the time you started teaching to right now in 2024?" In response, many teachers got real about the struggles they see kids facing in the classroom today. Here are some of their most interesting comments:
1."I’ve been teaching since 2016. Reading stamina seems to be the biggest [problem]."
2."I just finished year 34, all in upper elementary and middle school. Back in the day, I'd have one or two kids in a class who didn't give a flying fuck and who did literally nothing. Now it can be a third of the class. It's mind-blowing."
"I will have several assignments over the course of a trimester where less than half of the class will get the thing done and turned in. Nearly every assignment will have a couple of kids who write their names on it and then turn in blank pieces of paper.
"For the first time, I'm having multiple kids not bother to finish their iReady diagnostics—they'll just sit there looking at the screen for several days until the window for administering the test closes."
"What can be done? I’m about to enter the workforce."
"Nothing. This is a society-wide problem, and the people with whom we need to team up in order to solve it—parents—often don't care."
3."I've been in early childhood [education] for 10 years now, [and] was a sub for about five years before that. What I've noticed since COVID is a profound lack of social skills."
"Not just a lack of curiosity or emotional dysregulation, which I've seen in spades, but an inability to play or talk or cooperate with other kids. Each kid is their own little island and they have zero interest in visiting other islands.
"I've literally had to teach 5-year-olds how to play basic 'toss the ball' games or work together to build a wall of blocks' whereas before, they would be coming up with wacky 'Calvinball' type games on their own and pulling everyone under four feet tall into the game with barely any effort. Now, I might as well be trying to teach them physics in Klingon."
4."Fashion has looped back around and now all of my clothing from high school is in style."
"[Also,] I guess kids are way less aware of what is happening in the world than 10 years ago. Since people don't watch TV news anymore or get newspapers, they aren't passively exposed as much. Though I still think the average kid today is more informed than the average kid pre-internet."
5."A huge difference I’ve noticed is it is becoming disturbingly common for parents to explicitly tell their kids that they don’t have to follow school rules."
"Students are always so smug about it when they say that their mom gave them permission, and then equally enraged when they still receive the related consequence because mom doesn’t make the rules at school. And then the mom gets pissed and we have to tell her to find another school if she doesn’t like our rules… it’s insanity. Absolutely could never have been me when I was a student, and this was not a thing when I first started teaching. But this kind of attitude has grown increasingly more common every year."
6."I'm an art teacher but God damn their handwriting is shit. Comically big, completely illegible, letters not formed correctly, not within lines/margins if it's on loose leaf paper - straight up looks like a 1st grader wrote it. And this [is] junior high..."
"Sometimes I feel so frustrated at them not getting incredibly basic art concepts and techniques, such as copying a similar value/line/angle or whatever, then realize they can't even write a letter g correctly, and it makes sense.
"[It's] concerning, as this was not something that I dealt with 10 years ago outside of students with special needs. I have to use projects I used to do with middle schoolers [for] my high school classes. Projects I used to do with elementary are now used at the middle school level. It's sad and scary to see the regression."
7."Kids just seem dumber overall. Could be the area I teach in, but basic math and literacy skills have constantly trended downward here. We keep lowering the bar for interventions because we don't have enough spots if half the school needs math and reading support."
8."28 years of experience... It's genuine kindness. Kids are so much more kind now than they were when I started in the '90s."
"They are so accepting of kids of different races, gender identities, [and] intellectual differences like autism. 'Accepting' isn't even a strong enough word. Kids [who] would be in such different social circles due to peer pressure in the '90s are friends now. I'm a straight white guy [who] was in high school in the '80s. I wish I was brave enough then to be as kind as kids are now."
"I have plenty of complaints about phone addiction or the inability to multiply 5x4 without a calculator, but this is the most kind generation of students I've ever taught."
9."Level of curiosity... [it's] almost non-existent today. When I started in the '90s, there were always a handful of students in every class that wanted to know 'Why?' but in recent years, it's either 'Just tell me the answer' or 'Who cares? Just mark it wrong.'"
10."The kids at my current school [in the Deep South] are quantitatively, qualitatively, and gut-analytically much less intelligent [than those at my last school] in all respects. It's fascinating in a sad way."
"All humans are programmed to learn a language, so we all have the same machinery. But my former students believed in their machinery and my current ones don't — they just assume everything is too foreign and it's just funny and embarrassing to talk different."
11."When I sub, I rarely see students reading books or drawing for fun (even in art class); they mostly use their laptops/phones to listen to videos or play games. (With no headphones, of course — because fuck other people, right?)"
"But even more baffling are the ones who are told to put devices away [and] just sit in complete and total silence and do nothing but stare at the desk the entire class. They don't do worksheets, they don't do homework, they don't draw; nothing."
12."I can't show movies or videos anymore because it is all boring to them. It is boring because they have Netflix on their phone and they can watch whatever they want at any time. It isn't special to watch a movie."
"[They] have major trouble listening. I can give whole class instructions, but they don't listen. They have earbuds in or think it doesn't apply to them because there isn't an algorithmically generated content pop up for them."
13."Been teaching middle school for 12 years. Kids are now testing lower than ever. I’d say I have around 10-15 middle schoolers that are testing at a 1st-3rd grade level."
"Students also lack the ability to be resourceful and persevere. They give up the moment something gets too difficult. They can’t write and can barely hold a conversation. The parents are also getting lazier and dumber."
14."At the start of my career, on days leading up to and day of an assessment, my mornings would be absolutely devoured by students seeking extra help. Like, a full hour before the first bell I'd be circulating around answering questions and I would have to make a turn order and consolidate kids who had the same questions."
"Last three or so years? Absolutely silent. One kid might come in and ask me one question they didn't really need to ask and just want some reassurance."
15."I run a knitting and crochet group at the high school I work at. Most of the kids are interested in crochet. As I'm teaching them, I have noticed quite a few kids lack the fine motor skills to manipulate the crochet hook and yarn... like, way beyond the 'I'm a beginner' sort of mistakes one would expect to see."
16."Phone addiction. Their parents, too."
17."Started teaching in 2013. [The] biggest differences are phone/screen addiction, learned helplessness, and lack of accountability."
18."Year 22 starts in July. I don't know if I can put it in words, but there's an air that little children have: it's a combination of silliness, joy, fearlessness, creativity, curiosity, imagination, and sweetness. Occasionally some naughtiness creeps in but it's all very innocent."
"They want to climb the tree on the playground all by themselves and they want to know why that chrysalis didn't ever open. They jump up to do the silly dance and hold a friend's hand when they're nervous during a fire drill. They're excited when you hand them a new book, toy, or a piece of candy. They want to show you their new backpack and when you give them free choice time, they know exactly what to build or draw..."
"...I've taught K-1 most of my career and while many little kids still have all of these qualities, it's astonishing how many kids don't. You hand them a piece of paper and they say, 'I don't know what to draw,' or 'I don't like to color.'"
"You put on a silly dancing song and they not only refuse to stand up, they sit there whining 'This is BORING.' The water during science turns blue and they say 'Whatever.'
"I think they're growing up too fast... They're afraid of looking silly or getting dirty or drawing attention to themselves by asking a question. They'd rather be on their phones more than anything in the whole wide world, but since they're at school, a Chromebook will do. If they're asked to do something challenging or boring' they'll run to the counselor to complain about their big feelings so they can get access to a screen to 'calm down.'
"My kids are 5 to 8, generally, and they've just... lost a huge developmentally appropriate part of their childhoods. It's going to have long-lasting societal repercussions."
19."The maturity level has been reduced about three or four years since I started in 1990."
20."As an English as a foreign language teacher, here's a positive one: the internet/phones/tablets have made English accessible for EVERYONE."
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"Even in countries like Egypt where the parents speak no English at all, I'm noticing their kids have a great base level just from playing on their phones. It's pretty cool! Even young kids know quite a bit now."
21."Parents paid more attention to their kids 15 years ago. Now, they believe everything that comes out of their precious little mouths. For instance, I had to call a parent because Little Johnny had 10 missing assignments. I told her and explained that he needed to make a 70 to pass and probably wouldn’t with that amount of missing activities."
"She said that it would be taken care of. Then the next day [she] emailed me to say that Little Johnny told her he submitted everything and I refused to grade them.
"Why would I refuse to grade a kid's assignments? I’m 47."
22."Fine motor skill seems to be way down. I teach instrumental music, and kids [being able to figure] out where to put their fingers and how to maneuver them has gone way down since COVID."
"Actually glad to see this here... I'm a middle school band director and the quality of motor skills is way, way down. I have so many students who struggle to put their fingers in correct places on instruments, and even more who can't do that while trying to form embouchures at the same time, or at all. I am sure that instrumental education is dying at a rapid pace in public schools."
23."No one enjoys reading anymore. Reading for fun feels nonexistent right now. I have a lot of readers below grade level as well. I’m cleaning out my classroom library right now and I feel so sad that it’s been neglected all year."
24."I think they’re nicer and have more social awareness overall, but they’re still kids. The behaviors have gotten more extreme. 12 years ago I had a very small handful of students in residential treatment. Now it’s common to have multiple."
"These behaviors aren’t little things I can address in class, but take a crisis team and frequently police to restrain students because they’re a danger to themselves or others.
"Unfortunately, residential treatment most of the time is better than their regular life (warm, safe, clean, adults care for you, etc.)
"They don’t drink and drive nearly as much, less drugs, [and] vaping [is] still less common than smoking when I was in school. Overall I think they’re really good people who are just struggling with the reality of the world right now and [are] overwhelmed with information before their [minds are] able to process it in a healthy way."
25."I am a newer teacher, but just the past couple [of] years have shown me that parents DESPERATELY need better rules/boundaries when it comes to tech."
"Elementary schoolers don’t need brand new iPhones or to be playing video games for hours unsupervised. We have our own kiddo and I absolutely will not be giving her access to a smart phone until high school."
26.And, finally: "I’ve moved schools so I’m gonna have a rare opinion; they got much better in every area possible. Smarter, kinder, more respectful, self-aware, less entitled."
If you have thoughts, I'd love to hear them down below — especially if you work in education or if you're a parent. Or, if you prefer, you can tell me what you think via this anonymous Google Form. Who knows: your comment may be featured in an upcoming BuzzFeed Community post.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
