Dandelion Break Forget reading, the kids can't even think

[Aethalope]

I tutor kids like this, too. There’s just this blank panic, like my question opened a drawer in their minds, but there's nothing inside but a tangled slinky and two broken pencils.

It is salvageable...in small groups stuffed with kids who are not like this, with friendly interactions enforced by the tutor. I have this one year 8 who got 14% in her unit test. I asked if she had read the unit. No, she hadn't. A nerdy year 6 opined she might try doing so next time. She did as he suggested and got 62% on the next test.

The thing is, it wasn't that she couldn't read or struggled to understand the text. She honestly didn't know that reading it would help her get good grades. And this is an elite British-curriculum international school, available only to parents who can afford to know better.

 

[LJ Beck]

OMG. I just... what the... is it social media that's disintegrating their ability to think? Or all media perhaps? What is going on??? It seems like it happened fast, and now we're like, uh oh. We better do something about that. I don't have kids, and don't have kids in my life, so I am clueless about this, but like... how did this get so bad so fast without course correction sooner? Perhaps rhetorical questions, but I'm kind of gobsmacked.

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

Perhaps it's not the kids or the big-money-spending parents - it's the way the curriculum is taught (no offence to teachers; I've been one and know there are "rules" and "methods" you're supposed to stick to), and the way society encourages answers at the press of a laptop/mobile button. Perhaps the text books just aren't inviting and stimulating enough. Perhaps, with even novel reading being tested to the death of imaginative immersion, the kids are just totally turned off the idea. These are issues the 2026 year of child-reading promotion needs to address.

 

[Vagabond Heart]

I'm wondering if the helicopter parenting I've often witnessed has any impact on this? Because I see kids who are never given the opportunity to work anything out on their own. All problems are solved for them and they are kept in a 'safe-place' bubble. I'm sure there's very good intentions from the parents, but I do wonder if the children are paying the price.

 

[Aethalope]

I think social media (especially YouTube), the curriculum and helicopter parents are all significant contributors. Regarding the textbooks, may I present Exhibits A and B: pages on the same topic of seed dispersal for lower secondary. One is from 2005 and the other is from 2025.


The 2025 textbook is the one my student didn't know she had to read.

 

[LJ Beck]

Laura, I'm assuming the 2025 one is on the right? Wow, that's really interesting. Good to see the books have improved at least. Do you think this is a global thing, or does it vary greatly country to country? (I mean kids not thinking, not better textbooks.)

School curriculum and textbooks were boring AF when I went to school (way back when), but I did it anyway. Because that's what you did. Looking back, the most valuable learning I got was critical thinking, how to focus, and how to daydream. Daydreaming being an important skill for brainstorming and idea generating. I wonder if kids do any of those things anymore.

Yeah, helicopter parents... and all this "everyone's a winner" and all that malarkey isn't helping kids either, I'm sure.

But also, I can imagine it's difficult for kids to see the point of an education with everything changing so fast. There are whole industries that will fold with AI. Like computer programming. If I were a kid, I'd be looking to learn a trade.

So... If they're already not thinking, let alone not critically thinking, and now they have chat GPT to really do all their thinking and decision-making for them, what will become of them? My heart goes out to them. Lots of factors stacked against them.

 

[JoanUP]

Is it because they don't use paper anymore?
As kids, we always had access to a drawer of a pile of paper and crayons/pencils.

 

[Aethalope]

Lyse, yes the right-hand one is the 2025 textbook and I actually think that's part of the problem. In the attempt to make the topic look less boring, they've made it a webpage that isn't even clickable. The students skim the headings and that's about it. They aren't reading it because there's nothing to read. This is the book that my student did even know to read in order to pass the unit test.

I've had to teach using this book and it doesn't explain anything. The kids (who are intelligent when you tell them to be) just look blankly at me and I look blankly back. I mean, consider this heading and paragraph:

Wind Dispersal
The wind is very useful for dispersing seeds and fruits.

That's kindergarten language! These kids are 13 on average, but if we're treating them like preschoolers, they'll act like preschoolers. Heck, it feels like the last paragraph of the 2005 book gives more tangible information than the entire page in the 2025 book. It uses words like 'mammals' and 'kilometers', as well as the names of species and the continents they live on. Kids (and readers) love details like that.

And how can we expect students to write a one-page essay involving critical thinking when all they've been given to learn from is this?

Urgh. Sorry. Rant over.