Representatives of the so-called Alpha generation—that is, in fact, modern youth—have only quite recently received their generally accepted nickname and have already been honored with a whole range of opinions about themselves, with points of view ranging from enthusiastic to condescending and even sometimes dismissive.

Some people say that this is the most creative and talented generation in the entire history of observations, while others are rather horrified that they simply dramatically lack the most ordinary and necessary knowledge and skills. So our selection today is based precisely on the opinions of the second category.

More info: Reddit

Read More: 33 Disturbing Stories Told By Educators Exposing Alpha Gens’ Total Lack Of Basic Life Skills

#1

I’ve taught 9-12th for the last 9 years. The scariest thing for me is they can’t THINK. Problem solving, trouble shooting, reasoning… there are so many kids who have little processing power, and it seems to be getting rapidly worse in the last couple of years.

I think it’s Tiktok; they don’t even have time to think about the bite-size piece of media they just consumed before the next one is up.

Image credits: UniqueUsername82D

#2

Teacher friend told me that for years she’s been seeing ability to interact with technology decline. She says a lot of her students now basically have the same ability to solve problems on a computer that you’d expect from your grandparents. I suspect growing up in the very curated world of tablets and apps has allowed them to skip all the trouble shooting lessons millennials had to learn on old computers and the early internet.

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#3

A friend is a music teacher in high school. He said that he hasn’t observed gen-alpha brain rot in his students.  He thinks it’s specifically because music is an antidote for brain rot — it encourages patience and attentiveness.

Image credits: lucianw

#4

I wanted to be a teacher and student taught in an area where mommy and daddy felt like their little monsters were always right. I had one parent call up the board to get me dismissed – all 7 members – because her child didn’t feel challenged enough in class. My students were freshman and as an introductory exercise to The House on Mango Street, I asked the kids to illustrate what their ideal home would look like. That was it. That was what was so offensive to the child that the parent called for my immediate removal. She never called me directly to discuss that she was upset. I had to hear it from the principal since she hung up on me when I called to ask her what I had done wrong. When I told her kid I had no problem giving him more challenging assignments, he balked stating he wasn’t interested in working harder. I asked him then what his intention was in getting me fired? He shut up and didn’t complain ever again after that.

I had another kid who cheated. I caught her and told her she needed to take her zero and wished her good luck in summer school. The parents insisted I provide a make up opportunity and I refused. She got the principal and assistant principal involved. Kid ended up failing the class and going to summer school.

I finished my student teaching successfully and bowed out. If this was a glimpse into my professional life, it wasn’t for me. The pay isn’t enough to raise other people’s garbage children.

Image credits: I_need_a_date_plz

#5

I teach highschool math. I’ve encountered many students who were operating at maybe a 2nd grade level of math.

Seniors who couldn’t do 2×3 in their heads.

Juniors who didn’t know what a square root was.

Seniors who couldn’t solve for x in x + 1 = 8.

Freshmen who couldn’t ADD OR SUBTRACT

I had one sophomore this year who could not wrap her mind around “20 more than” in a certain type of problem. I tried for a few minutes before saying “let’s say you and I go into a store. I’m going to buy some number of apples and you plan on buying 20 more apples than what I buy. If I buy 5 apples, how many would you buy?” ….”20?”.

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#6

I asked an undergraduate student for their opinion on a text, they pulled out their phone, typed my question into ChatGPT and then read aloud the answer it gave.

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#7

I had a pre-k student whose speech was unintelligible. He could not communicate. So I told his mom he needed to be tested for speech therapy and she replied,”Awww, so he wont baby talk anymore? I’m gonna miss hearing that!”.

Image credits: Scottishdog1120

#8

Currently studying to be a teacher. In one of my in-school placements, I had students come up to me and ask what time it was. I would always look at the clock on the wall, that they had clear view of, and tell them the time. None of the kids (12-14 year olds) knew how to read a clock. I even explained how to read it to a few of them and they looked at me like I had two heads.

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#9

High school student asked me what it means to “put it in his own words” instead of copying and pasting. .

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#10

My friend teaches 5th grade. He’s just now getting the kids that were learning to read when covid happened.

He said several of them can’t tell time. On a digital clock.

Image credits: THE_GR8_MIKE

#11

They’re not good at problem solving or self reflection. And they struggle to pay attention. You ask them a question, and they look at you like you’re going to spoon feed them the answers. There’s no initiative. No drive. No curiosity.

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#12

One of my fourth graders was provisionally promoted from third grade in the middle of the school year. He was reading at a first grade level when he arrived in my class. He hit his 14-day suspension cap quickly because he was constantly fighting with other kids instead of actually trying to learn. The guidance counselor pulled him out to do a therapeutic art project one afternoon. That’s how we discovered that he doesn’t know his shapes either. It was one of the worst cases of educational neglect that I’ve seen. Of course, the parent was upset that her kid was not on honor roll and demanded to know why he was failing every subject. Oh yeah, the regional superintendent overruled us and promoted him to fifth grade.

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#13

Elementary PE teacher here. The amount of children biting when angry is terrifying. I have several that will chase a kid down after they’ve been wronged, grab their arm, and bite them like a dog. So far they’re all under 7, but I’m up to four in different classes. That’s a specific problem, I’ll add that in general we are doomed.

Image credits: krazycatlady21

#14

My mom and her sister worked in education for a long time. They both retired around ten years ago, but as they were getting closer to retirement, every year they’d say, “The kids and parents are worse every year.” I believe that. I spent a brief time working in adult probation – a lot of kids with parents who enable them end up there. I dealt with so many parents of young adults who would call and try to schedule probation appointments for their “kid”. They’d be furious when we told them no, their kid needed to do it themselves. They’d try to come to probation appointments with them. They’d say stuff like “you mean their ALLEGED crime” and I’d correct them and say, “It’s not alleged once you’re convicted.” You’d meet or talk to these parents and feel sort of sorry for these people. Their kids had no chance with parents like that.

So many parents today only want their kid to be “happy” but in reality, they have no idea what it takes to make a person happy. They says these younger people are all anxious and depressed…clearly being poorly educated, unable to solve basic problems, or understanding how to function successfully in an already hard world doesn’t make a person happy! But parents insist that they send their kid to school in bubble wrap to make sure no one pops and of their bubbles and send them back exactly the same. Their kids are miserable, emotionally stunted, and totally unprepared for reality as a result. But no one wants to seriously talk about the fact that is 100% the parents who are the problem. You can have all the school funding on earth but if you are serving parents who want a nannies and not educators you end up where we are.

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#15

More hilarious than terrifying. My good friend is a high school teacher, usually teaching Seniors. One day she gave a research assignment about the Legend of Sleepy Hallow. One of the papers she had gotten back really confused her because it started going off about mysteries and time travel. Then it hit her, this student had done the old “Look up the Wikipedia article and write about that” but had accidentally pulled up the 2013 show.

Image credits: wolfeyes555

#16

I was an elementary school sub for many years. Phonics is no longer taught in our district, and they don’t do math drills in class – it’s all supposed to be done at home by the parents, and that doesn’t happen. So the kids don’t have the muscle-memories in place with the basics, which prevents them from being able to think through the rest of the problem. Plus, our district bought into this concept of “spiral” math, where the kids are introduced to high math concepts (like negative numbers) each year starting in first grade, but they don’t go into depth with the basics. They see the same concept again the next year, and they still don’t get it. And so on until middle school. By then they’ve decided math is a mysterious black hole, they hate it, and they’re going to avoid it whenever possible. It made teaching so frustrating, and it was awful to see the sheer dread and confusion on their faces whenever math was taught. We can do better.

Image credits: Imagination_hat

#17

Only 27% of the incoming 6th graders at the local middle school are proficient in math skills. Also, next to zero problem solving skills or critical thinking skills, like a “do it for me” or “I’m just not doing that 🤷‍♀️” mindset for school work. You can turn in zero work for a class and get passed through. We don’t require motivation anymore. Edit to add: for reference on how disturbing the math percentage is: 6th grade math skills would include basic work with fractions, finding averages of a group of numbers, reading a graph or chart, basic decimal operations, finding percents, etc. We give multiplication charts now instead of memorizing your basic multiplication facts.

Image credits: wanderingsoul420666

#18

One of my ex’s had an 11 year old daughter that couldn’t read. I was flabbergasted when she went to the bathroom then asked which was the hand sanitizer and which was the hand soap. They were both in their original labeled bottles…

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#19

During a project week we had a first grader who could barely speak our national language, barely his mother tongue but he spoke in memes like a pro.

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#20

I teach college. The number of students that can’t compose a basic research paper is depressing. I had one student research a company but the company’s name changed a few years prior. Clearly she was plagiarising from an earlier student’s paper. I told her over and over, company A is now called company B; by calling it company A it is clear that you have not even visited the company’s current website (a requirement for the paper). She ignored me and stuck with calling it company A and failed.

Image credits: Expensive_Structure2

#21

I work for a school transportation department and when I’m not in the office, I’m a “permanent substitute” who fills in for absent bus drivers. Each bus is parked in the same “lane” at the schools every single day, regardless of who is driving. Most students walk up to the bus and if they see it isn’t their regular driver, they look around in horror and start wandering around aimlessly. I tell them every time it will be in the same lane regardless of driver, but I can drive the same route once or twice every week and the same clueless kids will back up and wander around every time. If the rare observant kid doesn’t intercept them and redirect, dismissal gets held up while administrators search for the right bus. It doesn’t help that many of them don’t know their address or subdivision. High school is the worst about it! I have done this for 11 years and it gets worse every single year – and I drive for some of the top academic schools in the state.

Image credits: oldatheart515

#22

Not in my class but JUST YESTERDAY we were at a coffee shop and two of the girls didn’t recognize a quarter. One asked the other, “is this a nickel? Wait, is a nickel only 5 cents?” Then tried to flag us down for stiffing them and I said, “a quarter is 25 cents.” How did they get the job as cashiers? We’re doomed.

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#23

Gen Z + not a teacher

sometimes i’m absolutely baffled by the lack of reading comprehension, work ethic and critical thinking skill among my own peers. how in god’s green earth is it getting worse?

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#24

We had a kid who didn’t know that deserts were dry.

Also hardly any of them know the difference between vowels and consonants. Thanks, Lucy Calkins!

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#25

I always think these stories are exaggerated, but I teach private piano lessons and had a 9/10yo girl a few months back who admitted that she couldn’t read her (very basic) beginner level music theory book, nor could she write very well. First time I’ve seen it in person after decades of teaching.

Image credits: KCPianist

#26

Not a teacher but when I was at trade school for my electrical certification the amount of high schoolers who came straight into trade school and couldn’t do basic math or read the provided work books and retain the most basic info was insane.

By the end of the first semester 50% of them couldn’t tell you what voltage even was, and 80% couldn’t calculate voltage and current or resistance (it’s literally a formula V=IR that you just plug the numbers into and get the answer)

The second semester left us with a class of 3 high schoolers who had good heads on them and the rest were like me 25-40 year olds who were changing careers.

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