Adults these days
The problem is not kids these days
Adults endlessly complain about "kids these days." They bemoan the laziness of the current generation of youth, are disgusted by their feelings of entitlement, and poke fun at their fragility, their snowflake-like delicacy. Adults often express a sense of dread regarding what the world will be like once these kids become adults and are running the show (if they actually take on the task of running the show, that is).
Just yesterday, I overheard two patrons of the post office complaining about young people in the workplace. How they're only interested in punching a clock, walk around the office gossiping when they finish a task, and exert no initiative beyond the tasks they're given, which they complete with minimal effort.
I think the casual complaining needs to center around adults. The kids that everyone endlessly complains about were raised and taught by someone, after all.
A few weeks ago, while I was out to dinner with a group of friends (all hovering around age 40), the conversation shifted to what's going on in schools. One friend, who I'll call Jenny, has two daughters in middle school/early high school. Her and her husband had just moved their daughters out of one of the top-ranked school districts in her Midwestern state, located in a reasonably affluent suburb, to a nearby district. Families buy homes in her suburban town to ensure their kids can go to the top-ranked district, but after one of her daughters was video-recorded doing regrettable things, which was, of course, plastered across social media, and the other was struggling mentally, my friend and her husband decided that a move was the best course of action.
Particular social events triggered the move, but Jenny has long-complained about the district and the attitude and behaviors of the parents who send their kids there.
The district—remember, a top performing one—has low expectations for their students. Students have no deadlines for assignments, other than to turn in work by the end of the semester, and teachers are instructed not to penalize students for tardiness. At Jenny's daughters’ new school district, a small-town district, they do require work be turned in on time, as in within a day or a few days after the assignment is given, and tardiness comes with consequences.
Her daughters are struggling in the new district as well, but for a different reason. Before, stress was induced by having to complete a semesters-worth of work all at once. Keep in mind, these girls are teenagers with social lives, and despite Jenny's insistence that they stay on top of their assignments, of course, they waited until the end of the semester to complete them because that was the expectation created by their teachers. Now, in their new schools, stress is induced by the fact that they are faced with ongoing deadlines. In other words, they are learning how to adjust to adults expecting things of them.
Over dinner, Jenny also complained about the parents in the top-performing district. They didn't seem to care about what their kids were up to. They couldn't be bothered, according to Jenny, because they had their own social lives to attend to. The parents send their kids off to parties so they too can party. Another friend noted that a neighboring district, with a more even spread between low income and high income families, had similar issues with parents. Middle school administrators, teachers, and coaches had a difficult time reaching parents when issues arose. The parents just couldn't be bothered.
The parental issue seems to be generational: Do late Gen Xers/ early Millennials just not care? Is their attitude just "me, me, me?"
Jenny, who does not work in the field of education, blamed No Child Left Behind and the everyone-must-go-to-college culture for the lax expectations of students in schools. She thought that her district was lowering expectations to boost the number of students receiving high marks and graduating. Another friend whose kids attend an affluent suburban district in the same state has shared with me a similar take on why her kids are given too many chances to earn high marks.
These complaints seem to be a trend, and not just in that Midwestern state.
A few months back, another friend who lives and teaches in a suburb in the Northeast shared related concerns. He is a parent, and he also teaches Spanish in a relatively affluent district. Craig, I'll call him, was complaining about his district's "do no harm" policy, which instructs teachers not to count low scores on the state's high school graduation examine towards their final grade, which the district had previously done. In other words, if a student earns a score equivalent to a letter grade D or below the teacher is not to factor the exam score into their final grade. Whereas, if a student earns the equivalent to a letter grade A or B, they are to factor in the exam score. Craig remarked how ridiculous it is to classify this policy as doing no harm when the students are unlikely to receive such accommodations in college or the workforce. Having low expectations, in his mind, was setting the students up for failure. The policy will, indeed, do harm.
Media outlets are filled with stories about urban districts lowering their standards, thus expectations of their students, usually in the name of anti-racism. But the same approach, although for different given reasons, is happening in suburban districts. Certainly, sometimes these districts give anti-racism as an impetus, but other times they claim the approach is more student centered. Whatever the reason, it seems like adults have given up on young people and then are shocked when they don't seem interested in working hard or doing much with their life.
I am not in either the "rah-rah state exams!" or "yes, yes, dish out that homework!" camp, but doing away expectations and lowering the bar so much that students don't learn the joys of success or pains of failure is not a beneficial or empowering approach to education. The adults need to get over themselves and start expecting more of young people. The adults are the problem.