By Alicia Polson
By Now, you’ve probably heard all manner of things about today’s generation (both younger Gen Z and all of Gen Alpha): a comment on a Reddit post about how they’re too sensitive, a remark by a relative about how they don’t want to work (even though there are various hurdles now compared to when they were young) and a lecture by your teacher about how they feel as if they don’t have to learn (speaking from personal experience). I, being a 16 year old Gen Z myself, feel very…off, so to say about this. On one hand, I feel as if older millennials and beyond that are a bit too harsh on these new generations, since they are the ones responsible for raising us, and causing us to turn out this way. But on the other hand, as the child of two teachers–my father in particular teaching 5th grade, and hearing stories on how ‘disrespectful’ kids today are, there are some points I agree with. Often times I’ve wondered what’s going to happen to the younger generations in this new age of technology, and if they’re even going to be able to read, since this video here: Gen Alpha Can’t Read And It’s Worse Than You Think and various other studies have shown that media literacy is lowering steadily in Gen Alpha. So, being surrounded by teachers; the ones partially responsible for our futures for 8 hours a week, I decided to interview them about the state of modern education and how it’s changed over the years, as well as how kids are now compared to…let’s say 10-15 years ago. I interviewed 5 teachers across the physical education, history, english and art departments. Here are their responses:
Q: So you’ve been teaching for 11 years. Do you feel like children are re-educating themselves when it comes to history if they’ve missed anything due to previous curriculums?
Ms. Stapp (US 1+2, Pre APUSH teacher): The students I interact with, at least from what I see in the classroom, don’t seem to explore history outside of the classroom, they just follow the lesson plan.
Q: In several studies, there have been claims that media literacy and reading comprehension have taken a sharp decline. How do you feel about this and what can be done to prevent this?
Mr. Novak (English 1, AP Seminar, Honors English 2 teacher), : Most high school English classes have a strong focus on fiction, which isn’t without its value, but there should be a 50/50 split between fiction and non-fiction.
Q: You’re the Women’s Studies teacher, as well as the Gay Straight Alliance advisor, and you’ve been a teacher for the past…18 or so years, correct? The landscape of queer rights and attitudes towards queer people in the US have changed in that time. Do you think teenagers today are more LGBTQ friendly now?
Ms. Jensen (Women’s Studies, English 3 and 4 enriched teacher): I would say students are much more accepting and supportive and aware of issues that might affect the LGBTQ community and they accept it much more as who people are rather than seeing members of the LGBTQ community as being some sort of unusual occurrence.
Q: It seems that just yesterday, schools and parents across the country were freaking out about a childhood obesity epidemic, swapping chips out for fruit and sodas out for water and placing an emphasis on physical exercise for children, but today discussions around it have been non-existent. Do you think the rates for childhood obesity have gone down, or have they gone up? And if the rates have gone up, what can be done to fix this?
Mrs. Nicoletta (Physical education and Drivers Education Teacher): I think the rates have gone down, yeah, now that we have a lot more information about it.
Q: As an art teacher, how do you feel about the emphasis schools place on math, science and sports over visual and performing arts? And do you think the phrase “School kills artists” is still relevant?
Mr. Chauvette (Drawing 1 & 2, Ceramics 1&2, Animation teacher): Um…I think we have a healthy balance, I think ultimately it comes down to what we’re all interested in. Education is about balance, you know? As for school killing artists, not necessarily, no. I think school is good for learning about the foundations of art, and outside is good for exploring art and your interests within it. However, if you tell your teachers what you like, maybe they’ll be more inclined to help you with what you like.
Sources:
Gen Alpha Can’t Read And It’s Worse Than You Think
Prevalence of Obesity in the United States, 2009–2010
Further reading:
The Drumbeat 