I taught my first class in 2000. I have definitely seen a downward trajectory overall.twocoach wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2023 1:53 pmI went to college at age 31 twenty years ago. Most of the 18 year olds I encountered could be described exactly as you just stated. I proofread an English paper that a girl wrote about health care in hospitals. The only problem was that she used the word "hospitable" in place of "hospital". Not once. Every time.JKLivin wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2023 12:57 pmMeh. I'm not concerned about the two moms. I have a gay son, and public school didn't make him that way, nor is church going to un-gay him. I'm concerned with getting distracted from teaching kids the facts and skills they need to be successful.jfish26 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2023 12:48 pm
But that's where things get muddy, right?
I personally think a math problem that just so happens to be about little JK's two moms, or little JFish's two dads, is an EXCELLENT way to communicate to the kiddos that having two moms or two dads is so mundane, so fucking boring, as to be fodder for a math problem.
As someone who has been in higher education for a quarter of a century, I can assure you that they don't read well, can't write, refuse to follow instructions, don't accept feedback, and can't do simple math. Are there exceptions to the rule? Sure. But, by and large, it is starkly different than when I was in college. Doesn't bode well for the future of our country.
You're just getting older and crankier in thinking that it is significantly worse now. I'd agree that writing skills are probably declining as fewer people actually have to write things anymore. Kids are generally more openly rude to adults now and it's probably not a coincidence that this is a problem amongst adults these days as well. They are likely learning that behavior at home.
The rest? It's really not as different as you claim.
There were a few like the girl you described when I started, but more than half were literate and genuinely accepted/acted upon grading notes such that I could see improvement over the course of a semester.
Today, the class is 98% “hospitable” students, most of whom will tell you to your face that they not only didn’t do the readings, but that they don’t plan to buy the textbook.
For about five years I bought three or four of the books out of my own pocket and offered them, in addition to my free desk copy, to students who didn’t buy the text. I averaged one taker a semester.
Am I old and cranky? If 53 (for a few more days) is old, then, yes. Is it decidedly worse than it was when I was 30? Yup.
