I'm sorry but a child reaching freshmen year with their documentation that shows they are developmentally at a third grade level for reading and writing is unteachable. I know that may be a crazy opinion but I've never seen it this bad till this year.
Half a co-taught class developmentally 6 years behind where they should be. My co-teacher is losing their mind. I'm losing my mind. We're doing stories that are 3 pages long and they forget what was 1 paragraph before. They don't know how to operate a google document. Many have lost their homework sheets in their folder less book bags.
I don't even really know the other half of my class since I have no time to talk to the students who are demonstrating the basic ability to follow a 2 step direction since I'm busy putting the fire extinguisher to other half who seemingly have never been told to do anything their entire life.
I cannot scaffold things any lower without it literally being a third grade level class. One child literally had documentation showing they don't understand that stories begin and end.
Our biggest challenge of the year so far was writing a singular scaffolded paragraph with sentence starters based off a short story. Multiple paragraphs contained characters that simply did not exist in the story.
I'm losing my brain
Long Covid?
If I were to guess, these kids aren’t trying because businessmen aren’t trying anymore. The whole point of education is for jobs, and employers have proudly announced time and time again just how satisfied they are with the workers they got, they don’t even need to make jobs anymore.
These younger students likely know many older siblings or cousins that did go through college and are now basement dwellers because no one’s hiring. Ergo, why would they take school seriously if even when you do well, you’ll be treated like you failed? Same logic why we have so little people actively trying to become actors in Hollywood, because only a tiny 0.000001% of the people that go for it will be successful. Now all industries have the Hollywood logic: if you’re not a nepo baby, forget it you’ll be lucky to even wash dishes no matter how well you do.
TL;DR: With business owners just kicking back and refusing to ever lift a finger to put people to work, even children understand that they’re doomed and react to this nihilistic culture.
Nah, I don't think they're that aware of the job market. I think everything these days is slop and kids are fed gallons of it from the day they're born, and use AI instead of thinking critically. Their parents are probably in a similar boat.
I think the polycrisis, or whatever it's best called, makes most issues have like a dozen interlocking and self reinforcing causes and effects. The nihilism in culture makes us hedonistic and slop oriented which makes us dumber which makes us unfulfilled which makes depressed which makes us hedonistic and so on with every issue. Kids can definitely see there being no good future for the Great Satan.