Gen Alpha Can't Read And It's Worse Than You Think

#genalpha #genalphacantread #teachershortage

Teachers have recently gone viral after sharing that many of their Gen Alpha students are not performing on grade level. Technology and the pandemic are a cause that is being cited, with many dubbing Gen Alpha "the iPad generation" or "iPad kids." But in this video, I discuss some of the other reasons that children are falling short in the classroom.

Sources:
U.S. reading and math scores drop to their lowest levels in decades

The ADA Has Fallen Short for Black Students. It’s Past Time to Fix That

Study: Black students less likely to be identified as having disabilities

The Children Left Behind

Kids are growing up in a very online world. What’s a concerned parent to do?

Majority-Black school districts have far less money to invest in buildings — and students are feeling the impact

School Districts That Serve Students of Color Receive Significantly Less Funding

New Federal Report: Half of Public School Students Are Now Performing Below Grade Level

How ‘Reading Instruction’ Fails Black And Brown Children

[meatcandlepoeple]

I'm 18 and I have a Gen Alpha brother who's 7. My parents barely try when it comes to educating him when compared to me when I was his age. They don't even bother teaching him how to do certain things on his own that which they taught me even earlier.

They told me the main reason why they gave my brother his own tablet was because everyone else got their kid one. Freaking crowd followers.

[dddish]

I used to work as a martial arts instructor

The most flabbergasting effect I ever had On a kid was the parents disbelief when I expected them to Read

I insisted and basically strong armed the parents Into actually sitting down and reading for their child

They were startled With the changes that came out over the next few months

They were reading better
They were behaving better
They were listening

Parents matter so much and they often undresstimate how much they mean to their kids

[johnsmith]

“Some of y’all never spent a summer reading so you can get a personal pan pizza at the Hut. And it shows.”

[LDSVenus]

My grandson was struggling with reading in the 6th grade and doing book reports, so I told my daughter she would instruct him tho come to my house after school (I live 1/2 block from his school). I instructed him to get a book he thought would be interesting and bring it to my house after school. I was appalled at his reading level. He absolutely hated reading, but I told him if you want to play football you have to be able to read, no wonder he hated reading because he couldn’t read well. I started off reading a paragraph, he had to follow the words I was reading so he could see and hear the words as I read. He read the next few sentences with my help as I taught him how to sound out the words he didn’t know and teach him some of the English language rules so he could sound them out. By the end of 6th grade he discovered the kind of books he enjoyed more, still didn’t enjoy reading but was getting better at it and we were up to reading a chapter each. By the end of 7th grade he was reading much better and that summer he even read on his own without being asked to. He was enjoying reading historical fiction, true history with fictional characters. So in 8th grade he no longer needed to come over everyday after school and his reading and literature grade went up to C+ to B’s. Children need someone, who will stand firm on what’s expected, while showing positivity in their effort and you need to be consistent. They are children, we are shaping their habits and ability to control themselves, it’s not the teachers jobs to do that, they are busy teaching reading, writing, math, history etc. Parents (or grand parents if needed) are responsible to teach their children good and positive behavior, the children come first, they are our future.

[promisemochi]

i'll never forget watching a youtuber in her early 20s say "wait do parents actually read to their kids? i thought that was just something that happened in movies" and my heart broke. growing up, i was always read to. even if it was just for 5min before bed, it was just part of the routine. she really genuinely didn't know that parents should and are "supposed to" read and encourage reading to their children.

[carolinec]

A teacher in my local public school said they’re not allowed to hold a child back because the student would be harassed for being “stupid”. So every year this child is farther and farther behind.

[MrMLHoganjr]

It’s insane that we’d expect a kid to read at grade level when they come from households with zero books in them. I’ve dealt with parents that are openly hostile towards owning books, let alone actually cracking one open on occasion.

[funny]

No child left behind has left generations behind

[andrewsawdon]

Your comment on anti-intellectualism really struck a chord with me. I like to read on break at work and one coworker (we're both gen Z) said that he hasn't read one book in his life, and sounded proud of it too. Each time he catches me reading on break he has to bring attention to it as if I have two heads. One time I was wrapping up my break and he asked me if "story time" was over, in a really infantilizing way. You could make an argument that reading in public is performative and for some people I think that's true. I just use most of my free time to read in general. This air of anti-intellectualism in my generation is at best annoying and at worst scary. It's even scarier to see it dialed to 11 with gen Alpha, especially as someone who's studying to be a teacher

[nathan]

I'm not a teacher or anything, I'm Gen Z (2003), but I've also seen a staggering rise of people who are younger (either Gen Alpha or late Gen Z) who just seem to have absolutely no empathy or sympathy for others. The amount of people I've seen who dismiss, go "who cares" or "womp womp" "nobody cares" directly to people who are expressing pain is horrific. I want to have hope for the future, but if people aren't forming sympathy skills then I don't think there is much hope.

[mossybiscuit]

The parents are a huge problem. My sister has a friend who is 15, stole her fathers car, ran from the police, recorded herself running from the police and posted it on snapchat, totaled the car, and was arrested.

she is facing absolutely no consequences from her parents. in fact, her parents are taking her and her friends shopping to buy her trial outfit.

this parenting is disgusting

[rhast]

My daughter is about to enter high school next year. The things she tells me about her friends and class mates is shocking.

I won't even get into school, because this starts at home. One of her friends asked me why I talk to my daughter so much. She was LITTERALLY confused that we speak to our child like a normal person every day. And that we actually listen and consider her point of view. It's very sad

[RubberJunk]

What’s sad is children who are supported educationally by their parents might find themselves standing out and having difficulty relating to their peers.

[Nikki-kswi]

From teaching for years,
1. Stop passing them if they are behind
2. Let teachers teach what ever way each student understands
3. The districts need to let school track instead of telling schools they HAVE to teach this one way of a subject
4. Require reading time proctored online once they are home

[PeoplepersonOG]

As a teacher in Brazil, I have to tell you: we don’t even have a choice. They tell us to pass as many kids as possible to the next grade, otherwise the school won’t get proper funding for the next year. It’s truly bizarre.

[zalybrainlessgenius]

I'd also like to add: another factor is that children sleep less than we used to as children. There are many factors, social media or TV is just one of them... Today's age is too hurry-hurry, parents have high expectations and overwork their children, or the lax parents don't set a proper sleep-time for their children etc etc. Just one lacking hour of sleep is very damaging for a still growing brain, like, VERY.

[danigarcia]

Lack of Community spaces also can affect children's way of learning as well.

No parks, very few after-school activities that don't require money, lack of community libraries etc. All negatively effect kids social interaction and so their only option outside of school is online. Which in turn doesn't foster a environment that encourages learning over entertainment.

The old adage of it takes a community to raise a child really holds weight.

[Tejroe]

I was in the airport at TSA a few days ago, just waiting in that long line to get through security. In front of me was a man in his 20s, and in front of him was a woman with what appeared to be a 5-year-old. The 5-year-old was glued to his iPad, not looking up for anything. Every time the line was supposed to move up, the kid stood completely still, so the man in front of me looks down and says “Hey, little man, can you move forward please?” His mom gave the man a dirty look and directed her son forward.

Then, after about a minute of the kid still not moving, the man said “Hey, buddy, can you move forward a little more?” Then, the mom had the audacity to look at the man and go “Why are you talking to my son? Mind your own damn business white boy.” The man didn’t respond to her, which I think pissed her off even more because she started complaining more and more until other people in line, including me, said something.

Gen Alpha is screwed, and it’s 100% because of technology and entitled parents thinking their kids are saints.

[The_g_string_lover]

I hate to sound like a boomer, but this is what happens when you let the iPad raise your kids. Gen z still had to read books, magazines, and other stuff. Gen alpha doesn’t really do that.

[BelleDreamer]

HS science teacher here. Easy four steps to vastly improve public education in the US.

1) Stop pushing kids through elementary and middle school. Retain kids who are failing. How can a kid ever succeed if they are put into the next year while not reaching their goals in that prior year. Of course the kids read below level, they never learned at 2nd, 3rd, etc because you shoved them on instead of actually making sure they learned the skills.

2) Hold parents accountable. Those kids did not ask to be born, parents brought them into this world and the job of a parent is to help their children grow into self sufficient adults. Mandatory parenting classes if your child is shown to have serious respect or self control issues. Clearly the parents must not know how to parent well if their child is feral.

3) Departments of Education should be run by people with at LEAST a decade of public school teaching experience with people from every grade level and discipline. Let’s get rid of the PhDs of Education who have never taught and or never worked in public school.

4) No more phones or personal tablets in class. School issued technology only and teaching programs that allow teachers to see every screen in the room. They exist.