Observations from a long career

Maybe I should have chosen Academic Decline as the title for this entry because we are living it. My background is in education, and I worked in one of the larger school districts in the nation. I saw a lot of what happens in the classroom, and I hear from teachers in other parts of the country. It’s not good.

Discipline, patience, curiosity, and kindness became rarities near the twilight of my career. When I was at one of the big schools, a friend would ask how my week went. I would tell him what I saw or heard in one classroom or another hall. He would sometimes ask, “How can kids learn with all that happening?” A growing number of children were held hostage by chaos every day.

Consider the tale of an angry parent asking for my help in finding another parent so that he could confront him. My friend quipped, “Sounds like Thunderdome.” It does, doesn’t it? The story about the angry parent is telling. We are now witnessing children being reared by larger numbers of people in a recurring state of fight-or-flight. Some adults are still living teenage dramas. If children are subject to that at home, then of course they will bring it to the classroom.

I know that there are some people who will say that this is just a normal cycle. One generation complains about the next one’s behavior, manners, you name it. The old folks flap their gums about how awful the younger generation is, how the young ones don’t measure up to previous standards, and how the world is going to hell in a handbasket. I get it. I do that sometimes. I’m guilty of holding current popular music in low esteem. I don’t like it, and I shake my head when I hear it. That’s subjective. That’s just me. I think there is an objective case for the claim that there is a general decline in the skill sets observed in children in the United States during the past thirty years.

Why is this happening? I think that we are witnessing a perfect storm. Nutrition is an often underappreciated aspect of this. I used to confiscate 16 oz. Coca-Colas from my students’ lunch boxes. There was no way I was going to let them ingest that much sugar during their time with me. Angry parents confronted me about holding on to family-sized bags of Takis or Doritos until dismissal after allowing a small portion during lunch. They interpreted these measures as stealing food from their children even though the huge bags of chips and bottles of soda always returned home with said children. One mom warned me that she had people who were going to come and “fix” me. She shrieked, rolled her neck, and wagged her finger at me in front of her daughter. It was quite the spectacle, but I digress. “You are what you eat,” the old saying goes. Indeed.

Poor sleeping habits present another silent problem for children. My wife and I stopped by a Walmart late one night after an emergency room trip near one of my schools. We were astounded at how many children were in the store at 10:45 pm on a school night, and yes, some had a soda in hand or a bag of chips. That shed some light on a lot of the zombie crashes I used to witness during a typical day. The sedentary lifestyle doesn’t help either. Kids sit a lot more than in the past.

Last, but not least, we have the usual suspects: broken homes and too much screen time. None of this post even addresses what happened during the Covid pandemic. I was in the classroom when that happened, and that’s a subject for another article. It all adds up. Our society has been building up to this. My BA is in English, and I maintained a great friendship with one of my literature professors over the years. We were talking on the phone one day, and she asked if her assignments were too hard when I was in her class. I told her that they were challenging but not impossible. I would not have had the career I did without people like her pushing me. She then went on to complain about how more students didn’t seem to read novels anymore, didn’t write well, and weren’t as adept at having conversations. “It’s not just here,” she said. “It’s everywhere.” That was ten years ago.

Reading is essential. It’s the foundation for learning in any subject. There is a reason letters and phonological awareness are among the first things taught in school. They’re the first things taught in preschool. I think they should be taught at home. I was already reading when I started kindergarten, and I wasn’t the exception. Most of the kids were reading at some level. That’s not the world we live in now.

Reading also facilitated a common culture. My generation plugged into the same stories, a common well of knowledge, and that fueled a sense of empathy for others. We lived a shared experience and communicated well with peers and adults alike. There were no electronic devices for us. I remember it as a calm, happy time. The anger and violence of the 21st century classroom is, in my experience, beyond what we witnessed in the 20th century. I don’t think the decline in reading skills is a coincidence.

I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but the absolute best thing anyone can do for a child is to read to them, surround them with great books, cultivate the habit of reading for enjoyment, and limit their screen time. Personally, I wouldn’t allow anyone under eighteen to own a device. No cell phones, no tablets. Zip. Nada. It would be part of the answer. I know, I read on my kindle all the time, but my formative years were spent with physical books, and I think that makes a big difference. Another thing we should not do is give up on the parents who are struggling. More often than not, they are overwhelmed and need help. We should lead by example. By “we,” I mean people who read a lot. Let yourself be seen reading a book in public. If you have children, read aloud to them in public. I have a cousin who is a teacher married to another teacher. They show off photos of the amazing bedroom setups they arranged for their children. Their kids are surrounded by books, are read to often, and are happy. It shows. Here is the best example of show, don’t tell.

Teachers need your help too. They are under a lot of pressure, and their workload increases exponentially every year. That job is not what it was in the 20th century, and these people are not paid anywhere near their worth. How can we help them? Sometimes it’s as simple as finding out if they have an Amazon wish list page and contributing. Volunteer to help them with simple things like laminating cutouts, posters, or crafting an amazing bulletin board. Sometimes it can be just saying “thanks” or letting them know how much their work is appreciated. If you’re a parent, approach your child’s teacher as if they are your wingman, not an enemy. Stronger together is a slogan often applied to athletics. It suits education too.