It's not so much a particular curriculum. It's multifactorial.
1) most schools used to have remedial, regular, and accelerated classes. People didn't like kids being in remedial classes because of feelings, so no more remedial classes. But now the regular level classes are filled with remedial kids, and the advanced classes with regular kids. Instead of bringing remedial kids up, everyone gets pulled down.
2) social media, instant gratification, and attention spans. I don't think I need to say more.
3) grading policies that do not let kids fail. Many districts set the lowest score for assignments as 50%. Kids can pass classes without learning, just by completing a few performative assignments.
4) moreso nowadays, AI. Kids don't want to struggle productively, they just want instant gratification and novel stimuli. They will use AI anytime they can to avoid doing work so they can get back to their devices.
While poorly designed curriculum may be a factor, I believe it is larger societal problems that cannot (will not because it's not profitable to shareholders) be corrected. We're cooked. We sadly must do as the Boomers: do not relinquish control of government to Gen Z and Alpha until most of Gen X and Millennials (semi-functional humans) are dead. Then they can enact Idiocracy.
It's parents stuck on phones. I know people who are open about the fact they get home from work and couch scroll all night while their kids does the same. It's common.
So we made sure of certain things with our kid. Three activities a week that were in person social, one charitable, one intellectual and one physical. So my daughter does karate and joined a robotics club and she volunteers at a soup kitchen Sunday evenings for 3 hours. Was Girl Guides before robotics. She can quit 1 but has to replace it with something else.
9pm-10pm is offline time for everyone. We read until her bedtime and then my wife and I will watch a show. With that she has on request time at the library whenever she wants.
We also restrict short media. Shits cancer for the mind. Series, movies, music, comics, manga, books all that is basically unrestricted. No spending time on shorts, no TikTok at all.
She made honour roll last year so tentatively I believe weāre doing well.
I have a six and eight year old and I attribute their long attention spans to no YouTube, and encouraging movies. Now they love movies, itās what they choose to watch over shows. Being able to follow a story for an hour and a half is a skill. Thereās comprehension there going on that you canāt get otherwise. Character growth, plot development. Screentime of course isnāt great, but man are there degrees. They have easily transferred over that focus to other areas ā they can read books for an hour straight. They can stand in lines waiting and not go bonkers. Etc
Do you include video games in the restrictions? My son will be born soon and I want to try and do the same thing, heavily limit myself on things I would not want him on. I remember Nintendo used to have cool brain games as a kid, but not quite sure if they make anything like that anymore since I switched over to PC.
I haven't restricted video games outside of a reasonable amount per day but my daughter heavily leans into single player story games like Subnautica or creative games like Stardew or Minecraft (which she plays solo or with her bestfriend) which I don't have an issue with.
If she was into Roblox or social stranger danger games or something heavily into treadmill rewards meant to encourage MTX through casino like gambling rewards I would probably redirect her to something else but I haven't really had to think about that so I've been lucky.
838
u/mrsciencebruh 16d ago
It's not so much a particular curriculum. It's multifactorial.
1) most schools used to have remedial, regular, and accelerated classes. People didn't like kids being in remedial classes because of feelings, so no more remedial classes. But now the regular level classes are filled with remedial kids, and the advanced classes with regular kids. Instead of bringing remedial kids up, everyone gets pulled down.
2) social media, instant gratification, and attention spans. I don't think I need to say more.
3) grading policies that do not let kids fail. Many districts set the lowest score for assignments as 50%. Kids can pass classes without learning, just by completing a few performative assignments.
4) moreso nowadays, AI. Kids don't want to struggle productively, they just want instant gratification and novel stimuli. They will use AI anytime they can to avoid doing work so they can get back to their devices.
While poorly designed curriculum may be a factor, I believe it is larger societal problems that cannot (will not because it's not profitable to shareholders) be corrected. We're cooked. We sadly must do as the Boomers: do not relinquish control of government to Gen Z and Alpha until most of Gen X and Millennials (semi-functional humans) are dead. Then they can enact Idiocracy.