As one of the first generators to grow up with social media as a fact of life from the moment they were born, Gen Alpha have recently come under some scrutiny over some reports that they don’t engage with text or algebra the way previous generations did. But is there any truth to this?
Someone asked “Teachers, Is the “Gen Alpha can't read (write, or do math, etc)" crisis real? If so, how bad is it?” and they weighed in with their experiences. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote the most interesting responses and be sure to add your own thoughts and observations to the comments down below.
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#41
High School teacher.
Yes.
Students failing a class is by no means uncommon, it happens and there are supports to help with that.
Students should not be failing because they lack the fundamental skills necessary to survive *high school*. What I mean by that is they are failing classes because they cannot read or write full stop.
Some of the questions I have had alone just this year:
* What does "reverse" mean? I've never seen that word.
* I want to help clean up algay in the ocean.
* This is an example of hyperbowl
Other issues include:
* Students who cannot add basic fractions in high school.
* Students who don't know how to take a note. I mean they literally have nothing in their bag and when I am teaching, they will literally sit there staring at me as if this knowledge will just absorb into them via osmosis.
* Students who are genuinely shocked that I do not allow repeats for assignments I already cannot give deadlines for. In that they will hand in trash to me, I give them the failing grade and then they go "so I can do it again"
* Students take 2 weeks to write *a paragraph* in grade 11 and 12. These are not outliers either, this is the majority.
* Students handing in badly written tasks and asking if I think they will do well on it. I'm genuinely serious in that they are handing in sketches to me that have *none* of my checklisted items on it, I give them a literal checklist to check off their work and they will *still* not do it.
* I have grade 9 students who are *using their finger* to read my assignments.
* I have kids who would struggle reading even *half* of this and *most* would not even read up to this point.
So when I see a question of "is this crisis real" and "how bad is it?"
Yes it is real.
Yes it is bad.
Boomers often joked about how millennials and the next generation would be doomed because we don't know how to do anything.
I have kids that take *3 days* to tighten 2 bolts in auto class. Another teacher had to ban two of his classes from his actual auto shop because they could not pass the safety test.
Why?
Because they literally couldn't understand the question.
We are so colossally doomed in the next 20 years, I cannot even joke. Parents please reinforce with your children to read and write and do basic math.
My job as a teacher is to teach, your job is to reinforce what we do at school through homework and modeling.
Yes.
Students failing a class is by no means uncommon, it happens and there are supports to help with that.
Students should not be failing because they lack the fundamental skills necessary to survive *high school*. What I mean by that is they are failing classes because they cannot read or write full stop.
Some of the questions I have had alone just this year:
* What does "reverse" mean? I've never seen that word.
* I want to help clean up algay in the ocean.
* This is an example of hyperbowl
Other issues include:
* Students who cannot add basic fractions in high school.
* Students who don't know how to take a note. I mean they literally have nothing in their bag and when I am teaching, they will literally sit there staring at me as if this knowledge will just absorb into them via osmosis.
* Students who are genuinely shocked that I do not allow repeats for assignments I already cannot give deadlines for. In that they will hand in trash to me, I give them the failing grade and then they go "so I can do it again"
* Students take 2 weeks to write *a paragraph* in grade 11 and 12. These are not outliers either, this is the majority.
* Students handing in badly written tasks and asking if I think they will do well on it. I'm genuinely serious in that they are handing in sketches to me that have *none* of my checklisted items on it, I give them a literal checklist to check off their work and they will *still* not do it.
* I have grade 9 students who are *using their finger* to read my assignments.
* I have kids who would struggle reading even *half* of this and *most* would not even read up to this point.
So when I see a question of "is this crisis real" and "how bad is it?"
Yes it is real.
Yes it is bad.
Boomers often joked about how millennials and the next generation would be doomed because we don't know how to do anything.
I have kids that take *3 days* to tighten 2 bolts in auto class. Another teacher had to ban two of his classes from his actual auto shop because they could not pass the safety test.
Why?
Because they literally couldn't understand the question.
We are so colossally doomed in the next 20 years, I cannot even joke. Parents please reinforce with your children to read and write and do basic math.
My job as a teacher is to teach, your job is to reinforce what we do at school through homework and modeling.
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#42
My step-son just graduated high school. He has *never* read a book. Never. Not a single one. Not even Dr. Seuss. Nothing.
Schools never assigned readings and almost every paper he had to "write" was a group project that the team leader would essentially write themselves.
On the other hand, his half-sister started reading a little early, finished all the Harry Potter books by age 8, and loves writing.
It's a combination of lazy parenting and schools not assigning proper reading guidance, IMO. .
Schools never assigned readings and almost every paper he had to "write" was a group project that the team leader would essentially write themselves.
On the other hand, his half-sister started reading a little early, finished all the Harry Potter books by age 8, and loves writing.
It's a combination of lazy parenting and schools not assigning proper reading guidance, IMO. .
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