Mathematics, reading skills in unprecedented decline in teenagers

[Professor Emeritus]

Factor that in with the fact that compulsory schooling was never intended to provide the best schooling. Its largely a mechanism to ensure the proletariat can work production based jobs without worry of child care. Wonder what happens when the average worker is experiencing ennui and apathy about their place in the world?

Overall, America has never addressed the context of our education system and its coming back to bite us.

Think about how much things have evolved in the last 150 years. 'Modern' schooling hasn't changed since the end of the industrial revolution. Which make sense because it was built with what was learned during the industrial revolution and to prepare workers for jobs in 'industry'.

They standardized everything in order to produce disciplined and punctual kids who could do math and write a coherent letter in cursive.

The education system needs to be changed. Dramatically. I whole heartedly believe in vocational education that's competency based education and micro credentials. The highly motivated student with resources are going to do well regardless of where they are educated. Middling students have a chance to make a decent life for themselves. And the kids with no role models resources or motivation are fukkED.

I 100% agree with both of you and part of my career revolves around trying to change this.

I also 100% agree with the people who say we need more education support and more teacher support, as the article showed.

The thing is, those structural problems with education have been around over 100 years. We're only now seeing these big drops because a flawed structure is falling victim to a perfect enemy. It's like we're the Aztecs, our crumbling education system is their crumbling society, and the mobile phones are Cortez.

 

[Ethnic Vagina Finder]

Blame hip hop culture

 

[NinoBrown]

Stupid is as stupid does!!!

 

[Geek Nasty]

Read and learning are not valued. What's the most common thing you hear on the internet "I ain't reading all of that"Nobody wants to figure things out.

Breh nobody wants to read your 20 page article dumps without a summary. Im not getting paid to be here.

 

[010101]

fates sealed..........*

 

[bnew]

 

[NinoBrown]

Ah, future generations and permenant underclass he we come...

Pay 60k for college and still get stuck on "The Little Engine That Could" lol

Republicans are purely to blame for this nightmare...

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Even if you assign the book, what are your chances that they'll read it? They get home and have the choice between going on their phone and reading the book, how many are going to actually devote the hours necessary to read the book? Screw that, they're on their phones.

Homework is utterly disappearing in low-performing schools, and it's not because it's too hard or anything else about it.....the kids just straight WON'T do it because their phone addiction always defeats all enemies.

 

[Spiider]

Even if you assign the book, what are your chances that they'll read it? They get home and have the choice between going on their phone and reading the book, how many are going to actually devote the hours necessary to read the book? Screw that, they're on their phones.

Homework is utterly disappearing in low-performing schools, and it's not because it's too hard or anything else about it.....the kids just straight WON'T do it because their phone addiction always defeats all enemies.

I think the problem is the types of books that they usually assign kids to read. I always loved reading book but back in school even I didn’t enjoy the stuff that they assigned us. Analyzing books and understanding the themes isn’t that hard, but the teachers went so in depth with it that it took the fun out of things.

I always assumed that a lot of other students thought analyzing every detail was how you were supposed to read and didn’t bother reading for fun because they didn’t know that was even an option. We read a lot of classics and they thought the language was dry and boring and just looked up the Sparknotes instead of reading. If they want kids to read without struggling then maybe they could assign more modern books instead of only reading classics.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

I think the problem is the types of books that they usually assign kids to read. I always loved reading book but back in school even I didn’t enjoy the stuff that they assigned us. Analyzing books and understanding the themes isn’t that hard, but the teachers went so in depth with it that it took the fun out of things.

That may have been the problem somewhere, at some time. It's not the problem now.

A huge proportion of kids right now have zero desire to read anything about anything. Maybe there was an age where they could have caught the "book" bug, but they literally will not read if TikTok is available now. Not about any subject at all.

 

[Spiider]

That may have been the problem somewhere, at some time. It's not the problem now.

A huge proportion of kids right now have zero desire to read anything about anything. Maybe there was an age where they could have caught the "book" bug, but they literally will not read if TikTok is available now. Not about any subject at all.

I didn’t know it was that bad

What about comics? A lot of kids like anime. So maybe teachers could give them some famous graphic novels to read to show them that reading is fun and ease them into reading regular novels

 

[Professor Emeritus]

I didn’t know it was that bad

Man, I always have a classroom library for students. My biggest problem 20 years ago was having to replace books cause students would borrow them and then never return them. That's not a worry anymore because no one EVER checks out anything anymore. I have maybe 300 books in my class bookshelf, very diverse mix of pop fiction for all ages (targeted to middle school, high school, young adult and adult), science fiction, classic black fiction, black history, nonfiction classics both old and new......I think I've had ONE student check out a book in the last few months. I can only remember 1-2 others even LOOKING at the book shelf. They just do not give a shyt about reading anymore.

What about comics? A lot of kids like anime. So maybe teachers could give them some famous graphic novels to read to show them that reading is fun and ease them into reading regular novels

The kids I see reading comics are the same elite deeper thinkers who I would expect/hope to read books. The vast majority of kids are gonna ignore comics for the same reason they're ignoring books. It's still more effort / slower pace / less swiping than online social media.

One of the biggest issues is that social media and other gamified online activities give a constant dopamine hit. They get exactly what they want when they want it, and if they're bored for 5 seconds then they swipe away to something else. What happens when the comic book is boring for 5 seconds? They set it down and pick up their phones.

I was at a school movie night the other night. Out of a couple hundred kids there, I would estimate that less than 20% were watching the movie at any given time. The rest were on their phones or recording themselves making TikToks. I doubt even 5% watched the movie through. And it was a recent, highly tense action-filled thriller with almost no "down time" or slow parts. But it required attention....and these kids can't hold attention on anything for shyt.

 

[Amestafuu (Emeritus)]

Education is a pursuit and it's proven there's it's hard to reach anyone that doesn't want to learn. The issue is that the value for learning is in decline. And yes some people will be permanently under classed. by this as we go into peak technological era. Coli told me to blame teachers. Keep playing the blame game fools. Nobody gonna look for the teacher when your kid can't read or do math. That's on YOU.

 

[NinoBrown]

Education is a pursuit and it's proven there's it's hard to reach anyone that doesn't want to learn. The issue is that the value for learning is in decline. And yes some people will be permanently under classed. by this as we go into peak technological era. Coli told me to blame teachers. Keep playing the blame game fools. Nobody gonna look for the teacher when your kid can't read or do math. That's on YOU.

What's wild is 18th century peasants were probably more educated than 1st world American students in the 21st century...

 

[The Prince of All Saiyans]

Math I understand but reading?