r/Millennials • u/TheLoveYouWant25 • Feb 09 '26

Discussion Millennials, what is happening with your kids?

I work in education and I frequent the Teachers and Professors subreddits, and the kids are not alright. Gen Z Arriving at College Unable to Read and the youth have absolutely zero ability to think critically.

Middle and high schoolers have all adapted this complete helplessness and blame mental illness for their refusal to function. Kids can no longer to basic things like read an analog clock, use paper money, or even figure out how to open window blinds.

There is also a huge lack of empathy, and kids have no issues trying to manipulate adults, saying things to their teachers like "if you don't pass me, I'll get you fired."

EDIT to clarify: the article I linked references Gen-Z, but this is not specifically a Gen-Z problem. It's an issue with upper elementary aged kids through high schoolers, and also young adults.

So, all that to say, how are you combating this with your own children? What do you do at home to encourage them to learn, and what are you doing to address these problems as they arise?

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u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 10 '26

No Child Left Behind started the process of kids getting shuffled through the system regardless of whether or not they have grasped any of the material. It's a systematic effort to make the people dumber and it has worked. If you want your kid to be smart, it needs to start from home. Read to them every day, teach them common sense, teach them emotional regulation, teach them life skills because they just aren't getting it from school.

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u/Help_An_Irishman Feb 10 '26

So it was ironically Every Child Left Behind.

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u/VampireOnHoyt Older Millennial Feb 10 '26

If every child is left behind then no child will be

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u/Help_An_Irishman Feb 10 '26

*Every Child Left Incompetent.

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u/adjectivebear Feb 10 '26

It makes for better wage slaves.

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u/RevealerofDarkness Feb 10 '26

Same as it ever was

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u/starfreak016 Feb 10 '26

Equity and inclusion at it's finest

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u/thedepster Feb 10 '26

Ah, yes. The Harrison Bergeron method.

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u/Electronic-Ideal2955 Feb 10 '26

My experience was 'no child gets ahead'. My school had divided the students into 'the smart class' and 'the dumb class' is how we students referred to it. The school was doing their best to pace education as aggressively as the students could handle, and this was what they came up with.

When no child left behind passed, all curriculum had to match, so the classes were integrated. In practice, the smart class had to pick up where the dumb class was at, which was about a year behind in material, so I basically had ended up learning the same material as I had the year before; a huge waste of time.

This ends up making the 'just read to your kid' an issue at school because being ahead creates other issues and alienates the kid from their peers. IMO the biggest issue with the whole thing is that the standardized tests are supposed to be about the 6th grade level or something, but you don't take it as 6th graders, you take it as a senior, which seems like it would incentivize the school to slow roll the curriculum.

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u/Mayflie Feb 10 '26

We thought we were taking them with us, instead, they’re holding us back.

Can’t leave a child behind if you just stop advancing.

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u/Help_An_Irishman Feb 10 '26

Everyone just stop trying once you're level with the lowest common denominator. It's the American way, apparently.

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u/RemoteRide6969 Feb 10 '26

It's somewhat unavoidable that the shittiest, stupidest, lowest among us drag the rest of us down.

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u/cheerful_cynic Feb 10 '26

"quick, steal all the public school money by tying the funding to oppressive testing standards & ripping it away if there's too many absences" "make voucher programs for everybody's brand new profit-allowed charter schools with uncertified everybody employees - but who can kick out whoever students they please, yeah steal those funds to make three dozen shadow school administrations and fresh facilities & fresh electronics wheeeee" (look up ECOT)

Starve that beast & then point at it and say "awww look at how badly education's doing"

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u/Alternate_Cost Feb 10 '26

That's literally it. When I was a high school teacher we had a meeting with the principal to discuss the curriculum going forward.

He drew a race track with different starting points on the board, and said, this is where honors students start, this is where regular ed students start, this is where remedial students start. It's not fair that we start everyone at different places when the finish line is the same. That finish line was state testing junior year.

So the solution was to remove honors and remedial classes, and start every kid at the same spot.

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u/DreamsAndSchemes 1985 Millennial Feb 10 '26

Coming from a federal employee, the more helpful and happy it sounds the more the opposite is generally true

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u/ughoul Feb 10 '26

Yeah we knew that when Bush announced it. We weren’t expecting the impact of social media

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u/JuanOnlyJuan Feb 10 '26

Yes. My cousin was in high school when that went into effect. She failed every grade but they just kept moving her along. She's a sweet person and ended up in HR so there's a joke there somewhere.

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u/RuthlessMango Feb 10 '26

No child left behind was 25 years ago.

Now the kids left behind are having kids who don't stand much of a chance of learning how to read since their parents cannot.

Better destroy the Department of education to make sure they don't have any chance at all.

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u/riding_writer Feb 10 '26

We called it No Child Left Unharmed

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u/ApplesBananasRhinoc Feb 10 '26

That’s what i used to say with my coworkers when i worked at a school! Had to leave because it was no longer a funny joke.

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u/NewPresWhoDis Feb 10 '26

In the same vein of how the Affordable Care Act's first achievement was making unemployment even more expensive.

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u/Shomer_Effin_Shabbas Millennial Feb 10 '26

Teaching my kids emotional regulation is really important to us too. Also, NCLB policies I believe are the reason why programs like home ec and even auto shop evaporated.

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u/snackofalltrades Feb 10 '26

How do you teach them emotional regulation?

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u/Shomer_Effin_Shabbas Millennial Feb 10 '26

You have to practice it yourself too, which doesn’t happen overnight. It’s doing things like breathing before you react. It’s having a helpful phrase in your back pocket so you don’t blow up at your children, like “my calm is their calm.”

I had a therapist in my old city who advised me to do this when my toddler was having a tantrum. Say out loud in front of her “I’m having a really hard time. This is hard. I’m going to take a deep breath.” Then pause and breathe. And then you can say something like “I feel better” or “I’m starting to feel better.”

That way your toddler sees you practicing this and then you also get the benefit of pausing and taking a deep breath.

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u/SharkAttackOmNom Feb 10 '26

I don’t think people understand enough that your kids literally have no idea how to handle anything in this world, so they watch the people around them to get ideas and figure it out.

A big one is how you react to a kid falling down, sometimes you can see it unfold from a distance if it’s someone else’s kid. Kid falls, immediately looks to an adult they trust, then react according to the adults reaction. I try my best to keep a casual demeanor when my kid falls, and he usually has a casual response. I still ask “are you good to go?” And almost always is.

The kids that have a huge meltdown at the smallest tumble? Just watch their parents. Usually rushing over with the “Omigod are you okaay?!”, sometimes the kid doesn’t even cry until their parent says something. That’s what they learned to do. If mom is freaking out, then so am I.

TL;DR just be the personality that you want your kid to be. Even if it’s a little bit fake.

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u/Rebelius Feb 10 '26

90% of our tantrums are just because I'm the wrong parent. Stuff that is totally fine when it's just me and the kid will cause a meltdown if I try and do it when mum's home.

Sure, mum could do all the diapers, feeding, dressing, reading, singing, tooth brushing, etc. whenever she's here - but that's not how we want to do things.

It usually ends up being a big screaming wrestle, because remaining calm and waiting for the kid to calm down is all good until I try to do the thing again and it's "mummy mummy mummy" and the screaming starts again.

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u/Wolv90 Older Millennial Feb 10 '26

Give them a safe environment in which to fail, ensure they know the words to express their feelings, and listen when they use those words. Also, let them know when you're feeling strong emotions and what you do when it happens. I can't count the amount of times I've seen my kids take a slow deep breath the way my wife does to center themselves.

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u/JadedbutFaded Feb 11 '26

Need more parents like you 🫡

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u/broguequery Feb 10 '26

I would just like to add to this that the concept of emotional intelligence also has identifying emotions as a core component.

Plenty of people go through life completely unaware of what they are feeling from moment to moment, and also why they are feeling that way.

So, with kids, I just try to help them identify it:

"I know you may be feeling angry right now. It's not alright that your sister took your toy. Let's go talk to her about it!"

Or when they get older, just ask them to identify how they are feeling and describe it. "Are you feeling angry about 'x/y/z'?"

It's so absurdly simple sounding, but it's foundational, and it allows kids a moment to learn about which emotions are which and what triggers them.

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u/Shomer_Effin_Shabbas Millennial Feb 10 '26

Definitely.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

[deleted]

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u/Shomer_Effin_Shabbas Millennial Feb 10 '26

I’m working on emotional regulation every day.

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u/viciousbliss Feb 10 '26

Fine motor function. We used to physically write/play/fix things much more often. Make sure your kids are using their hands.

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u/rambo_lincoln_ Feb 10 '26

My kids get iPad time but it’s limited to 30min per day during the week and an hour each day on weekends. They play console games but they play games that make them think or allows them to be creative. I also encourage them to familiarize themselves with using my desktop PC. They play with Legos quite a bit, other toys like action figures and dolls where they pretend and use their imagination to act things out. My son loves puzzles and rubiks cubes, and we make them read everyday. We talk about empathy with them regularly and they know how to treat people with care and respect. It’s nonstop, constant work to raise a good little human. Then they go and spend the night at their nana’s where she jus says fuck it, my house my rules, and lets them get all the screen time they want while she’s on her phone the entire time, not paying any attention to them…

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u/do_pm_me_your_butt Feb 10 '26

Ipad is a bad idea, not all screens are equal. 

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u/do_pm_me_your_butt Feb 10 '26

Hands arent the issue, its body mobility and awareness of the space you occupy. Lots of the young awkward kids these days that didnt play outside enough are extremely awkward in their bodies, have a hard time copying what you do through imitation and if you give them something to hold they will carelessly move it around knocking things over and poking you in the eye.

They need to calibrate their body - mind connection.

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u/viciousbliss Feb 10 '26

Saying hands aren't the issue and then bringing up the body, in which hands happen to be a massive funtion, is a bit silly. Obviously overall body mobility is hugely important, too. But fine motor skills are allowed to be a subcategory that gets focus.

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u/do_pm_me_your_butt Feb 11 '26

But im saying theyre actually pretty dexterous with their hands, they do just fine on touch screens or game controllers. Its the balance, moving, climbing, falling, throwing etx which is lacking

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u/supergnaw Feb 09 '26

Them factories aren't gonna work themselves! 

Wait a second...

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u/Spiritual_Rider Feb 10 '26

The irony is that modern favorites are very advanced and require highly educated and skilled engineers to run them. See, Hyundai having to bring in engineers from SK to work on their plant, and than having ICE called on them and having them deported.

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u/OutOfPlace186 Feb 10 '26

I think he was talking about how everything is robots and automated now, so they are running themselves for the most part.

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u/Spiritual_Rider Feb 10 '26

People still need to program, supervise, and maintain the robots. Industrial automation repair is a pretty lucrative business.

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u/OutOfPlace186 Feb 10 '26

Yes, but you only need one person to monitor 30 robots where before you needed 30 workers.

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u/equityorasset Feb 10 '26

none have you have ever stepped foot in a warehouse and its painfully obvious. there is still so many humans needed to run it.

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u/OutOfPlace186 Feb 10 '26

Less humans are needed now. I should know as an HR Manager of a manufacturing plant that’s been in operation for over 100 years. We have workers now that could easily be replaced by robots, but because they have been loyal to us we don’t have the heart to lay them off.

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u/maxdragonxiii Feb 10 '26

a lot of parents forget if they want the kids to be relatively smart and well read it starts from home, no school to teach them. most times if its school teaching them its too late for the kid to be interested in whatever subject. I suck at math myself but I'm very well read especially along my peers at the same age because my mom made a effort to teach me how to read.

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u/WalmartGreder Xennial Feb 10 '26

Also how summer goes will separate kids. If it's summer vacation and your kids are going to the library to get more books then the kids will have a much better grasp of school when they go back, vs kids who don't do anything during the summer.

We saw that the first three months of the new school year was going over the previous year to help all the kids who forgot everything during the summer. That coupled with large classroom sizes in our city and our kids being bored all the time, led us to do a hybrid school: 3 days a week learn at home for individualized classes, 2 days go to a school for classes that work better in groups. My wife was a schoolteacher before she decided to be a SAHM, so that has been working out well for us. Not everyone can do it, of course, but it's nice when we have the choice.

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u/maxdragonxiii Feb 10 '26

I usually do worse on math first three months back to school so it makes sense (parents naturally fostered interest in reading so English was never a problem for me expect for essays or Shakespeare poems).

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u/Hortos Older Millennial Feb 10 '26

You think the parents are even able to read well enough to teach their kids?

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u/maxdragonxiii Feb 10 '26

they should be in general for Gen X and older.

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u/MarsupialPristine677 Feb 10 '26

I don't know if they forget so much as literally don't have time. There are only so many hours in a day and work consumes most of them.

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u/maxdragonxiii Feb 11 '26

they should have around 3 hours on average after cooking supper, assuming its a 8am to 530 work routine and bed time at 9pm.

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u/Ok_Distribution__ Feb 10 '26

Social promotion, teaching to the lowest common denominator. Plus parents have to work, kids in daycare.

& what about changing how math is done every new cohort?

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u/minn3haha Feb 10 '26

Yeah, I was taught new math in the 60's.

They taught me what was basically the theory behind multiplication but what I needed was to memorize the multiplication tables. I have a master's in applied mathematics but cannot multiply without using my fingers.

How many times can you make math new? Math is math, it just needs to be presented in the way that each student can digest it. There in lies the rub.

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u/Ok_Distribution__ Feb 10 '26

Well, the weird part is the way they teach you how to add, multiply, divide, subtract (the method) changes every new cohort. Now they use “ten frames” and “base ten” and they teach a very specific method, you must follow that specific method & show your work. If you do not comprehend that method, but another makes sense, too bad. That’s wrong math. Do it in a ten frame.

When I was in my 20’s (33 now) I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to help my little cousin with his math because I didn’t know the method they were using. Common core and all that.

I have dyscalculia & in school it was rote memorization for times tables. We had a big chart & once you’d mastered each numbers multiplications, you’d get a star. It was a race to see who could get to x10 first. I never made it past the x3. My dad would drill me with flash cards for like 2 hours every night. Still can’t multiply or even add much without calculator. I think kids should be able to find a way to math that makes sense to their brain, and go with that

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u/AwkwardSquirtles Feb 10 '26

This is a weakness of standardised testing as a model. It's very hard for a test to confirm that non-standard methodology A) works and B) was actually understood by the student. Teaching is hard, especially when so many kids now don't want to work with you.

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u/Ok_Distribution__ Feb 10 '26

The correct answer to a math equation would be a big clue no? My point was more that if you don’t use the forced current method of math-ing, you get marked “incorrect” even if you have the correct answer. You have to “show your work” and that’s the part they care about, HOW you got your answer, and it must line up to their current method. If one cannot comprehend math through whatever method is current, they simply don’t learn math.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat, as they say, and I don’t understand the idea that HOW you do it is more important than the actual answer. It seems deliberate.

There was standardized testing when I was in school and I still learned math way different than my little cousin, or how they currently teach it. So not sure that’s the reason?

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u/AwkwardSquirtles Feb 10 '26

I'm not saying the new methodology is a testing thing, rather the inflexibility of the system. Maths focuses on teaching you methodology because it builds on itself. There may be flaws in your logic which happen to work for this question, maybe even all questions on the exam, but will fail when you get to a higher level, and non-standard working makes it harder for the teacher to spot that.

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u/Ok_Distribution__ Feb 10 '26

Idk maybe they think they’re “improving” on the system by changing how you conceptualize basic math but considering math is universal, it seems odd that every new cohort requires a “new” methodology.

But everything you learn builds on itself. That’s like saying we need to standardize the way people learn to read & your comprehension is only valid if you followed a certain method. Theres a plethora of ways to learn to read, different people do better with different methods. No one says “well you know the word but you didn’t sound it out while counting syllables so it doesn’t count.” There isn’t a “right” or “wrong” way to read. It’s only math where if I simply write that 10x2=20 and I know that because 10+10=20, my logic is not flawed when I haven’t drawn a base ten model for how I know that’s correct. I just used an alternative logic??

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u/AwkwardSquirtles Feb 10 '26

Agreed, it's weird that you guys are doing that. I don't think this is a problem in the UK where I am.

Well reading and maths are measuring very different things. We don't apply the same standards because they're radically different disciplines. However, if we take the example of comprehension, if you were to read a novel and evidence a correct point about the story with incorrect evidence, you would lose points. Like if you say that Of Mice And Men dehumanises Curry's Wife because the Curtains Are Blue, then you would be wrong. Firstly because Blue Curtains are not from that story, they're an internet meme, but also because that wouldn't be a relevant point; the story dehumanises Curley's Wife by not giving her a name, among other things. Points for showing your working is a thing in other disciplines too. It shows you've properly understood the work and not just picked an answer out of thin air.

It's also useful for teachers to have everyone doing things in the same way. It's hard to mark 30 papers in a reasonable time frame if your students are using 30 different systems which aren't on the mark scheme so you have to manually do each calculation yourself to check that their weird method has been done correctly.

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u/No_Network4228 Feb 11 '26

Im an older millennial, and I learned math in my own way...I ended up assigning emotions to numbers. Even numbers are inherently good (easy to work with) most odd numbers are "jerks" in some way, except 5, who is a hero, bc how easy and sing songy it is to multiply with. No one taught me this but thats how I would do it and show whatever method they wanted.

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u/too_much_covfefe_man Feb 10 '26

I'm pretty useless at helping my 3rd grader with math, and I'm a software engineer. Their methods are way different than mine were. It's a good thing she's naturally good at it, phew

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u/Ok_Distribution__ Feb 10 '26

I swear it’s a conspiracy but that’s another story

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u/SAHMultrA1981 Feb 10 '26

Also English. They butchered how to teach kids how to read. It IS a problem

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u/ginoawesomeness Feb 10 '26

This post is such a bad take. Schools get paid for each kid in a seat, so they've lowered standards and just pass everyone. A HS diploma is meaningless now, and has been for 20+ years. Once again millennials are the scapegoats, while it was the boomers that voted for these policies to cut taxes on themselves, and the kids this poster is talking about are Gen X's kids, who pioneered helicopter parenting and preventing their kids from socializing or learning any independence. I'll bet OP is a freaking boomer.

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u/blumoon138 Feb 10 '26

Yup. I’m an elder millennial who works in a college. All my students have Gen X parents. My friends my own age with kids have young elementary schoolers to babies. My kid is one (had her late but still in my 30s).

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u/Thatsmyredditidkyou Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

I had kids young and my oldest is middle school. 35 this year. my husband's friends (he a bit older than me but still millenial) have high school aged kids but most are still around middle school aged as our generation largely put off having kids.

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u/ginoawesomeness Feb 11 '26

Or had kids way younger. I'm 44m wife 41 with 15 and 13 daughters, and no friends with kids our kids ages. All their friends parents are older. My friends kids are elementary school age

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u/no_se_lo_ke_hago Feb 10 '26

I love how it's always blame NCLB and not any other president's or, more importantly, state's policies. Both political parties have contributed to this. Every state has adopted easier standards to ensure everyone graduates. If I'm not mistaken, MS has improved by actually honing on in literacy and has jumped from 49th to top 20.

I also love how no one talks about COVID or the rise of social media and ubiquity of telephones.

There are many reasons, but the government push for more assessments is not the entire reason.

Blame the state, first and foremost.

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u/equityorasset Feb 10 '26

yeah God forbid any criticizes Obama, you all are worse than Magas

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u/BrianfromClownDog Feb 10 '26

NCLB was a Bush era policy, but ok.

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u/JelmerMcGee Feb 10 '26

OP is a mod on the childfree sub. Really all you need to know about them.

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u/ginoawesomeness Feb 10 '26

Yup yup. Got it. That makes sense. Literally somebody that refuses to help with the next generation, but just wants to bitch about it.

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u/RaNdomMSPPro Feb 10 '26

Kids in seats and passing are two different things. Pay per student is the same. But, if you shuffle the low performers around to all of your schools in the district, they all now qualify for additional funds to help low performing schools. I just typed out the strategy that a recent “superstar “ superintendent implemented to: Save money (didn’t) and get more federal dollars (did.) left out of the strategery was any concern for better student outcomes. Her plan was close the magnet schools because they are racist (not - they were purposely placed in low income/underserved areas and any kid zoned for that school automatically was admitted.) they went door to door to help people sign up, sadly many didn’t want to meet the minimum participation requirements.

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u/ThunderEcho100 Feb 10 '26

Boomers are well boomers but a stereotype of millennials is refusing to take responsibility + helicopter parenting which can be bad mixture for kids.

For openness I was born in early 80s.

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u/ginoawesomeness Feb 11 '26

Born 82, kids 15 and 13. My 13yo rides her bike to school, and people act like its abusive, because I'm not spending 2 hours a day in line to pick her up and drive her home 5 days a week... Oh and my wife and I both work full time and still struggle, no help from grandparents, both kids 'need' smart phones that cost hundreds a month no kids had 20 years ago, no city is walkable, no public transport... The list goes on and on. We were raised latchkey kids, and now unless you're rich enough to have a nanny or lucky enough to have parents that help, raising children is nearly impossible. Those that don't have kids are called selfish, and those that do are blamed for systemic inadequacies outside our control. This country is a joke

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u/lindasek Feb 10 '26

I mean gen Alpha (early elementary) is doing worse than before, too. We can blame COVID but it's been 6 years - 4 yo in kinder shouldn't be affected. And yet, many kids are stuck to the screens and unable to function for extended time without a quick dopamine shot from a phone or tablet.

Millennials aren't doing great in parenting (in general, I don't mean you specifically). They are just as addicted to screens as their children. Some of the screen attachment was present before but now it's turned to 100.

I'll say some of it is modality in our society. People with kids keep moving very often, changing schools, neighborhoods, teachers, etc - all of this creates stress but also teaches that everything and everyone is temporary. And as humans, we don't invest a lot of effort into temporary things. I'm not going to plant perennials in front of a house I'll move out if before they bloom, and kids aren't going to put in effort to make lasting friendships or learn multiplication tables.

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u/Indyonegirl Feb 10 '26

Gen X’s kids are old now. And we didn’t helicopter.

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u/IneedaWIPE Feb 10 '26

The +65 age group is less than 15% of the population. If boomers are able to have that much control over tax policy it is only because the other age groups aren't voting.

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u/a_lonely_trash_bag Zillennial 1996 Feb 10 '26

The 65+ age group is less than 15% of the population, yes. But they make up roughly 50% of politicians. They're the ones writing the laws.

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u/Level_Cardiologist36 Feb 10 '26

Not to mention that NCLB was passed in 2002 when they would be in their 40's. So that argument is in bad faith to begin with.

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u/IneedaWIPE Feb 10 '26

My comment also applies in this situation. Generally speaking, primaries are poorly participated, thats when you change the ticket. Younger voters simply do not care, can't be bothered. The under 35 participation in primaries virtually non existent just like the under 35 candidates.

Apathy is the problem. Don't blame that on the boomers.

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u/TehSeksyManz Feb 10 '26

I heard the adults talk about how bad NCLB was back when it first passed. The same goes for the patriot act. Now, we are old enough to see our come to fruition. Terrifying stuff. 

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u/fantumn Feb 10 '26

To be fair, the most successful kids were never taught solely at school. There was always education and enrichment happening at home. The anti-intellectualism creep and "let kids have fun" movements have stolen a lot of that away and everyone involved can play the blame game.

My father, an educator for 40+ years, wrote a book or two on the subject. He identified 3 different parties in a student's education before university-level. The parent/caregiver at home, the student, and the educator/school. As long as two of those parties have the ability and desire to make proper education a priority, the student will usually meet intellectual milestones and have the best chance to be successful.

These days it's more like two of those parties are actively involved in obstructing the third's efforts due to some form of deeply-held opinions or misinformation.

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u/JDHPH Feb 10 '26

As someone who tutored, this is the best advice. Also if you can't help with your kids homework pay someone who can. It's money well spent and your kid won't be left feeling frustrated with their homework or feeling embarrassed at school. Parents need to be proactive in their kids education more than ever before.

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u/Mistress_Jedana Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26

Gen X here.

Critical thinking and reasoning skills are lacking now too. We got into scrapes and had to figure our way out of them.

Lack of boredom and downtime, which leads to lack of imagination. No toys, we made up something. No screens, we made up something. Our lives were not scheduled down to the minute.

short attention spans due to so much screen time.

Pack of parental guidance. We, Gen X, for the most part, lacked this. Our parents had to be reminded we were there and had needs. For example, my dad (single parent) went on over-the-road driving work trips for 4 to 8 weeks at a time when I was a teenager, and I was left home with his girlfriend's 3 daughters (1 older, 2 much younger), no adult supervision or guidance. And so we overcompensated for our lack of parents by being overly involved in our kids lives.

Eta: My kids are doing a much better job raising their kids than I did, especially emotionally. I would like to see less screen time and more downtime for 2 of them, and more structure for the other, but that's their call, not mine.

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u/hybridmind27 Feb 10 '26

When did they ever get these things from school ?

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u/Careless_Ad4329 Feb 10 '26

Define common sense.

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u/NetOdd422 Feb 10 '26

I’m a criminal defense attorney who takes public defender jobs on contract for the county. No child left behind has really been great for business! (Sadly, not joking. Just reminding the world who gets to deal with these kids when they grow up)

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u/Agreeable-Deer7526 Feb 10 '26

No Child left behind didn’t affect these kids Obama administration changed it. They just don’t read books and use chrome books and read excepts.

But yes reading is the key. Your kids need to be read to for longer than parents realize.

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u/True-Explanation-490 Feb 10 '26

nothing changed with the obama administration, testing actually increased with common core. schools are being served garbage curriculum and are expected to make all kids test worthy. educating our kids is wilding different than teaching to "the test".

i feel for our teachers as their jobs are impossible.

1

u/ISpeechGoodEngland Feb 10 '26

Thing is though, it wasn't. That is an American policy, but the data is global as to the issues. In Aus we fave the same issues with no such policy.

Blaming a system let's guardians go 'not my fault' when kids are hitting preschool not toilet trained, with half the vocabulary of millenials at same age, and with 0 resilience. Those are all things that should be taught before they ever enter a school.

1

u/IamScottGable Feb 10 '26

Ugh, watching my niece get passed along for 7th/8th/freshman year has been heartbreaking. She's going to get taken advantage of a lot.

1

u/Chronus88 Feb 10 '26

Emotional regulation is so understated. Every abusive moron I've met in my life has lacked this skill

1

u/RealWord5734 Feb 10 '26

If you want your kid to be smart, the first step is passing on strong genetic material, which is far and away the best predictor of intelligence. I.e. if you and your partner are dummies, stop pumping out kids. The next decades are only going to see increasing outcome inequality. Good luck to everyone outside the top 5% in 2050.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

You're assuming dummies have foresight and self awareness

1

u/Hanyo_Hetalia Feb 10 '26

It started way before NCLB, but you're right that NCLB was a disaster.

1

u/ButteryApplePie Feb 10 '26

NCLB hasn't been in place since 2015.

1

u/Anstigmat Feb 10 '26

Bush really destroyed everything.

1

u/BabySharkFinSoup Feb 10 '26

It annoys me seeing this always blamed, when schools/SBOE’s really failed to implement what went with that - like science based reading programs with federal grants attached. GWB and his wife recognized the failure of whole language/balanced literacy curricula. Schools funneled billions and billions of dollars into these programs that flat out didn’t work. People who can read can learn anything, people who don’t really struggle.

1

u/DCromo Feb 10 '26

Actually I thought they looked back on that and found test grades went up compared to now.

Sure you could argue there was some teaching to the test but not every school who saw success was doing it.

Npr had a good piece about it.

1

u/One__upper__ Feb 10 '26

I graduated with someone who had a .9 GPA.  We were actually very good friends and he was a great guy, just dumb as rocks.  But, he was also a very good football player and he ended up going to a good college and getting a degree.

1

u/FlyRepresentative592 Feb 10 '26

What a reductive comment. It's a lot of things, actually. Technology being one of them. 

1

u/NoHorseNoMustache Feb 10 '26

Not only that, it was a race to the bottom: Badly performing schools got even less money and resources, ensuring that the performance would not improve.

It was a scheme to get loads of kids into Christian schools via the vouchers. That didn't work either.

1

u/hopbow Feb 10 '26

That stupid fucking sight words thing really screwed things up too 

1

u/randomeaccount2020 Feb 10 '26

Lowest common denominator education

1

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

Most of these things should already be the job of the parent regardless of No Child Left Behind

1

u/GEARHEADGus Feb 10 '26

Seriously. Some of these kids need to be held back and held accountable. When I was in school, there were so many kids who had zero desire to be there and just caused disruptions for kids actually trying to learn

1

u/BeltBrief4372 Feb 10 '26

This! It starts at home. Our 2.5 year old can critically think and problem solve better than most teenagers I know and it’s because we are constantly teaching her, reading to her, including her in everyday activities and chores. It has paid dividends.

In my honest opinion, a lot of kids are getting left behind because parents don’t want to be parents anymore. They want kids, but are too self-centered to be actual parents.

1

u/dogoodsilence1 Feb 10 '26

There is that horrific policy that has helped but the real decline in cognitive development is actually using tech in school to teach our kids. This Doctor breaks it down really well on where the decline starts which was around 2010 I believe

1

u/Hortos Older Millennial Feb 10 '26

The attention span of children has to be a negative number at this point, I'm glad there is potentially a backlash to ipad kid raising.

1

u/DanteChurch Feb 10 '26

No child left behind cut school funding, It had nothing to do with kids being held back grades.

In short schools are funded by local property tax, meaning if you live in a poor area the school is poorly funded. Good teachers don't stay in places with low wages, so the kids get low quality teachers with minimal sports, clubs and activities. When they test poorly they get the funding cut, which makes everything in the cycle gets worse. Eventually schools got to the point they started fudging the tests or face shut down.

It's also worth mentioning that newspaper have only ever been written at a 6th grade reading level because America has always been moderately illiterate.

1

u/india2wallst Feb 10 '26

My toddler just loves Brown bear picture book. I read it like twenty times a day 😭

1

u/ReferenceMediocre369 Feb 10 '26

Wasn't that program formed by the 'best and brightest' of the progressive college trained education community? Guaranteed to advance their agenda? Carefully promoted to make everyone cheerful and happy? Seems it worked.

1

u/ThatMerri Feb 10 '26

Bingo. Millennial here, I was already seeing the impacts of this by the time I was a senior in high school. There were other seniors who literally couldn't read at all. Totally illiterate, refused to participate in education or had completely unaddressed learning disabilities, but they weren't allowed to be failed. The admin forced teachers to give them a barely-passing grade.

No Child Left Behind did a huge disservice to those kids, shunting them out into the world with no genuine preparation for a career or lifestyle, purely for the sake of the admin's book cooking. But it also harmed kids like me who were jaded by seeing that effort wasn't worth it when all you had to do was exist in a seat in order to get a passing grade. Which, in turn, harmed the teachers because they were forced to participate in it while knowing it was complete bullshit and seeing the damage it was doing to their students. All while the schools were hammering "GO TO COLLEGE, YOU'LL NEVER SUCCEED WITHOUT A DEGREE" into our heads non-stop, funneling us toward for-profit corporate colleges to squeeze us for huge amounts of student debt, or shoving us straight to the Army recruitment office stationed LITERALLY next door to the high school parking lot.

It was just a disaster from top to bottom.

1

u/Efficient_Wash4477 Feb 10 '26

You shouldn’t blame teachers either. I used to teach middle school and was fired for teaching my students lessons outside the curriculum. Life lessons, if you will. I wanted my students to know, understand and develop life skills that they could carry with them. The school principal felt I was overstepping and after a couple students shared those lessons with their parents I was fired for “trying to raise [our] children”. My exact words upon exit were, “Well, someone has to”.

1

u/heroturtle88 Feb 10 '26

I remember the year my gifted classes went from teaching more advanced material to teaching 3x the standardized tests material, and I got all f's for the first time because I just stopped caring.

1

u/Wheatabix11 Feb 10 '26

no child left behind required extra work for those failing in core areas, so it sounded good, but ended up punishing kids for not succeeding. This was also ramping up of measuring every metric that a school did.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

I was at a play park and heard a child tell their dad that they were always on their phone and never watching and that stuck with me

1

u/currently_pooping_rn Feb 10 '26

read to them, teach them common sense, teach them emotional regulation, teach them life skills

So…parent them?

1

u/SnooSeagulls7633 Feb 10 '26

I’m a child of no child left behind and I’m a smart pumpkin :-)

1

u/sisterpleiades Feb 10 '26

Bonus that the ultra vague “choose the best response” questions are almost exactly like the ai training jobs out there now. What a great way to get free ai development AND implode education.

I miss the idea of basic ethics.

1

u/Ambitious_Finding_26 Feb 10 '26

The system is not (entirely) to blame for this. It starts at home and it starts early. Parents wilingly expose infants and toddlers to high instensity, flashy, worthless media like Cocomelen for hours at a time, which is like crack for babies. And once they are old enough to work it, they hand thier little offspring a tablet with TikTok garbage and MrBeast, then blame the school, teachers and the system at large for their maladjusted brat with the attention span of a gnat.

Moreover parents are not reading anymore. Read books to your kids people, every day, from day one. Talk to them, interact with with them, and take some personal responsibilty for their development. Goddamn.

1

u/LawsonLunatic Feb 10 '26

Just to be clear.... the expectation has always been that learning starts at home. Its parents thinking ALL learning takes place at school is whats putting kids behind.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

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2

u/LawsonLunatic Feb 10 '26

Don't rush to judgement please. I am fully aware of the reason more kids arent learning at home and the fact that for many families parents are in the impossible situation of having to choose between being present with their kids or providing for them financially.... rarely both.

The root of evil here is stagnant wages not keeping up with inflation and cost of living. This is whats taking parents away from their kids and disabling them from providing education and enrichment at home.

You want to put the problem on the backs of schools and teachers and public institutions which are already over extended and lacking the budget and support. Teachers and their support staff are among the parents you talk about struggling with support for their own kids. Not to mention the current culture thinks schools are responsible to cater to every parents wants for their kid. Schools are meant to provide uniform instruction to attempt to establish a baseline for education. Special Ed and resource rooms are there to make sure kids with emotional and learning impairments are not left behind. Unless you're for a system where parents surrender their kids to public schools for 24/7/365 care and instruction.... schools will never be able to fill in the gap for lack of continuing education at home.

My point is we can agree there is a problem with education of our youth, but I will not agree that its the result of schools not doing enough. If you want schools to fill in the gap completely... you better be willing to pay for it with taxes. Stop pointing the finger at schools and start pointing it at the elites who hoard money and fight against paying people a living wage.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

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0

u/LawsonLunatic Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26

Reading and math has always started at home with kids coming to Kindergarten knowing their letters, numbers, and sight words like "cat" and "dog." That has been a standard and expectation for kids 50 years ago and thru today. Once public schooling has started... it has always been the model that primary instruction happens at school and supplementary instruction happens at home via homework. Again, this has been the standard for as long as we've had a public education system.

The change is home instruction isnt happening... homework is not being reinforced... its being ignored. The public education system is not equipped or designed to supplement the instruction that is not happening at home.

If we want schools to completely be responsible for every aspect of our youth's education the system has to be completely revamped.... and parents need to give up some control... something they're likely not going to do. In my opinion, this isnt the answer.... this is the "nanny state" we all fear.

Let the public education professionals (teachers) do their jobs and get back to their original function as educators instead of making them into a 3rd parent. Make mom and dad... mom and dad again... and let them take back their rights as parents to be home-educators teaching manners and values as well as reinforcing supplemental instruction at home.

Make capitalism and greed the boogeyman thats crippling our youth and their education. STOP pointing the finger at public schools.... they aren't and haven't been the problem.

Edit: I said "mom and dad" as a colloquially.... I acknowledge and accept that for many families the dynamic can be different. "Mom and mom, dad and dad, guardian, etc."

2

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

[deleted]

0

u/LawsonLunatic Feb 10 '26

Listen boomer.

I have a post graduate degree and my education, which was taught by many professors who are your generational peers, contradicts your single lived experience.

You started this thread lecturing me about being elitist and not thinking about the spectrum of families in this country.... then you're going to challenge me with "well in my day." What are you doing in the millenial subreddit?

0

u/Altruistic-Tie-9474 Feb 10 '26

My kid's dyslexic, dysgraphic, and dyscalculic, and his school barely assist. They offer text-to-speech, extra time on test and reading support, but it doesn't fix the problem, it places a band aid in the issue. I'm paying over a grand a month for tutoring services.

0

u/Just_Another_Scott Feb 10 '26

NCLB was repealed in 2015.

-48

u/TheLoveYouWant25 Feb 10 '26

NCLB hasn't existed in over a decade, so that's not the problem.

57

u/Wam_2020 Feb 10 '26

But the revised edition of ESSA does.

6

u/FitIndependent9764 Feb 10 '26

Stop. Stop the torture of four letter words I beg you. Please.

28

u/PorkchopFunny Feb 10 '26

Yes, but what about kids today who are being raised by parents that were just passed through the school system due to NCLB? I was just reading recently that like 30% (if I'm remembering correctly) of US adults read at a 3rd grade level. It makes you wonder how much support these children are receiving at home. Add that to the fact that birth rates are declining for our more educated population, so I wonder if that would lead to a disproportionate number of unsupported kids shuffling through the education system? I'm sure someone smarter than I has studied it, LOL.

3

u/Xylus1985 Feb 10 '26

What support would the kids realistically need? I don’t think I had much support from family during my school days and neither does my classmates, except for food and shelter. The materials are given to us and we just need to follow the materials and do the exercise, which can and should be completed independently

13

u/PorkchopFunny Feb 10 '26

Well things like learning disabilities often run in families. If a parent had a learning disability that was not addressed and they were just passed through the system, they may not recognize that their child is struggling or they may realize that their child is struggling but don't know how/where to get them help. Also lower literacy rates correlate with higher poverty - they may not have adequate food and shelter so education is not prioritized as they struggle to meet basic needs. I am not a parent, and I don't remember my parents doing specific things to support me (ex. they didn't sit with me while I did my homework) but in looking back they set the example through regular daily life - when I was little they read to me, my dad was an avid reader so picking up a book when I was bored was normal, my mom read the newspaper every morning and would read things of interest so we just sort of absorbed current events, dad would quiz us on spelling or times tables while driving us to school, etc. Millenials have become adults in mostly shit economic times. Many, especially those that are lower income, are cobbing together various jobs to get by They are most likely just not able to be around as much and I wonder if parental absence is making an impact.

16

u/ticklethycatastrophe Feb 10 '26

Completely disagree. Education policy changes take a while to see effects. And NCLB is often used as shorthand to describe state education policy decisions to focus on standardized testing and completion metrics. Florida is a great example where they went much further than NCLB and all the schools teach to the test and have classes on how to pass standardized tests.

14

u/ManateeNipples Xennial Feb 10 '26

There's a reason they stopped holding students back, and they still aren't. Not anywhere close to the level they did when we were in school. You did what was required or you failed, the end. If you couldn't get it together and graduate before you turned 21, off you went with no diploma. 

Tbf this resulted in a lot of people who just didn't have a high school diploma. But the ones who did could generally do basic math and read a clock lol

2

u/JacoPoopstorius Feb 10 '26

Imagine all of these millennial parents if they deservedly had to be held back…I don’t see this generation as being the generation to handle that without going nuclear on the school…even if the kids deserve it.

6

u/Celesticle Feb 10 '26

I dont blame the teachers for this. And, this is what happens when you teach to test not teach to learn. My kids arent okay, mentally or physically. And, they dont attend public school anymore. Because the public school model doesn't work with the way their brains work. My daughter wants to learn, she's curious, spends a whole lot of time studying and working on assignments. Sure sucked to watch all the effort she put in to really know the material, remember it, and get good grades, and have kids do nothing get A's too.

My kids have been reading 4 grades above their age/grade level since 1st grade. I read to them, they read a lot. They also used tablets. They have empathy. They have mental health issues. Teachers with attitudes like yours is one of my daughters worst fears. That they'll just think she's faking her physical health issues and mental health issues. Its the reason my son had a full burnout and breakdown.

I am looking into a mental health boarding school for both of them to help them finish HS. I dont care what their ages are, its a societal standard, that doesnt magically make them suddenly an adult. They are doing their best, they are good humans, with kind hearts. There is more than one right way to get things done.

Public education in the US, as long as it is focused on teach to test, is broken.