K-12: The Most Appalling Things About Today's Students

Our schools claim to teach sophisticated topics such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, the meaning of math, social emotional learning, and dozens of other buzzwords. Truth is, the schools hardly bother to teach even basic skills and foundational knowledge. Simultaneously, children are indulged and excused, which encourage the least desirable personal traits.

All of which explains the answers left by teachers (on an internet forum, Quora) when asked this question: what are the most appalling things about students nowadays?

“One of the big things that disappeared over the years from teenagers is common sense. Teens would do something really stupid, such as chugging down any number of foods in vast quantities and then whine and complain that they were sick to their stomach. ‘It’s not fair!’ they moaned.”

“The number of students with abnormally-short attention spans, a difficult time ‘settling down,’ and aversion to silence increases every year.”

“I had two girls who could not read the recipe clearly, which called for one and a quarter teaspoons of cinnamon in a recipe. They put in one and a quarter CUPS instead, an amount that is 48 times greater than what the recipe called for. The lack of common sense meant that they emptied our industrial-sized canister of cinnamon, and they didn’t see any problem with this.”

“Students today will wait until the day before then try to find a way to cheat, fail miserably and throw some random sh*t together in two hours and then complain because ‘It’s impossible to get good grades from you!’”

“How about the student who didn’t know how to peel a carrot? I showed her how to hold the peeler correctly against the carrot and work her way around the carrot to remove the outer layer. What I didn’t point out to her was to stop when she got all the way around. She kept on peeling until the entire carrot disappeared into the sink. I am not making this up.”

“I taught 7th grade science and (a couple years of) 8th grade science/history. What I found most appalling was the lack of basic knowledge in the students who entered my 7th grade classes. The worst part was they were just realizing that they didn’t know anything. When they figured out that they were not prepared for the level of rigor in the 7th grade classes at the junior high where I taught, it was actually heartbreaking to watch.”

“The students think they are entitled to an education without doing homework, studying for tests, or paying attention in class. 25% get an education and the rest waste their time and money. Truly pathetic young people.”

“I don’t think students realize how much of their lives they are wasting on their smartphones. Compared to the students I taught even 15 years ago, they are oblivious of the sky, of flowers or trees, or of any nature; they struggle with concentrated reading, group work, or even conversation. Change oil? Start a fire? Forget it. Students on the street looked at me like I was MacGyver when my bicycle’s chain fell off and I threaded it back on.”

“What I find distressing about many US students that I encounter is their lack of knowledge — and curiosity about — the world and history….They can tell me where all the bars are in town, but can’t find Norway, Pakistan, Chile, or South Korea on a map…with hints.”

“I teach high school. Some students lie like the rest of us breath. It is second nature. As a result I think that most teachers end up being very cynical whenever a student tells them anything. Me: John, stop poking Timmy. John (continuing to poke Timmy with his pen while I look right at him): I’m not!”

“I would say it is their lack of respect towards the teachers and fellow students that is the most appalling thing. Respect is a quality seriously lacking in today’s society! There once was a time…. we respected our teachers by our words and actions.”

“…it is clear that students’ attention spans have shortened over my 25 years of teaching. With notable exceptions, most students’ boredom threshold is lower nowadays.”

“I worked at the Los Angeles inner-city middle school about 10 years ago, and something that struck me is absurd was that virtually none of the students met grade level standards but still received A’s, B’s, and C’s!! The fact that almost nobody could do grade-level work was very embarrassing for the school and the school district; so for the politically expedient motive of wanting to make it look as though profound learning was taking place, there was extreme grade inflation.”

“They are surprised that the world doesn’t revolve around them! I am amazed how many kids have never been told no!”

“Speaking of students higher than middle school I think their most appalling trait in general is lack of basic cultural/historical knowledge.…I retired after teaching decades of ‘X’ers' who continued to be less and less prepared for college and more and more overly confident about their abilities. I think us ‘boomers’ did a disservice when we gave ‘everybody a trophy.’ In an effort to want the next generation to feel special, they become overly confident and difficult to teach.”

The situation is getting worse, if anything. The obvious solution is to back up 75 years and start doing school correctly. Teach basic skills. Teach foundational knowledge. Just as important, teach responsibility and self-discipline. To improve the schools, we need to get rid of the people now in charge, them and their phony ideas. Give children the proper education they are surely entitled to.

For contrast, consider "the strictest school in the UK.” Students are treated like recruits in basic training. But they seem to thrive. —

Sorry, I can't leave you alone. I clearly see that your approach is complementary to my approach. I couldn't hope to help a child with playing a musical instrument or making a piece of art. Both of our pathways are terribly important. Let me share some things with you, and then get back to this.

I retired from electronic and software engineering after 43 years in that career. All along I have been a woodworker and a metalworker. I have even made rockets from scratch as a hobby. After a short time in retirement I became very restless. I mentored the school's robotics team while my boys were there and a couple of years after that. I heard that the school was going to offer an Embedded Computing class; however, the teacher scheduled for the class had a heart attack and had to go on extended leave. I called the principle of the school and offered to teach the class.

In order to teach the class, I was issued a permit that put me into the classroom under the condition that I work toward earning a teaching certificate. Ok, off to the races. The school allowed me to purchase $12,000 worth of equipment and materials.

Teaching was very rewarding, but it is very difficult. One is expected to teach dullards through geniuses in the same class. That actually doesn't work, regardless what the pedagogy says. It had a good time, the students loved my class, and they learned things that were way outside their preexisting mindset. Numerous students told me that mine was the best class they had in all of high school and several told me that their life's goals became set upon taking that class. I really couldn't develop the horsepower to get a certificate, so after three years the certificate expired.

I learned some very important things. A teaching job is very difficult; and, teachers take a full workload home with them every night. Teachers are usually very competent; however, state and county rules interfere with their ability to teach effectively. The major thrust of administrative intervention is mitigating parental anger and readjusting continuously from lawsuits. Parents almost never get angry because the schoolwork is too easy or the state mandated curriculum is content-less. Parents sue because their baby thinks the work is too hard, or they didn't get a fair grade. Parents are the ones who push the educational standards down. After all, how is their pride and joy going to get that football scholarship if he gets kicked of the the team for having terrible math grades?

Another thing I observed was that curriculum is established at the state level and then mandated down to the schools. Those in the education department have doctorate degrees in education, but have no knowledge in the subject areas. That upper hierarchy is an interesting set of interlocking fiefdoms, quite impenetrable from down below. This is the source of the degradation in the quality of our Nation's educational system.

My question to you is, "How do we fix our Nation's educational system in order to maximize the quality of education for all?". (After using compiled computer languages for so long, nested punctuation marks for normal grammar bewilders me.) For the sake of this argument, please assume that homeschooling is off the table. Most parents couldn't do it.

The fix:

Literally,....Within seconds of our state’s governor closing the schools, texts notifying parents of “pop-up” camps for working moms and dads from my grandsons’ karate and boxing studios appeared in my daughter’s text stream. Yes! Seconds!

If government schooling were to suddenly disappear how long would it take those studios to hire teachers and offer extended daycare? My guess?... About 1 minute.

The fix is to begin the process of privatizing K-12 schooling beginning with tax credits and vouchers. The ideal would be to work toward having no government involvement in schooling.

Do you think that there could be robotics teams and science fairs organized privately or by the departments of parks and recreation? Could the county parks systems take over the responsibility of running children’s orchestras, theater, and team sports? Yes, of course they could!

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