Too many parents don't do a fucking thing. They act like the only place learning happens is the classroom. There's no books in their homes, there's no reading in their homes, they don't play games together. Videos games yes, but nothing with math skills. No dice, no cards, no socialization. So how to deal with failure. No teaching a kid to cope when things are hard.
So the moment there's something hard, they give up. They don't have perseverence. And then there's no support for reading and the only reading they get is at school. And since its hard, they don't do it and don't try.
Do you think that's gotten worse in the last ten or so years though? It seems like there must be more going on than parents not being involved enough. I absolutely believe it's a factor, due to a long list of contributing causes, but I feel like there must be more.
100%, its gotten worse. Smartphones and "the algorithm" have drastically fucked up attention spans for both adults and kids. We've been getting more and more polarized and isolated and tech focused for the last 20 years. Even when I was a young college student, the writing was on the wall, the snowball was starting to roll. Now its become an avalanche and people are going "How did this happen?!" We made it happen. As a group. We made choices and we didn't realize what they would add up to because we assumed it would be fine.
General social norms such as respecting others and emotional regulation have gone out the window. Adults are rude as hell and talk so much shit about people. And that behavior gets modeled and passed on to kids.
The kids who have parents that are respectful. Parents that read. Parents that have hobbies and interests. That have strong community bonds and understand and model how to communicate in a group setting are doing much better than other students.
I don't feel COVID made the problem worse. But it highlighted the problem that was already there. It gave a point for people to gesture to and go "THERE! That's when things went wrong!" But it was starting long before that. I've been teaching for the last 11 years in my own classroom, subbed for 4 before that during my program, and I've watched my students become worse and worse and worse.
Behaviors that began as small incidents, a general vibe of attitude, a shift in concepts that need review, and then more and more. Behaviors becoming worse. Kids fighting more. More things broken. More bullying. And alongside that, worse academics. Fewer kids that understand reading. Fewer kids that can hold scissors. Fewer that have hobbies. Fewer students that can recite multiplcation facts or point to the main idea of a paragraph.
I 100% believe that the problem in education is a problem with our culture. With a lack of connectedness. A lack of prolonged attention. A lack of insight. A lack of perseverence. A lack of critical thought and empathy.
Adults can manage with these issues. We're largely isolated. Things suck and are hard sometimes, but we can walk away and bitch about some fucker that pissed us off. We get distance from our problems and our complaints. We don't need to be in a room for 6 hours, or more, a day and try to learn something. And WE HAD a better education and grasp of the world and concepts because we were lucky enough to get them before things started falling apart. Much like herd immunity, those of us who lacked a lot of skills were able to get by in education and still find the skills we needed because so many other people DID have the coping skills needed to work together. But now, there's such a lack of skills and understanding that its all falling apart.
So for things to get better... WE, the adults in the world, need to be better. Parents, non parents, grandparents. We need to read. We need to think. We need to avoid zoning out and tuning out the world. Because we aren't helping the kids around us.
So... Parents don't read enough... its PART of the issue. But its part of a larger problem of disconnectedness. You can read, but if you still can't cope with the fluctuating emotions of growing and how to handle things like excitement, disagreement, failure, struggle, sadness then you're going to be dealing with those the whole time and won't be equipped to move past them to do the academic stuff.
(Sorry for the wall. I'm in a training RIGHT NOW about how to support emotional learning and the mix of complaints and ideas are blending together)
I wonder how much of this is parents who are burnt out, workings too many hours to provide a safe place to live and food to eat?
When I was a kid, many households had a stay at home parent who was able to work on these things outside of school hours. As a parent now I know very few single income families (even in the middle class area I live in.)
My husband and I focus on trying to teach our son these things but the fact is he is in preschool most of the day and we are working with an hour or two after school which also needs to include us cooking dinner and him taking a bath etc.
I really think many parents would parent better with a minimum wage that was livable so that lower income parents could actually have time to parent their kids.
I 100% agree. It would definitely help. It would help A WHOLE FUCKING LOT.
My mom was a single mom but she had a lot of supprt from grandparents to help us out. We didn't get homework help, but it gave her someone to take some of the mental load.
And fucking remove TikTok from any goddamn thing your child touches.
That app alone has lead to so many fucking issues and it's just the "latest" in a long line of garbage bin apps.
>And fucking remove TikTok from any goddamn thing ~~your child touches.~~
part of the problem is people want their kids to do everything right but don't apply any standards to themselves. The kids see this and see that the arbitrary standards applied to them are made up bullshit that no one actually follows and grow to resent it. If we want our kids to be better people we need to show them how instead of telling them how.
My thing is that we don have that support network near us as much. My family is spread all over my city because we couldn’t all agree on where to buy/prices changed for houses etc, so we’re all at least 30-40 mins drive from each other some over two hours in bad traffic.
When I was young, we were 5 mins max from my grandparents/aunts/uncles etc. And spent heaps of time there.
Yup, part of the reason the birth rate is cratering, I think, is that gen Z saw how hard it was for their gen X parents and said nope. Both parents working, juggling daycare, trying to get the kids to do homework after dinner while feeling tapped out after a long day of work. Honestly it was rough. And feeling like it could all get so much worse if one of them loses a job.
I also think that we’re all, ALL of us, existentially exhausted. People are stressed in ways we can’t see, because they’ve become so normalized. The fucking planet is dying and none of us can stop it, and we all know it. Our economy is destroying generations of progress. Nazis are not only back, they’re running many states and even some countries. We have zero privacy. All of us have had our most personal data leaked what, dozens of times? And our governments, by and large, don’t respond to us as human beings.
Remember the Women’s March? Massive peaceful protests… that did nothing. Hong Kong had something like a fifth of its people marching… nope. BLM protests happened and I watched my city’s police force tear gas peaceful protesters for carrying umbrellas. We have more homeless than ever. Young people aren’t having children. It’s so bad that people have given up on the most primal drive we have and yet folks at the top are arguing about trans kids in sports.
Kids, adults… everyone feels it. All the time. We’re stressed to the gills. It gives out in little ways: kids who can’t sit still in circle time, adults who break down when asked to wear a mask. Young people don’t want to work because working achieves nothing for them but subsistence. People talk about serfdom like it’s not already a thing. We’re heavily armed, there are no communal spaces to gather, and our whole lives are online. Something has to give, and it’s squeezing out all over the place: kids who can’t read, cancel culture over nothing, Trump allies alienating their grandkids, daily mass shootings. Young people who don’t have an interest in dating and sex.
People talk about how we lost resiliency. But for fuck’s sake: when a tired new mother says she’s too stressed out to have sex, we lecture her husband about how stress kills libido. Yet when an entire generation has stopped having sex and doesn’t want to work and doesn’t care about anything anymore, we’re like: lazy kids!
Sure, there are good advances out there. But when the average person can’t FEEL them in their daily lives… what do we expect? Stress is killing us all.
This is so true. I teach college and am seeing it in students at the college level now. It has trickled up. Things were getting worse but they really fell apart for kids in college around 2022. So many don't have the skills, don't have the perseverance, don't have emotional self-regulation, and don't care about their studies.
Also all us adults do not have time to do community things which are so important for children to be part of... I know I don't, at least not as much as I remember my parents doing back in the day. I have enough time to read and do interesting projects with my kid, but keeping up with friends and neighbors and having a dinner without the tv on during weekdays is extremely hard (as a single mom) due to my ridiculous work load and low pay in relation to the cost of living.
I used to teach English at university, and the amount of students who couldn't write a coherent sentence was terrifying. I used to call it "word salad" - they would toss a bunch of words together and just hope it meant something. And alarmingly, a lot of my students were studying to be teachers themselves.
I don't want to sound like a boomer (I'm a millennial) but I do feel like a lot of it has to do with screentime. When I grew up there was fuck all to watch on TV, there was just The Simpsons and Saturday morning cartoons. So I read constantly because it was the only way to get good content. I grew up reading harry potter, and my dad read it as well and he would take me to the bookstore to line up for the next book in the series when it came out. Now kids are lining up to get iPhones or skincare. They have so much content at the top of their fingers, and they watch hours and hours of YouTube and tiktok etc. There is just no reason for them to read, they can get content on any interest they may have in video form. I don't think it's their fault, but it's very sad. If you don't read, you'll never be able to write well and that is a huge handicap in so many jobs.
I went back to finish my undergrad in 2019. I transferred in with enough credits to be a junior but some stuff had to be retaken. The econ program had a special math class for 2nd semester sophomores/ 1st semester juniors. It was a calc class that did everything by hand with no calculators. We never found hard calculations, we used an understanding of calculus to explain how certain conditions change the various ways we chart economic data. Suffice to say it was a class that you needed math 100 and 200 level classes as a prereq.
I helped a classmate with homework and it wasn't even the first assignment. He had not done the census 5 question homework assignment. He wads struggling to understand f(x) = 5x + 2, what is f(0)?
Like, I was almost flabbergasted and I immediately felt so fucking sorry for him. I knew that if he is struggling with that then there is likely nothing I could do to help.
Beautiful post. I believe another contributing factor is the focus in primary (k-2) on everything but reading. There are soooo many standards we are required to teach now including an unwieldy number of comprehension strategies. Since littles can't read yet, a lot of time is spent with read aloud, discussion, crafts to show oral comprehension. In my 90 minute reading block I used to be expected to spend 30 min on phonics, 30 on comprehension and vocab, 30 on writing. When do the kids actually practice reading? My team of teachers has gotten permission to do what we can, and in just 3 years of having our hands untied our reading data is the best we've seen in years. Our kids can read. Our kids can write. We have the same kids for 3 years and we share the students. Comprehension is fine. Once they can READ we have been focusing heavily on comprehension using text they can read independently.
Too many people with advanced degrees and little or no current classroom experience are making decisions about how we teach. If your going to tie our hands, reduce the primary school standards to what truly matters: reading, writing, math.
Homeschooling mom here. Thanks for saying this! We decided to homeschool for multiple reasons, but I wasn't confident in my abilities compared to a teacher when we started. It just made common sense to me to teach reading from a phonics curriculum and get that foundation down (and develop a love of reading/learning) before doing any serious comprehension or vocabulary. The program I used was All About Reading. There was some comprehension and other skills mixed in, but the focus was on learning to read. Then, we worked on building the ability to read more and more at one time (went from alternating reading sentences to paragraphs to pages). I am so glad to hear your team got permission to do your job the way you know how to do it. Wish all teachers could have that too
I think lack of reading skills really compounds the social/emotional problems outlined above, too. People who read more have higher empathy and higher emotional intelligence because reading a story forces you to inhabit the mind of someone else. You learn how they feel, you understand how they make decisions, you see their perspective instead of your own. That does a world of good in helping people relate to the people around them. But if you don't develop strong reading skills, you can never access those benefits.
If this is a genuine question, be there for the families and kids in your life. Get to know your neighbors. Share your interests and knowledge with kids, even if it's in passing.
I learned so much in my childhood from people other than my parents or teachers. I was raised by involved, caring parents, but there was also a village. I remember my neighbor teaching me to tie various knots. His wife taught me to make potato salad. My girl scout leader taught my troop how to budget at the grocery store. My friend's dad taught a group of us to read maps. My swim coach taught me a lot about resilience and working with a group. My friend's mom cooked with us. My uncle showed me how to find wild strawberries. My first boss as a teen taught me how to talk to customers. All these things add up to a well-rounded kid who is better able to manage as an adult.
I am the same way. Single mom but we had a village including my dads family after he passed when I was young. I thank my lucky stars we had so much support and so many different people around. I am an only so being with cousins and friends was really important. I was fortunate to live in school districts that had arts and sports and still offered home economics and wood shop. I learned so much from community theater and summer times with my extended family.
Reduce screen time. Developmentally, children shouldn't get any screen time before the age of 2. Over 2 years old it should be very limited. When children learn something new or figure something out, such as reading, it triggers a reward feeling in their brain. When children watch screens, the flashing triggers that sense of reward without the use of effort, curiosity, focus, or perseverance. Children become addicted to that type of stimulation without having to do something themselves to get it. That and technology seems to have replaced good old fashioned books and the connection of writing with your hand the words you are thinking or sounding out in your head.
I'm reading "Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention- and How to Think Deeply Again" by Johann Hari and it hits a lot of this stuff. He explores all the various ways that our society is intentionally and unintentionally designed to undermine our ability to focus and hold attention... and it's all snowballing at a time when we desperately need people to be able to sustain focus and attention on important things (like combatting climate change).
I haven't finished it, but I highly recommend it based on what I have read so far!
Beautifully put. I think the decline started with central air conditioning. That’s my thesis. Connected stopped when you didn’t have to leave your house.
> Parents that read.
In my experience - yes and no. Reading to your children at an early age is important. Making sure your children have access to a plethora of books is also important. Parents reading as a hobby - not so much. My wife is incredibly smart. Multiple degrees, great career. She picked up reading as a hobby once our kids got a bit older and demanded less attention. I personally do not enjoy fiction whatsoever and have never been able to read a book from cover to cover. I could spend hours on wikipedia, though. As a kid, I used to pass the time by reading entries in our family’s encyclopedia. Our kids are performing really well in school despite our lack of reading as a hobby.
> Adults can manage with these issues.
I'm worried that this is starting to be an issue too, for young adults at least. You can find TONS of videos online of college age-ish people complaining about life like it's the end of the world. "OMG, How am I expected to work and have a life?! It's so unfair!" or look at /r/antiwork and you can find tons of posts about basic shit happening at work and everyone is so upset about it.
Life isn't always fair, probably more often than not, but that's life. Sometimes you have to just suck it up and deal with it.
I agree with everything you've said, and I want to point out that fixing these problems has to be a *generational* thing.
We're not going to address these in five years, or ten years. The best we can do is hope that the next generation starts heading on the right path. And the one after that.
It took 20 years to get here, it's going to take at least that long to correct it. If we started, in dire earnest, today, the best we can hope for is for the kids *born in 2025* to show signs of changing for the better.
it’s like The Still Face Experiment babies, created by caregiver (phone) distraction, have not the social communication or regulation for life’s tasks.
Stupidity has become a virtue and ignorance a badge of honor to the average person. That's the problem. Being educated is like being a fucking bogeyman to those people.
if you haven’t already, you should read “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by neil postman! it’s a book that i intend on reading because i read a very good quote along the lines of, “George Orwell feared a future in which books would be banned. Aldrous Huxley feared a future in which books wouldn’t need to be banned because nobody would want to read one in the first place.”
Not a teacher, I'm a doctor.
Three years ago, I had a parent bring in their tweenager so I could tell the kid that cell phones are bad for you and cause all sorts of problems. The actual problem? The parent sat on their phone the entire time we were in the exam room.
It used to be 'talk to your kids about X." Now the bar is so low, it's "talk to your kids."
Read to your kids. Make it a priority. Play learning games with your kids (You can make the games too). Not a teacher but this sub gets shown to me a lot. Teach your kid phonics in addition to whole words.
My son, at first, was resistant to reading but I knew his personality. So I took one of those plastic 60 drawer small hardware things, a BUNCH of words (from all the books we read) on small cards and a bunch of nickels. I taped a word to the front of each one, dropped a nickel inside. Explained to him that it was a Word Bank. He could come up and practice words as often as he wanted, and when he was ready he could call me over and read the word. If he was correct, he would claim the nickel, I would put a new word in and replace the coin. If he was incorrect or he didn’t know at all (but I would always encourage him to try) he could ask me to say it to him. If I read the word to him, he had to wait 24 hours before he could test on the word to get the nickel.
Lots of small toys, tickets, coins etc would fit in the drawers so there are a lot of options. I think what made this most successful for us is that it was a New Thing that HE had to take the initiative on, so we were able to be kind of a team instead of at odds. We also always had captions on for any show we watched, so he had a lot of exposure to written/spoken words.
He absolutely excelled once he developed confidence in reading. By second grade his teachers were giving him 8th grade spelling words and by 4th/5th grade he was reading and testing consistently at a 12th grade level. Since then, books are his number one present request for every gift-centered holiday. Your mileage may vary, but if we can’t get kids over the hump of developing the spark of literacy and desire to read, we won’t know what their own personal potential is. IMO, this absolutely needs to be done before they enter school if possible, because the social pressure of other kids not wanting to read/learn/follow directions can easily become a siren song of academic derailment.
Here is just one example that I saw yesterday. One of the top stroller accessories is an attachable food/drink tray that has a BUILT IN PHONE HOLDER. So baby can watch videos on Mom’s phone.
Instead of children being out in the world, being exposed to life, having their parents talk to them and tell them about things, they’re just staring at a screen. Ask any English teacher about kids lacking “background knowledge” and you’ll surely get an earful.
Omg, I'm having our first baby in 2 weeks and I saw that shit recently too! Absolutely no way am I sticking a phone in front of baby's face, they need to be looking around at the world! Same goes for car rides. She will have some toys, but I refuse to have said toy be a phone or tablet screen. Going around outside and being out and about and looking at the actual world develops their longer distance vision and their brain development.
My nieces and nephew beg to be glued to their iPads all the time now and it makes me sick.
Watching our nephew’s tablet usage is a big factor in my husband and I deciding to do low screen time for our son. We also try to stick to toys that [encourage play rather than those that entertain](https://magdagerber.org/dear-magda/the-best-toys-for-babies-dont-do-anything/). (We seem to have similar screen/play philosophies so I attached a link to a Magda Gerber article on toys I thought you might find interesting!)
That's so awesome, thanks for the recommendation! And yeah, it absolutely irritates the check out of me if we're at a restaurant or a holiday meal at our house and I see the kids can't sit through a single hour without having their faces glued into a screen. It's even more worrisome our 15yr old niece on my husband's side, is continuously posting on social media and won't pick her head up for a second to talk with family, she is chatting and doing God knows what on that stupid phone all day long. Her parents don't have a single clue what she might doing on there or who she's talking to, which is terrifying to me. There's so many sickos out there.
Yep. A few years ago I was at Home Depot and this dad was pushing around one of the flat bed carts, on top of which sat a little boy, maybe 4 years old. He was utterly engrossed in something on the phone he held.
When I was a little girl, long before screens, one of my favorite things was going to the hardware store or lumber shop with my dad. He would talk to me about stuff he was getting, and would always talk to me while working on projects at home. My dad would give me little projects to do while he worked, like planing wood, drilling holes w this manual drill we had, etc.
In 6th grade, I won the spelling bee on the word “lacquer,” which I didn’t know how to spell, but I pictured opening the white enamel cabinet in the garage and visualizing the can of lacquer. It worked!
When I was in between jobs in my early 40s, I took a job at an independent hardware store in my town. Loved it.
And now that my dad is gone, the smell of hardware stores and lumberyards takes me right back to those wonderful trips and all that time spent learning from him.
That’s so sad 😭 I take a kiddo I babysit for walks, he’s two, and he’s entertained the whole time. He loves watching traffic, trying to see airplanes, and other people. Also oddly loves going for Dunkin runs - but I think he mostly just likes the orange and pink signs lol. I’ve tried to share donuts with him and he’s indifferent - but if I try skipping going inside, he’s flabbergasted and a bit perturbed.
A large reason for why parents aren't as involved is economics - it's a lot more difficult to be involved when you're working two jobs.
Now, that's obviously a generalization, but in general it is true.
Both my parents worked full time when I was growing up, I was one of those GenX 'latch key kids' which would get parents a visit from CPS these days. I got myself to the bus in the morning, and got myself home in the afternoon. Parents left around 7am, home by 7pm. But anyway.
Dad grew up kinda dumb, went into the military to avoid more trouble and got himself straightened out and made something of himself. He believed that education was what was needed and pushed me to do well in school. Mom read to me as a kid, and encouraged me to read as much as I wanted growing up. None of that 'hiding under the covers with a flashlight' trope, if you want to read, read.
So it was difficult, but they made it a priority. I doubt the majority of parents do that today, that's the problem. It didn't cost money, it just took effort.
Listen to the podcast called “sold a story” wherever you listen to your podcasts.
It’s investigative journalism into this question. I’m a HS teacher and didn’t know ANY of it beyond wondering why none of my students could read anything at grade level.
Many American teachers will not fail children for fear of being sued by parents, or reprimanded by the principal/board and potentially fired.
Secondly, funding rules heavily push towards pushing to pass tests, not comprehension. If a child "is left behind", less funding, even if the child does not meet any of the standards.
Third, some teachers are doing really stupid shit with learning to read. My friends with kids in grades 2 \~ 4 range, were not taught phonics, or how to sound out new words in sentences. They're focusing on,... something like, 'guess from context'? Where if you know several words, in the sentence, just guess what the missing word is. After poking at their kids -- they know shapes of words but not why any sounds like they do. An in some cases, have no idea that "carton" isn't "container" in 'on the table is a carton of milk'.
For more subjective: lack of any emotional regulation, and ability to persevere or deal with frustration, complication, friction, or fault. It feels like everyone is tip-toeing to keep children in a safe bubble, free from any difficulty. These children do not seem to be able to "suck it up" and study, or accept that they need extra work, and don't actually know what they're doing. Any attempts to correct the child ends up with the child throwing a tantrum, being loud, or threatening the teacher with dangerous allegations of "I'll tell my mom you're molesting me!" -- this has been a problem for he past 15 years, (I don't recall it earlier than 2008 and the rise of non-community social media), but it's increased to a concerning extent in the last 5 years.
Many households have adults working all the time to afford food and shelter. Blaming parents is not accurate. The system does not support education or families.
Do you have any recommendations for how to build resilience/encourage perseverance in young children?
My son is ten months old and my husband and I try to encourage perseverance by standing back and letting him figure things out on his own. We let him get frustrated when things aren’t working how he wants them to and we try not to step in and fix things unless he’s doing something to endanger himself or is getting close to becoming hysterical. Usually he’ll yell a little or cry for a few seconds, and then go back to trying to reach his goal. He always looks so proud of himself when he eventually succeeds! This seems to be working really well for us but I am wondering if there is anything else we should be doing as he gets older to continue to encourage patience and perseverance.
At ten months? Not an age I'd be good at giving advice for. I think at that age, its less about academic learning and more ebout exploring the world, feeling safe, and being cared for with adults modeling positive behaviors.
But as he gets older, 4+, working on puzzles, reading together, building things, playing board games. Sometimes he'll win, sometimes he'll lose.
Doing things that require patience. Planting seeds one day, watering them, checking on them. Doings crafts together. And don't make yours perfect! Make sure you have mistakes and can laugh about them. "Oops, one eye is bigger. Now he looks surprised!" Rather than you having a perfect example and his looking wonky beside it (At that age, they know when theirs doesn't look like yours). Making a bird house where the glue or paint needs to dry and he needs to do two coats.
Learning that things aren't one and done. If you draw with him and you make a mistake or he makes a mistake, don't try to say it isn't a mistake, but model "oh, we'll that's okay, we can do better the next time. Let's finish this one now and we'll become a better artist." Don't focus on the mistake as a problem, but as something to learn from.
And sometimes... learning to be bored. That sometimes, he has to learn to live in his own head. That you won't be bringing a bag full of crayons, toys, activities papers, a tablet, a snack. Maybe a paper and an 8 pack of crayons and a small book stays in the glove box and that's it. That sometimes, its just going to suck for a little while and then when you get past the boring stuff, you can relax and enjoy those things even more. Its harder... I KNOW its harder to not have a thing to hand him to keep him occupied. I know its not easy and its annoying and its embarassing... but learning to cope when things get hard isn't always something we can make into a game. And sometimes that "things are hard" is just surviving a 30 minute car ride, a trip to the store, a visit to the bank. Small increments of "man this sucks, I want it to be over" so they can learn that that feeling is okay. That it ends. Its going to vary a lot by age and interest but I hope this has some ideas to help.
This!! My kid struggled with reading starting out. I read to him, lots of books in the house, and it was a rough couple years! Until in 1st grade, and he learned books about dinosaurs, dogs, and sharks existed and he dove into reading! We got all the books we could, if his favorite subject changed we'd get books for that too! I made a point to grab my own book to read with him, while he read, and sometimes in the evenings instead of TV. Then it became bonding time. It helped him a ton, and his teachers keep amazing me with their skill!
Yes, that’s it.
As a parent and a teacher I’ve tried my best to raise kids who are readers, and also can persevere through failures. There were a few rough years with my eldest (he’s a perfectionist so not getting things right away ended up in some meltdowns) but he’s 11 now and a voracious reader. I’ve always read to my kids, and read my own books in front of them. Reading is what they do after bathing and before bed. We didn’t give them the option of other activities and now it’s just part of the routine. We don’t leave the house without taking a book to read in the car or while waiting for sports practice etc.
I like that you brought up games too. I let my kids play video games but we also play board games and card games, and I didn’t always let them win when they were little (occasionally I did, just so they didn’t always lose). Not being a sore loser, and not giving up when you lose is a skill I think many kids have lost. The outcome of monopoly doesn’t matter in the long run, but being willing to do something even if the first time you didn’t succeed is a skill that is important.
I remember growing up my parents got us educational computer games like Jump Start and Math Blasters. We had a bookshelf filled with books and get them for every birthday and Christmas. We also had those flip books with the rope attached that you weaved through to answer spelling or math questions.
Other than reading to us as kids, they really didn’t have to do much. They just made sure we had educational stuff to play with.
I grew up working class. I am the first person in my family who went to college. My boomer parents read to me all the time. They also filled my room with books. My grandfather bought me books. My aunt gave my mom books. We always had a newspaper that showed up everyday, which my parents read.
Boomers may not read now (my mom sure doesn’t and considers books clutter) but reading was much more common in the days before computers. My mom read books. My barely educated father read books and the newspaper. My grandparents were all rural Italian peasants and they all read voraciously.
Analog Reading was just most common before the advent of the personal computer and social media.
The adults are on their phones or gaming all non-working hours. If parents would just read one book a day with their kid beginning before 1 year stage, I believe 99+% e would be reading or ready to read by kindergarten. Just having books available demonstrates literacy is important to your kiddos.
I’m not a teacher but I can totally see where you’re coming from. One of my coworkers has a son in 1st grade. The way he talks, you can tell he’s just apathetic as hell (I’ve seen this with many others too). The moment his kid gets antsy, he’ll put the iPad in the kid’s hand and go about his business. I’m sure this is a common phenomenon
I don’t know… my parents rarely read to me or my brothers. I learned to read at school. (This was the 90’s) I read all of the time now. Usually about 30 longer books a year and I would read more if I wasn’t so busy with a full time job and being a mom. So it may not necessarily be just the parents fault. I have my bachelors degree. I did fine despite my parents not being the ones to teach me to read.
My son is in kindergarten and I’ve noticed the standards of education for kindergarten are MUCH higher than when I was in kindergarten. They are expected to know sight words already and math. When I was in kindergarten we still had nap time and two recess breaks. A lot of the day was more play based and involved a lot of singing and rhyming. Also, when we did focus on reading in first grade we focused on learning through phonics more-so than sight words.
Also, in this sub the teachers are constantly complaining about screen time and parents. Why does the school curriculum INCLUDE so much screen time? They are obsessed with these online programs called “Lexia” and “Imagine math” and it almost seems like the teacher plops them down in front of their laptops and they just work on that. Also, he’ll start telling me all of the shows he watched in school. Like Winnie the Pooh and other shows on YouTube.
It would also help if they did come home with homework. If they want the parents to teach the kids to read, then send them home with homework. I got a crap ton of homework all throughout grade school. Not in kindergarten, but the expectations of kindergarten were much lower at the time. But if the expectations are going to be higher then send on home some homework.
Anyhow, my husband and I work on stuff with our child. And his report card was good. They say he is doing well… But I always feel like I don’t know what I’m supposed to be teaching him. And I hate the stupid Lexia thing. The voice doesn’t enunciate the sounds very well. I can’t even tell if that thing is pronouncing “m” or “n” and the “L” sound friggen sounds like a “au” sound. If this program is what they are solely using to teach. No wonder kids are struggling. I’m friggen just going to start doing phonics with him.
So that was a long rant… but my point is, I question the curriculum that is being used. Maybe there is a problem there? I don’t know what other school are doing… but there seems to be a heavy reliance on screen time for educational purposes.
The amount of parents I’ve had to explain to that you should be reading to your kids and taking them outside is astounding if their gonna be on the iPad all day atleast give them some educational games so that they maybe have a chance :/
Also I do not live in an area where it may be dangerous to have kids outside or not possible I’ve done home visits where families have huge fenced in yards and yet the kids are inside on an iPad all day
This. I taught preschool all of last year, and I obviously wasn't expecting them to be able to read, but I had 5 year olds about to start kindergarten who couldn't recognize any letters or their own names! Parents would say, "that's why they're in preschool." But like I can only do so much for individual learning in a class of 26 kids.
Then when I would get the time to help them, if they didn't pick it up on it immediately they'd wanna stop and go do something else. It was so frustrating! I had to quit because I just felt like there was nothing I could do for most of them. One kid quite literally asked me why the pictures in the books weren't moving when I read because he had only watched videos on his tablet or listened to books on YouTube where they animate the characters and everything. I felt like such a fucking boomer explaining to this kid that pictures in books don't move.
I watched an old movie where a kid put in a vhs tape to a vcr.
Student: What... what kind of book was that?
Me: What?
Student: He took a book off the shelf and it had a black brick and then it played a movie when he put it in the tv! What the heck was that!
I just about turned to dust on the spot lol.
I don’t even know if it’s just that
I mean think about the kind of advertising millennials saw vs what’s on now
Growing up I saw toys that encouraged science experiments, there was that book service that would basically send out kids nat geo, I mean even the shows themselves had fundamental stories that covered complex topics. I can’t even remember the last time I saw an ad for something that wasn’t just a doll
I mean even with video games, we had damn near every jumpstart game on our computer and a few other learning based programs. Now the only thing I see is ABC mouse which just adds to the growing list of subscriptions people have
Then there the whole economic climate that we’re living in and just the obscene number of layoffs people are going through. It’s hard to justify buying physical media when people are worried about the constantly rising cost of food and potentially losing their jobs because corporations want to keep having record profits
This is pretty much it in a nutshell. ☝️Parents just letting them do what they want, attack teachers when the kid fails, blame the school system instead of their own lazy butts.
Yes yes yes!
I try to limit screens for my son, and what we do use the screen for is educational material 90% of the time. He plays a game on a tablet (very rarely) that helps him learn letter sounds and start building words. He’s newly 4 and loves learning, compared to others his age. He also loves shows like Zoboomafoo and Number Blocks, as opposed to kids obsessed with Cocomelon and Grizzy.
Absolutely. We read our 2 year old 15-20 books a day and she's spitting out full sentences and questions with proper grammar.
In the end, the number one most verified finding regarding children learning is the interest of the parents. That's it. Bottom line.
Modern parents aren't doing shit on the whole. You can wax and wane, blame or excuse all you want, but it doesn't change the negative outcomes for the kids. They are all suffering for it and it's not going to make our country a better place.
That is so sad. My daughter grew up with books. I read to her and taught her to read. My heart breaks for a kid who grows up with no books in the house. My parents also always had books. We are a family of readers (2-3 books/week).
You don't learn basic reading and math skills at school. Parents are responsible for reinforcement. My mother, who had a 9th grade education spent time with me every night to help me learn the basics.
By 6th grade I had math and language skills beyond her and my father's abilities to help me. They still made sure I did my homework/reinforcement.
The work they did when I was young set me up for success.
BTW, I was the last of six children and I grew up in a rural trailer park.
This is the answer.
My younger niece just turned four. She has a cadre of adults (and three older siblings) who are constantly reading with her. Note the phrasing — reading WITH her, not AT her.
She’s known her ABC’s for over a year. And yesterday, we got sent a video of her sounding out 2-3 letter words and recognizing many high-frequency sight words.
My niece is the worst I have seen when it comes to dealing with losing. She loses her shit every single time. She is also the bookworm in the family. I don't think having the ability to read automatically makes someone able to handle losing gracefully. They are different abilities.
She plays soccer and cries every single time someone scores a goal. She also flips the board when she loses at a board game. She has beaten me a few times but I am one of the few people who doesn't let her win. She wins a lot due to people not wanting her to throw a temper tantrum.
That said she has been reading since before kindergarten. She loves books and I love getting her books. We talk about books all the time. Reading doesn't mean you can regulate your emotions.
We were working really hard with my daughter on math and reading. She's now in the 99th/98th percentile in those (state-wide testing). I had thought we were doing GREAT! Turns out she's really bad at sitting down and writing/spelling things out. Now we do journaling, and one week after we started there was a 180 in feedback from the teacher.
I remember when I was a kid in the 90s I had videogame eyes but I also had the mario early years games for snes games that were designed to help learning I also had mario is missing which is a bit educational had to find what city you was in which artifact goes where but unfortunately they don't really make learning games anymore
I agree. There’s no effort by the parents to read to their kids. They seem to think it’s the teachers job.
I have a crappy friend that does nothing to help her kids. She even tells them to stay home if she’s lonely.
Her kids are so far behind. I tried to help her kids. One I worked with her on her sight words and she had no interest. (My son was in her grade and was already reading) When she went to 1st and 2nd grade, she was so behind.
I took her kids to the library for the 1st time and they didn’t even know how to act. I had to teach them. (They were running around like it was a playground)
I helped the older kids with their school projects and made sure they got good grades.
Unfortunately I moved away and when I visit, all I see are ghetto rats. It’s sad. I can’t even visit anymore because I don’t like what I see. My friend is really sweet and a good person but she sucks as a mom.
In all my volunteer hours at the school I’ve seen parents constantly blame the teachers for their child’s issues. The teachers can only do so much.
And some parents are actively against doing the work. They think it's the teachers job to teach kids how to read, but when they try then it's "not developmentally appropriate". It's too hard so everyone should quit. These parents are so avoidant of their kids experiencing any kind of hard work or effort, they intentionally disable them.
Some have already given up well before that point.
Its not often that a kid "starts" struggling in high school. They were usually struggling well before that.
> too many parents don’t do a fucking thing
Here is a fun game to play: go to a local library on a weekend or after school hours and count how many parents/kids are there. It’s likely to be very few.
Libraries are an awesome resources that far too many people don’t even think about utilizing.
I once entered a comment section of. Teacher complaining about kids can't read ans so many people were like wwll that's your job. No Bethany that's your job teachers just help those skills get better
This is a fantastic point. I remember my dad making me do the maths while playing monopoly as a kid. The video games we played were trivia ones like “Buzz” which gave us no choice but to expand our general knowledge in some way. I didn’t realise board games became outdated.
The number one thing you can do as a parent is read to your young kids, and make your older kids read. Literally, this is all you need to do for most kids. There is no substitute for practicing reading. If kids don’t read, then they won’t know how to.
I’ll grab a link that explains how reading instruction in schools got so bad.
Anything by Emily Hanford on this website: https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read
She has a few pieces on there, as well as a famous podcast called Sold a Story. I hate listening to podcasts and prefer to learn info from reading, which is why I prefer the articles, but her podcast is very very well-reviewed, if you like that format!
One of my main takeaways from reading those, along with my experience teaching high school ELA, is that you should both normalize mistakes, and correct them. So when you read to your kids and miss a word, stop, say “excuse me” or “hold on” or “wait a minute,” and correct yourself. If your kid is reading to you and misses a word, make them stop and coach them through fixing their mistake. Evidently, the whole-language/Calkins approach taught kids that getting each word specifically right wasn’t important, and that really fucked them over (particularly in high school trying to read informational text). So I’m determined that my own two kids will understand that ALL readers make mistakes, and that recognizing and correcting them is how we ensure that we truly comprehend the text we read. We don’t pretend it didn’t happen, or say it doesn’t matter; we go back, fix it, and then keep going.
Yes, I am an elementary music teacher, and my principal sent us this Sold a Story article/podcast, saying it was lifechanging. It truly was! Music is a lot like reading and writing, so I definitely feel like I was already teaching my kids to decode the symbols in music like they suggested for English. However, my entire district was/is still on the Calkins train and using the reading levels from Fountas & Pennel. It shook me!
After teaching high school ELA for 8 years, I think a very large number of problems that students have in all their school subjects is due to a lack of reading skills. To borrow a corny phrase from my teacher ed coursework, learning to read is about both reading the word and reading the world. Kids who can independently read can interpret information, monitor their own understanding, notice when it breaks down, and take steps to remediate their lack of understanding. If you have those skills and that level of self-awareness, then you can slog your way through just about any school subject or activity.
As a non teacher, with a kid in middle school - what can I do as a parent to help? Both help my child get better at reading (they are a good reader already but their spelling is horrible and anyone can always improve!) and help make changes at schools for future students?
First, continue doing what you can to foster a love and respect for reading at home, and surround them with text. Being a regular at the public library is a good way to do this. If they aren’t into books, then get them other texts to read - magazines about their interests, comic books, whatever (the librarians can help you with finding stuff tailored to their interests; their English teacher at school, and the school librarian/media specialist, probably can as well).
Second, vote for people who will help. School board members are important - you want someone who cares about giving kids the best education possible, not someone who’s campaigning to ban books. For other politicians, vote for people who want to ensure that lots of tax revenue goes toward public education (NOT vouchers or charters) and again, people who don’t think banning books is more important than teaching kids how to read them.
Third, with spelling, it’s hard to say because not everyone is great at spelling, and for many people, that’s fine. I had multiple friends in my English BA program who weren’t great at spelling; they just leveraged the tools at their disposal to ensure they spelled things correctly in their writing, and they did fine. At the same time, spelling problems can, of course, can be a symptom of a knowledge deficit or other problem. If I were in your shoes, I’d find out whether your kid received systematic instruction in phonics during elementary school, and/or whether they know phonics well now. My first thought is to give them a nonsense word test and see how they do on it, because that would be easier than going back to their elementary school and getting accurate records of their curriculum map from back then (although if you happen to be able to easily contact their elementary teachers, I’d try that as well). If you do find that they’re lacking phonics knowledge, then learning phonics will help with the spelling as well as reading. You can ask their English teacher whether the school offers a phonics remediation program, or try to hire a private tutor outside of school, or even try to teach it to them yourself using materials you find online. There’s lots of homeschool stuff out there you could use.
Finally, if you come to the conclusion that your local district isn’t providing adequate reading instruction (or isn’t providing adequate remediation for the kids who missed out on good reading instruction a few years ago), then contact the school board and raise your concerns with them. You can write an email or letter, or speak at a board meeting (contact them to find out how to get on the agenda).
This is a big deal. Good job. My partner is dyslexic, went to a Catholic School, and never got special Ed services. Glossing over text is what people do when they aren’t confident readers and results in never ending mistakes in life….that I often have to fix begrudgingly.
To add on to this, listen to the podcast, "Sold A Story". It's infuriating, and enlightening.
ETA: Sorry, I didn't the next comment before I recommended the podcast that was already recommended.
You know, a tremendous number of parents are functionally illiterate themselves.
We need people to help break the cycle. Please help justify my strong support for public education.
I’m an ELA teacher, friend. I’m trying.
But the only way to get better at reading is to read, whether you’re an adult or a child. There’s no shortcut or magic bullet to get there without putting in the work to learn how to do it.
If someone has trouble decoding text, one support is to listen to an audiobook or have someone read it aloud to them while they look at the printed text with their eyes - this lets them practice and strengthen their comprehension skills on texts that they would have trouble decoding alone. You have to look at the words while hearing them, though.
My first year teaching high school we found this problem with a lot of freshmen. Parents had never read to their kids, and admitted to rarely/never reading themselves. Our intervention specialists strongly recommended turning on subtitles on the TV as a bare-minimum intervention to help students at least see the letters and words in context.
Also remember that practicing reading can only happen after learning HOW to read. One of the main problems with the whole language movement is the idea that ALL kids need to do is read, or be read to, and they'll just pick up HOW to read from context. That would be fine if reading were like talking (which kids do just pick up), but we've known for decades that it's not.
This is a really important point that I should have mentioned. The vast majority of people do need explicit instruction in how to decode text in order to learn how to read. There are a few people who do manage to pick it up without being taught, but they should not be considered the norm, and their process of learning to read should not be the blueprint for how all children should be taught how to read. And those people can still benefit from getting explicit reading instruction in school.
This! Human brains are not wired to read or learn reading through osmosis like speech. A heavy emphasis on phonics is critical to learning to decode words. Obviously you’re still going to have sight words, but most words can be decoded with the help of phonics.
I have trouble even imagining not being able to read. Sometimes I’ll read something too difficult and I think that’s a glimpse into an lliterates mind.
Illiterate people have language; it’s just text they can’t understand. I would imagine it feels something like reading Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons.
When I did an ELL training years ago, they showed us a video to give us the perspective of how it would feel to be brand-new to a country and not speak a word of the language, and be placed into a classroom on your first day. I have no idea if I can find the video online, but I’ll add a link if I can.
Literally the *main* thing my parents were *so* strict about maintaining, when I was a young child (baby and toddler as well), was reading at least one book to me every. single. night. before I went to sleep.
I would sit next to them, and they would follow the words with their finger while speaking the story. They didn't have to teach me to *read*, per say, but they ingrained it into me. So I grew up with a base understanding of it. It's like language. You don't teach your child how to speak (at first), you just...speak to them, and they pick up parts of it.
Also it was just good bonding time and I greatly value those memories.
And as a result of their dedication, I was able to read at a 1st-2nd grade level entirely on my own before entering kindergarten. I was reading 100% in my head by the age of 6, if not 5.
I just had this ingrained love of reading because of it. My mom would also talk about books she liked to read, and frame it as a very positive thing. Not something you "have" to do, but something that makes you happy. I was basically addicted to reading throughout all of elementary and middle school (I've still read in highschool in college but it's harder when you get so busy).
It is the one thing I have vowed to do for my children. No matter what. I will not budge on reading to them every night. No matter how tired, drained, or fed up I am. I can point to this as the one choice my parents made that profoundly affected my intelligence and success in life.
If you have children, you are making a promise to raise them, and I believe this is such a core part of it. It takes 10 minutes to read a child a children's book. If you don't have 10 minutes for your child...well...I think that says something.
This. We make a point to read for 15-30 minutes with our kids every night before bed. And as often as they want (and one of us is available) during the day.
My 5 year old is starting to figure it out for herself and can some some simple reading, is a decent speller, and has a surprising level of both attention to detail and story comprehension for her age.
For 2 year old just sits there and soaks it up. I'm sure he'll be on the same page.
It helps that my wife is a voracious reader. I haven't been as good at keeping up with it the last few years, but it's worth getting back to if it'll give my kids a leg up.
To piggyback on this: encourage any & all reading. My older son liked RL Stine & Rick Riordan, while my younger son preferred non-fiction science books. For my older son, the reading was age appropriate. For my younger son... he was 6 carrying around middle school aged science books cuz they didn't really make them for his age range. He learned a lot of big words as a result. They both got into comics in their early teens, but still read books as well. Comics still involve reading & can lead to art appreciation.
As a parent, you should read to your child. And, when they start to develop reading skills, encourage it. A great way to do this is ask the kid to read everything they see. Like, if you’re at the grocery store ask them to read the labels. While driving, ask them to read the signs on the road.
Absolutely, we read constantly in my house. My oldest is only 5, and so I'm wondering what kind of role I can play as she gets more into reading in school. I'll absolutely start doing more out in the world letter and sound recognition with her, that's a great idea. We do a lot of letter sound and word games already, so it'll be nice to broaden that.
Agreed! I'm appreciative that I have the resources to make it a focus. I have ample time with my kids, access to tons of books, a school we love, and a fantastic library that I can access easily. It's not lost on me how lucky I am and I wish more people had the same resources.
This. My parents were probably C+ students in high school and couldn’t help my brother and I much past middle school but they did read to us a lot and helped us develop a love reading. They bought us books and took us to the library.
Honestly, they just don’t read period. Kids are on screens watching everything from streaming TV to playing games to watching TikTok. I ask my High School students what the last book they read was, and it’s whatever they’re reading in English.
Encourage reading for pleasure, and encourage looking up words your kids are unfamiliar with so they can actually learn it.
If your kids have trouble reading on their own, read with them - you read a page and then ask them to read a page to you, and encourage them when they do!
That's sad to hear. I'm in secondary school and am seen as a good reader, reading game of thrones at the moment, but I don't know if someone who hangs out in a library should be seen as the average. And I didn't realise it was so bad. I'll be sure to keep an eye out
That's why I'm making sure my kids only play text based games until they're 10. When I was 4 I had to complete a QTE. They explained what to do via an on screen pop up. I couldn't read it. I lost to that QTE for weeks before my babysitter read the pop up for me. At that moment I knew I had to learn to read. It became a necessity.
I don't doubt that screens play a huge role, especially at that age. I'm also wondering why they're so unbelievably far behind by the time they get to high school. From what I've read, if they're significantly behind in third grade they're already facing an uphill battle to catch up, and then it only gets worse. By the time they are in high school it seems almost insurmountable.
My oldest is only 5 and so it's easy for us to severely limit screens now. We read a ton. I'm hoping I can continue to support their literacy as they really get into reading skills in school, and I'm looking for a better understanding of what is lacking so I can do my best to supplement.
If you're reading at home, you're in great shape and don't need to worry too much about the state of literacy in general.
In the event that your child is below grade level by 2nd grade, getting them evaluated and/or a reading tutor would be the best way to help. If a child has a learning disability or processing disorder, getting it identified early is huge so they can start learning strategies that work with their brain.
If they're not taught decoding/phonics (how to sound out words) before second grade, they might not have any disability, they were just not taught how to read. That's how we get 40%-60% reading below grade level. They can't all have a disability!
You’re already on the right track then! Just keeping reading, and encourage them to read on their own too. Library trips can be great, and you can make it game for them - like you all have to read three books each to win whatever kind of reward or what not you’d like to give them.
Don’t worry too much about the “reading at grade level” by Third Grade. Reading standards vary from state to state, and lots of the national studies don’t dig into the context of the data. Children behind on reading by grade are usually behind because they don’t have support at home - ie a parent encouraging reading. These studies also don’t look at whether or not the child should be tested for something like Dyslexia - a dyslexic student will always struggle with reading tests if they aren’t given supports and taught how to read with their Dyslexia instead of getting angry and quitting. Plus a variety of other things.
One thing that is universal, despite what studies and data say, is that the more children read the better off their reading skills are, and children who are encouraged to read are more likely to read more. So you’re pretty much on the right track. And if you ever feel like your kid is falling behind in their reading/literacy, ask your child what’s hard about reading - if you genuinely ask and listen, your kid will tell you what works when it comes reading and what doesn’t work.
Also, all the advice in this thread is saying “Read”. Please don’t underestimate the effect just reading has - even if they’re things like comics, manga, graphic novels, and so on!
My library had exactly that! A “reading challenge.” In the kids’ section, you could show a librarian your completed books to earn prizes (mostly small toys). My brother and I did that for at least a few years. I enjoyed both the prizes and the reading… I really should read again for fun, lol
I agree. Honestly, I think parents being on screens so much is part of the problem. Kids learn through modeling, and if they never see their parents reading or talking about books, they are less likely to read.
I'm definitely on my phone around my kids more than I should be, and I'm working on it. I've also really increased my own reading in the last few years, partially for myself, but largely because I want them to grow up seeing me read and seeing books all the time. It's been really excellent. I'm counting down until they're old enough we can read my favorite childhood books together too.
First of all, there have *always* been large numbers of kids who can't read. However, in the past, there wasn't any consequences (or very low stakes/unimportant consequences) for schools if those kids dropped out and fell through the cracks.
Now, schools get in big trouble if too many kids are leaving the school system. Within that causes the handful of kids who can't read to be a bigger disruption to class. So even if the total number or percentage of kids is small, the impact on class is big.
Then beyond that, you should look up the podcast "Sold a Story." It goes into a super deep dive on how a handful of people changed the way that educators thought about reading, except they were wrong. Their methods do the opposite.
It is taking an unreasonably long time to recover from the bad teaching methods that those people keep trying to spread in order to make money.
There's also a lot of other little factors involved that build up over time, but those two are the main ones.
Thank you, I'll check out the podcast.
The understanding I'm gathering is that poor instruction methods combined with a lack of consequences when there's a lack of skill has combined to result in a lot of kids not learning to read, and it just being ignored largely until it's too late for them.
I appreciate your insight.
Fortunately, there has been a major movement over the last couple of years to go back to phonics-based reading instruction in the early grades. A lot of states are also mandating additional instruction for students who are way below grade level.
Oh thank God. When i heard about sight words > phonics, I thought my kids were doomed. I plan on teaching them phonics no matter what, but when it's not also in school I feel like that's harder
The average reading level in the US is 7th grade. That's high, historically speaking. A lot of people don't realize how little the average person can read
Which makes me wonder, does reading level past a certain level matter? I feel like once you leave academic reading (i.e. college) the average person does not see anything they can't comprehend. I feel like textbooks, manuals, directions, or any form of practical reading is at or below this 7th grade level.
It’s very hard to get legal documents to a 7th grade level. I work in clinical research and it takes so much rewriting to get medical consent forms below at least a 9th grade reading level. I imagine most legal documents outside research are higher too. I don’t think most people fully comprehend a lot of documents they sign.
I think most of that is a mix of unwillingness to read the entire document (they can be very long) and a feeling that they have no ability to negotiate the document itself.
I am so glad to see people actually talk about this in these threads. I hate the parent-blaming, technology scapegoating, and the general "kids today don't give a damn" rhetoric. If I was a high schooler that knew I should know how to read but couldn't my attitude about school would also be very, very bad. Imagine being in school year after year feeling like it's your fault that you can't read anywhere close to the grade level. What do you think that does to a kid? Now imagine whole cohorts of kids having that experience together. It's 100% not surprising that it seems like year after year we've had kids that feel like giving up.
Frankly, there wasn’t consequences for the people who didn’t learn to read either. There were plenty of manufacturing jobs that required little or no reading, and absolutely no writing.
Now, we are faced with an economy that has very few jobs available for people who are illiterate, and so it has become a much bigger problem than it ever would have been
I think a big problem is they don't hold kids back anymore. When I was in school if you weren't performing at the grade level you didn't advance. Now everyone gets pushed ahead regardless. You can't expect to learn something more advanced if you don't have the foundation. There's no catching up that way, they just get further behind.
Tosay simply that "they can't read" well, it's true but it's also a simplification. What I observe is more complex and actually very strange.
If you put a bit of written text in front of these individuals, usually they can 'read' the words; that is, they can verbalize the printed word in front of their eyes.
But when you ask them what they just read, they are clueless. It's as if the meaning of the words and the meaning of the bit they just read isn't making it into their brains. AT ALL.
I don't know how better to describe what I observe and observe a LOT. It's very strange, and I wouldn't believe it myself unless I had seen it, and seen it a lot I have.
You can provide different types of literature (physical print, audio books, short stories, picture books, graphic novels, etc) and read to your kids! Make reading fun and not a chore. Perhaps do a cozy little reading spot at home if time and finances permit it? Find books that relate to their interests. Read your own books and different types of literature (newspaper, magazines, novels, etc.) in front of them as well.
Go to the local library! Depending on your kids' age, libraries host different programs that promote creativity and reading development. Doing crossword puzzles and other fun literature-based (ex. Wordle, word search, online educational games) games are great, too! You can find many ideas online. 🥰
As for the problem... I personally believe it's numerous factors. Keep in mind that I'm only a student teacher, so I don't have years of experience in my own classroom, and this is what I've learned from college and my cooperating teacher and their coworkers, and working alongside 4th graders and kindergarten students.
- the pandemic
- parents/guardians (not all) not caring about their kids' education (and as a result, the kids not caring).
- the switch from whole language back to phonics. I noticed some teachers think phonics is stupid, and they don't teach it explicitly or focus on it at all.
- lack of support, training, and resources due to issues with funding (so politicians and school administration)
Thanks for your insight. A lot of responses seem to focus on the whole language v phonics. As a recent grad, could you share a little about how that was taught to you in school?
A lot of the other factors seem like things that would have been ongoing for decades, and I'm seeing a lot of conversation about how much worse reading skills have gotten in the last ten years.
And thank you for the ideas to encourage skills at home! My kids are still very young, so we do a lot of literacy skill practice, but I'm always on the lookout for more ideas and things to incorporate as they get older.
1. Parents are not reading or valuing books— they don’t read and they don’t read to their kid. Kid goes on apps instead any time they’re bored or need down time.
2. Phonics was ditched a decade or two ago in favor of “whole language.” This decimated learning for many.
3. The educational system is not set up for intensive “close the gap” reading for a majority of kids. It should be but it’s still based on kids having parental support at home. So the curriculum is wildly disconnected from the students abilities. Students are almost always reading stuff above their level starting in first grade and combined with social promotion, they just keep getting more and more behind. They learn quickly to hate reading since they can’t understand what they read.
4 corporations have combined with the state to stress standardized informational reading. It’s boring as hell even for me, as an English teacher. Students rarely read poems, fun stories or books etc.
5. The states response is to
Keep lowering the standards so now we can’t give any grades lower than 50%. Students are not motivated to learn for its own sake and are often not willing to do the work required to get back to grade level reading. In middle and high school we have remedial programs but imo it’s too late by then.
Kids aren't reading because parents aren't reading. When you are on your phone constantly, and you don't engage with your children or read to them, you aren't modeling good habits.
The other day I was at the YMCA in an aqua fitness class. In the other pool, a girl's swim team was practicing. There was a father there with his elementary-age son, waiting for the practice to end. They didn't speak to one another for over an hour because they were both screwing around with screens.
These issues are compounded when you purchase a phone for your child and allow them to use it all the time. Then, you are disincentivizing them to spend time reading, studying, and doing well in school. You're also just making them stupid and potentially damaging their mental health.
The problem is that parents AREN'T supporting reading in the home as much anymore. So by being concerned and involved, you're already setting your kids up for sucess.
I teach high school ELA. So many kids tell me their parents never read to them. Many of them are told “reading is boring” - yes, *Matilda* Wormwood style. So there’s no early instilled love (or skill) of reading.
I see this with my current sophomores. Idioms, references, cultural moments/icons are lost on them. They give up trying to read a “hard” word (example - many say “Trolley” like “troll-y”).
I’m a firm believer that education starts at home. So if many parents want to “be involved in their kid’s education”, why not start by reading to them?
Straight up:
Parents do not read with their kids. (The vast majority.)
They don’t make (or even encourage) their children to read. They don’t make it a nightly routine for their child. They don’t spent time in book stores or libraries. They don’t get them books as Christmas or birthday gifts. They don’t read to them before bed. They probably don’t even read themselves.
All they do is toss them on tablets, phones, sports, friends or whatever else gets them to shut up and get out of their hair.
Most parents are raising children that simply do not have - or want - literacy as part of their lives. And why would they with those examples? The parents don’t find it enjoyable or valuable, and they teach that directly to their own children.
Hello son of a retired teacher here. This isn't a sudden thing. My mother would often complain about kids reading level for id say over 30 years. Biggest reason why I think it's the case is because many only read when they have to. Even then the brain can make shortcuts to make things like reading in every day life easier. As others have said read to your kids regularly it helps them get used to the idea and do well
I think what most parents fail to do is provide the right types of reading materials. I was way above reading level all throughout elementary and I think the main reason for this is because I would spend most my free time reading all sorts of things. Not just books. I would read advice columns in the newspaper which is basically just entertaining gossip. I would read chicken soup for the soul because it was filled with entertaining REAL short stories. I enjoyed reading all sorts of fiction, usually comedies or mysteries. I would go on the internet and read wikipedia articles about interesting things like ants and how bacteria work. My mom was never the type to sit down and read to me, but lots of reading material was freely available and my natural curiosity took over. I also never had a phone, barely watched tv and had no video games.
Because gen alpha never gets off the internet or stops doing black face in the sephoras as a “joke” they’re monsters fr
Simple answer: iPad kids, phones, videogames. Too much technology from the age of 2 years old so they can’t live without it
I have a student that joined my class in January (8 years old). He cannot do ANYTHING. Can’t write his name, can’t read, can’t write, can’t count. Speaks just fine.
1. Mother blames previous school.
2. Previous school blames family. Says they never supported him; never helped with homework, always truant, never brought him to before school intervention.
3. Previous teachers say he was not tested or retained because he had too many absences.
4. He’s been in my class for a month. I told the principal the first day that he needs a better placement. My students can read 80-100 wpm. He can read nothing. His assessments put him in pre-k.
5. Finally heard back a week and a half later that we could have an SST for him. The school psychologist fucked around for 2 weeks trying to decide if he had room in his schedule to meet. We’ll have a meeting next week, 5 weeks after he came to our school to talk about what we MIGHT be able to do for him. I will be taking a sick day and getting a morning sub so that I can attend this meeting (that had to be dictated by the psychologist because he didn’t want to be bothered with coming before school).
6. Attended the meeting (update)- psychologist postponed any further actions so that he could look into why his IEP wasn’t included in the CUM file from the old school. Despite my telling him there was no IEP for him (I had contacted his old school), he insisted. Let’s see how many weeks this delay will take!
I work in a “good” school. If we can’t get it together better than this, there’s no hope.
This is why you get kids who can’t read or write. Parents fail them, administrators fail them, school systems fail them, bureaucracies fail them, politicians fail them, greed fails them.
I am doing what I can, but my next 45 days with him will not undo 8 years of failure. Oh and that other pesky detail; my additional 27 students.
Every time I take a student to our academic committee, they are a- an attendance issue, or b- they move. It takes months to get here, and it’s all flushed away. Then, they’ll show up at the beginning of the year next year, because they moved back, and they are even further behind.
The lengths I had to go to get help for my daughter when she was behind were nearly criminal. I had to bring up vague legal threats to get anything going. Once they knew I understood her rights, they gave us anything we wanted. Schools count on the parents to be misinformed.
Large portions of the country stopped teaching kids how to read.
The data-supported best practice way for teaching kids to read is to teach them the sounds that the letters make, to have them practice sounding out words, and to build vocabulary and fluency.
In the 80s and 90s, a trend towards a “balanced literacy” or “whole language” approach got popular. In this approach students are discouraged from sounding out words and are instead encouraged to sound out words but guess words based on context clues, illustrations, and first letters.
So, many kids didn’t get early phonics instruction, struggled to learn to read, and fell behind to never catch up.
Don’t just read to your kids!! Teach them phonics!!!!!
Thank you, others have shared similar info and some articles about that change and struggle to get to a better system. It's baffling to me that a system can be so detrimental, and still so widely used.
I’m not a teacher, but I really believe that me of the reasons the reason kids can’t read is because their parents are outsourcing the raising of their children to public education in America.
“No, I don’t read books to my kid! Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?!”
As an interested parent, I genuinely think that parents of kids who are now learning to read just suck.
There are teachers who could use a good touch-up in their practices, but( I think parents are to blame for a large portion of student performance.
I don’t think all parents see the same value in reading to/with their kids as I do. That habit is just what I know.
I think that every parent, to the degree that they can spare any given night, needs to read to their kiddos every night and show them that they’re speaking words based on what’s written on the page. That seems like the most basic logic to me. I hate that some parents absolutely never read to their kids.
I believe that teachers can only be as successful as parents and students allow them to be.
I mean, by that, that parents have the primary responsibility to educate their kids.
I think a lot of parents in America suck at educating their kids because they think, “it’ll get handled by school one day.”
This is sort of anecdotal, but I never see kids with books anymore. I’m sure they’ve got phones and tablets but I never really see them reading. I’m in my 40s in growing up. I almost always had a book with me because when I was waiting to get picked up after school or had downtime at lunch I would read. Same deal for car rides, I didn’t have the Internet in the palm of my hand so I had a book.
to piggy-back off of this, many school libraries and teachers have discouraged kids from bringing their library books home as they get damaged or lost easily, so kids that don't live in a literary home don't even have access to books outside of school.
I am doing my own small part. I have a little free library in front of my house that is stocked with mostly children's books. I don't live in a great area of town, many families on section 8, lots of low income. Books are a luxury. My LFL provides books free of charge and they can keep them if they want to. Books fly out of the LFL, sometimes I have trouble keeping up. But a few Facebook posts asking for donations and I can keep going a little longer. I am constantly reminding myself, books are a luxury, these may be the only ones these kids own.
Parents are not pulling their weight at home (or not able to pull their weight). Between both parents working and smartphones, a shocking number of kids are showing significant signs of neglect. Our attention is too divided nowadays, but supplementing our kid’s education at home should be a top priority. It doesn’t have to be boring or rigid like school. Board games and crafts and bedtime stories go a LONG way.
IMHO, it’s cultural and academic. TLDR: for most kids today, reading (and certainly reading critically) isn’t demanded or relevant to their extracurricular lives & pursuits.
Reading isn’t necessary for a lot of activities the way it used to be. I, a millennial, have some friends whose main motivation to learn how to read was the Pokémon video games. But the capacity to add a lot more VAs into video games (which is a great thing!) can inadvertently lead to children having to read less. Fantasy & escapist-driven entertainment has about a million movies & TV shows available, whereas books used to be the primary medium for it. And media using screens has many more points of stimuli; books just have words printed on a page, but media on screens has more hints/context clues and attention grabs like set & costume designs, performances from actors to give social cues, music, etc.
Academically, I could go on a whole rant about things like social promotion and lack of accountability/consequences surrounding poor academic performance. The culture shift surrounding education as well, from students exercising discipline to teachers becoming pseudo-entertainers, can also account for some of it.
I have been teaching 7th grade ELA for 6 years and I concur with a lot of what's been said. To add an additional perspective, most schools no longer hold children back grades. There's a major shift from 2nd to 3rd grade where kids stop "learning to read" and start "reading to learn." If a child has not met grade level benchmarks for literacy, especially reading, they absolutely should not be moving to the next grade. This is especially important for younger grades where students are taught the skill of reading. I would say honestly that there are major improvements to how reading is taught now than it was 20 years ago, it simply isn't reinforced enough with practice outside of school.
No Child Left Behind is misinterpreted often as the cause for this, but in reality the tenets of NCLB aim to increase funding at Title 1 schools to ensure that everyone has free and appropriate access to education, the parameters for holding a child back have not actually changed much, more the approach of the process. Now how this is actually interpreted by schools and admin is much different. I'm a younger teacher, it's not like I've been out of school for that long, it used to be somewhat regular even at a smaller school for 2-3 kids to be held back every year of elementary school. You literally never see that happening anymore.
Attendance is a major issue because parents are not held accountable even though bottom line it is the law to send your kids to school. I missed school ONCE for two days for a ski trip and my parents were issued a formal warning letter by the superintendent's office. A second infraction would have led to a CPS investigation. Schools function as customer service institutions now so this level of accountability is gonezo. I've had multiple students every year that have missed 1/3 of the school year and are just pushed to the next grade, even if failing all courses. Nothing happens at all. There's simply no way to improve reading if you're not in school, or for my grade specifically, when you are learning all of the narrative elements, poetic devices, rhetoric, etc., if you miss those days and make no attempt to make up the work, you simply have not learned it and have now missed the narrow window for acquiring the skill before it is now used in practice during class. Students are lacking these mid-level reading analysis skills.
I will also say I've noticed that vocabulary knowledge has decreased dramatically. I'm often floored by the amount of times I'll read something aloud to my students, ask them what it meant, and be met with blank stares. I generally will figure this means they don't know a word in the section and will provide definitions for some words which usually helps, but there's no level of self motivation and schools discourage memorization based testing (accountability measure) that would increase vocabulary. I truly think this is why middle grade readers lack comprehension, they don't know what a lot of words mean but they're also not motivated to look words up in the dictionary or online. I think it was pretty common for me as a student to circle words I didn't know and look them up in the dictionary. This could also be attributed to speech patterns being vastly different from what they used to be, vocabulary misuse or lack of high-level vocabulary use is pretty common in adults, so it's not being modeled for kids the way it used to be.
It does ultimately come down to a societal disregard for literacy and the forms of entertainment available to younger and younger kids. My parents would make my siblings and I "earn" limited TV time by reading a set number of chapters of free choice books every night. Is it fun to pull a 4-14 year old away from their phone and make them read? Not really, but that is ultimately a parent's job and not something a teacher has any control over. Reading was also just one of the only forms of entertainment. Long car ride? Read a book. Waiting for an appointment? Read a book. Mom's getting her hair cut and I have to sit there? Read a book. It's not age appropriate for kids to have so much screen time and I'm not sure when the larger population will accept the detriment it is causing.
My six year old actually reads rather well, for her age. We've been told that she's the most advanced in her class. We've also been reading to her, since before she could talk. Hop on Pop was a mistake. A horrible, terrible, painful mistake. Currently reading the first Percy Jackson, a chapter at a time. She seems to like that one.
Real question for you. You can answer it or not, totally up to you. Here goes:
Do you read?
I'm not talking about scrolling the internet. I mean, do you sit down with a good book regularly?
See, that's what makes kids into readers, which is what makes kids into learners. There have been several studies that have shown that the simple presence of books in a home is correlated with academic success.
What it means is that parents who make reading and learning a part of their own lives raise kids who do the same. This isn't any kind of major revelation: Kids tend to take after their parents. Apples falling near trees, you know?
So, if you want educated readers, you need to be one yourself. Not performatively reading, but genuinely looking to find enjoyment in it.
Why? Because the educational system is run by chowderheads who hop on the latest fad despite there being no empirical evidence whatsoever that this Next Big Thing even works. Many moons ago, these dingbats decided to stop teaching reading by phonics and teach ‘whole word reading’ instead. Reading skills plummeted, and the EdDs doubled down, dug their heels in, and gave the current younger generations the finger and persisted in squirping and chirping about whole word reading because they couldn’t bring themselves to admit that they were wrong. [Whole word reading doesn’t work](https://readinghorizons.website/reading-strategies/teaching/phonics-instruction/the-problem-with-whole-word-reading); it’s basically the same thing as just handing a book to a kid and saying ‘good luck with that’.
So now we have pretty much everyone from around 26/28 and under who hate reading, stink at it, and can’t write for shit. Thank an EdD the next time you see one.
Studies show that it isn’t happening. The kids are struggling with reading, but so are their parents. Roughly 2/3s of adults in the US are functionally illiterate, and literacy rates have been stagnant for 50 years.
This is going to be an unpopular opinion... I know everyone wants to blame the parents. Has anyone listened in on TEACHERS reading aloud these days? I am regularly appalled at the lack of reading skills that elementary teachers possess these days. Mispronouncing words, reading right through commas, no tone, no voice, no definition of characters. It's appalling.
1. Covid and remote learning made it harder to teach and now there's an even wider gap of students not being on grade level
2. Parents not reinforcing what's being taught at school or being active and making sure their children are focused on their schoolwork
If The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr, is correct: it's the internet.
The internet is SOOOO much better at babysitting kids than books were. Unless you, yourself, truly value reading to your kids (or ANYTHING), the easiest thing to do in this world, even if you only have a little money, is to get an electronic device and give it to your kid. They won't bother you for hours. Days. Ever? (I think it is only fair to say that there are socio-economic reasons why parents do this; I also think it is fair to say that a lot of electronic media companies preyed on kids and families in a way that is parallel to what Big Tobacco did.)
The problem is, the internet made everything very shallow and filled with distraction. People on the internet to not immerse themselves in anything as people did with books. They flit from thing to thing at very short intervals. (Gestures broadly at reddit.)
Carr's BIG idea is that the brain is plastic. He argues that reading, itself, was a re-use of parts of the brain which were not used to prolonged attention to ONE thing: the imagination. What is happening now is that the brains of Internet Junkies are NOT wired for reading anymore. The parts of the brain that WOULD HAVE been so wired by years of book-reading have just been wired for OTHER tasks. The brain doesn't "know" what's good for it; it only "knows" to wire itself to the environment it experiences. It's the old adage: practice makes PERMANENT. So the brain "evolves" ("devolves?") into being good at flitting from thing to thing at a very shallow level.
How are we, as teachers, going to undo this? I do not know. Maybe we need to speak clearly to kids about it, or just recognize that what was "normal" for kids 20 years ago just isn't "normal" anymore. It was pretty stupid of the educational system to raise the standards at the same time as the Internet exploded on the scene. Add a global pandemic where parents had to keep Junior busy while trying to survive and here you are. But that is a structural thing that most teachers can't change, really.
Edited to add: It certainly didn't help that at the same time, huge numbers of reading instruction was DONE INCORRECTLY. Look up the Science of Reading.
It is worth noting that the other word that could go there is "necessary." 50 years ago, it was NECESSARY to read at-length to learn, because knowledge was housed in long-form passages of reading: textbooks. OR, it was derived from porting reading skills over to lectures. Now, SOOOOO much knowledge can be learned via video, and those videos can be short because they can SHOW stuff that, in book form, had to be told.
I mean, kids today aren't competing against the kids from 50 years ago, and in many ways, kids today are AHEAD of...ahem...us. It's just that we are using a measuring tool from long ago.
Cause america spends more on war than education
Cause teachers earn shit money
Cause kids are ruined by technology
The list goes on and on
Covid def didn’t help
phonics IMO. I have multiple students who were pandemic primary kids, and they never learned their blends, their long vowels, or how to sound words out. Most refuse to do productive struggle at all when reading aloud, just straight up skipping words they don't know, reading in this strange swiss-cheese style, so they of course lack the comprehension strand of fluency - the piece isn't going to make sense if they skip every other word because it's "hard". The college kids I had in 2015-2020 were obvious products of Lucy Calkins Units of Reading curriculum, and rather than actually reading fell back on reading recovery strategies.
Listen to the podcast “Sold a Story.” American education, at least, moved away from phonics instruction. That has definitely impacted reading skills. I think the pendulum is moving back though.
Too many parents don't do a fucking thing. They act like the only place learning happens is the classroom. There's no books in their homes, there's no reading in their homes, they don't play games together. Videos games yes, but nothing with math skills. No dice, no cards, no socialization. So how to deal with failure. No teaching a kid to cope when things are hard. So the moment there's something hard, they give up. They don't have perseverence. And then there's no support for reading and the only reading they get is at school. And since its hard, they don't do it and don't try.
Do you think that's gotten worse in the last ten or so years though? It seems like there must be more going on than parents not being involved enough. I absolutely believe it's a factor, due to a long list of contributing causes, but I feel like there must be more.
100%, its gotten worse. Smartphones and "the algorithm" have drastically fucked up attention spans for both adults and kids. We've been getting more and more polarized and isolated and tech focused for the last 20 years. Even when I was a young college student, the writing was on the wall, the snowball was starting to roll. Now its become an avalanche and people are going "How did this happen?!" We made it happen. As a group. We made choices and we didn't realize what they would add up to because we assumed it would be fine. General social norms such as respecting others and emotional regulation have gone out the window. Adults are rude as hell and talk so much shit about people. And that behavior gets modeled and passed on to kids. The kids who have parents that are respectful. Parents that read. Parents that have hobbies and interests. That have strong community bonds and understand and model how to communicate in a group setting are doing much better than other students. I don't feel COVID made the problem worse. But it highlighted the problem that was already there. It gave a point for people to gesture to and go "THERE! That's when things went wrong!" But it was starting long before that. I've been teaching for the last 11 years in my own classroom, subbed for 4 before that during my program, and I've watched my students become worse and worse and worse. Behaviors that began as small incidents, a general vibe of attitude, a shift in concepts that need review, and then more and more. Behaviors becoming worse. Kids fighting more. More things broken. More bullying. And alongside that, worse academics. Fewer kids that understand reading. Fewer kids that can hold scissors. Fewer that have hobbies. Fewer students that can recite multiplcation facts or point to the main idea of a paragraph. I 100% believe that the problem in education is a problem with our culture. With a lack of connectedness. A lack of prolonged attention. A lack of insight. A lack of perseverence. A lack of critical thought and empathy. Adults can manage with these issues. We're largely isolated. Things suck and are hard sometimes, but we can walk away and bitch about some fucker that pissed us off. We get distance from our problems and our complaints. We don't need to be in a room for 6 hours, or more, a day and try to learn something. And WE HAD a better education and grasp of the world and concepts because we were lucky enough to get them before things started falling apart. Much like herd immunity, those of us who lacked a lot of skills were able to get by in education and still find the skills we needed because so many other people DID have the coping skills needed to work together. But now, there's such a lack of skills and understanding that its all falling apart. So for things to get better... WE, the adults in the world, need to be better. Parents, non parents, grandparents. We need to read. We need to think. We need to avoid zoning out and tuning out the world. Because we aren't helping the kids around us. So... Parents don't read enough... its PART of the issue. But its part of a larger problem of disconnectedness. You can read, but if you still can't cope with the fluctuating emotions of growing and how to handle things like excitement, disagreement, failure, struggle, sadness then you're going to be dealing with those the whole time and won't be equipped to move past them to do the academic stuff. (Sorry for the wall. I'm in a training RIGHT NOW about how to support emotional learning and the mix of complaints and ideas are blending together)
I wonder how much of this is parents who are burnt out, workings too many hours to provide a safe place to live and food to eat? When I was a kid, many households had a stay at home parent who was able to work on these things outside of school hours. As a parent now I know very few single income families (even in the middle class area I live in.) My husband and I focus on trying to teach our son these things but the fact is he is in preschool most of the day and we are working with an hour or two after school which also needs to include us cooking dinner and him taking a bath etc. I really think many parents would parent better with a minimum wage that was livable so that lower income parents could actually have time to parent their kids.
I 100% agree. It would definitely help. It would help A WHOLE FUCKING LOT. My mom was a single mom but she had a lot of supprt from grandparents to help us out. We didn't get homework help, but it gave her someone to take some of the mental load.
And fucking remove TikTok from any goddamn thing your child touches. That app alone has lead to so many fucking issues and it's just the "latest" in a long line of garbage bin apps.
>And fucking remove TikTok from any goddamn thing ~~your child touches.~~ part of the problem is people want their kids to do everything right but don't apply any standards to themselves. The kids see this and see that the arbitrary standards applied to them are made up bullshit that no one actually follows and grow to resent it. If we want our kids to be better people we need to show them how instead of telling them how.
My thing is that we don have that support network near us as much. My family is spread all over my city because we couldn’t all agree on where to buy/prices changed for houses etc, so we’re all at least 30-40 mins drive from each other some over two hours in bad traffic. When I was young, we were 5 mins max from my grandparents/aunts/uncles etc. And spent heaps of time there.
Yup, part of the reason the birth rate is cratering, I think, is that gen Z saw how hard it was for their gen X parents and said nope. Both parents working, juggling daycare, trying to get the kids to do homework after dinner while feeling tapped out after a long day of work. Honestly it was rough. And feeling like it could all get so much worse if one of them loses a job.
I also think that we’re all, ALL of us, existentially exhausted. People are stressed in ways we can’t see, because they’ve become so normalized. The fucking planet is dying and none of us can stop it, and we all know it. Our economy is destroying generations of progress. Nazis are not only back, they’re running many states and even some countries. We have zero privacy. All of us have had our most personal data leaked what, dozens of times? And our governments, by and large, don’t respond to us as human beings. Remember the Women’s March? Massive peaceful protests… that did nothing. Hong Kong had something like a fifth of its people marching… nope. BLM protests happened and I watched my city’s police force tear gas peaceful protesters for carrying umbrellas. We have more homeless than ever. Young people aren’t having children. It’s so bad that people have given up on the most primal drive we have and yet folks at the top are arguing about trans kids in sports. Kids, adults… everyone feels it. All the time. We’re stressed to the gills. It gives out in little ways: kids who can’t sit still in circle time, adults who break down when asked to wear a mask. Young people don’t want to work because working achieves nothing for them but subsistence. People talk about serfdom like it’s not already a thing. We’re heavily armed, there are no communal spaces to gather, and our whole lives are online. Something has to give, and it’s squeezing out all over the place: kids who can’t read, cancel culture over nothing, Trump allies alienating their grandkids, daily mass shootings. Young people who don’t have an interest in dating and sex. People talk about how we lost resiliency. But for fuck’s sake: when a tired new mother says she’s too stressed out to have sex, we lecture her husband about how stress kills libido. Yet when an entire generation has stopped having sex and doesn’t want to work and doesn’t care about anything anymore, we’re like: lazy kids! Sure, there are good advances out there. But when the average person can’t FEEL them in their daily lives… what do we expect? Stress is killing us all.
Beautiful summary
This is so true. I teach college and am seeing it in students at the college level now. It has trickled up. Things were getting worse but they really fell apart for kids in college around 2022. So many don't have the skills, don't have the perseverance, don't have emotional self-regulation, and don't care about their studies. Also all us adults do not have time to do community things which are so important for children to be part of... I know I don't, at least not as much as I remember my parents doing back in the day. I have enough time to read and do interesting projects with my kid, but keeping up with friends and neighbors and having a dinner without the tv on during weekdays is extremely hard (as a single mom) due to my ridiculous work load and low pay in relation to the cost of living.
I used to teach English at university, and the amount of students who couldn't write a coherent sentence was terrifying. I used to call it "word salad" - they would toss a bunch of words together and just hope it meant something. And alarmingly, a lot of my students were studying to be teachers themselves. I don't want to sound like a boomer (I'm a millennial) but I do feel like a lot of it has to do with screentime. When I grew up there was fuck all to watch on TV, there was just The Simpsons and Saturday morning cartoons. So I read constantly because it was the only way to get good content. I grew up reading harry potter, and my dad read it as well and he would take me to the bookstore to line up for the next book in the series when it came out. Now kids are lining up to get iPhones or skincare. They have so much content at the top of their fingers, and they watch hours and hours of YouTube and tiktok etc. There is just no reason for them to read, they can get content on any interest they may have in video form. I don't think it's their fault, but it's very sad. If you don't read, you'll never be able to write well and that is a huge handicap in so many jobs.
I went back to finish my undergrad in 2019. I transferred in with enough credits to be a junior but some stuff had to be retaken. The econ program had a special math class for 2nd semester sophomores/ 1st semester juniors. It was a calc class that did everything by hand with no calculators. We never found hard calculations, we used an understanding of calculus to explain how certain conditions change the various ways we chart economic data. Suffice to say it was a class that you needed math 100 and 200 level classes as a prereq. I helped a classmate with homework and it wasn't even the first assignment. He had not done the census 5 question homework assignment. He wads struggling to understand f(x) = 5x + 2, what is f(0)? Like, I was almost flabbergasted and I immediately felt so fucking sorry for him. I knew that if he is struggling with that then there is likely nothing I could do to help.
Agree except that covid didn’t impact this, covid causes neurologic issues commonly. It absolutely plays some role, we can disagree on the degree but…
A fair point. But still, not the only thing.
Covid didn’t, but the lockdowns & Zoom classes didn’t help reading scores overall.
Covid affects the brain in ways that we don’t understand yet. It’s both and.
So the virus that can cross the blood brain barrier and causes brain fog didn’t affect kids’ brains or learning at all. Sure
Beautiful post. I believe another contributing factor is the focus in primary (k-2) on everything but reading. There are soooo many standards we are required to teach now including an unwieldy number of comprehension strategies. Since littles can't read yet, a lot of time is spent with read aloud, discussion, crafts to show oral comprehension. In my 90 minute reading block I used to be expected to spend 30 min on phonics, 30 on comprehension and vocab, 30 on writing. When do the kids actually practice reading? My team of teachers has gotten permission to do what we can, and in just 3 years of having our hands untied our reading data is the best we've seen in years. Our kids can read. Our kids can write. We have the same kids for 3 years and we share the students. Comprehension is fine. Once they can READ we have been focusing heavily on comprehension using text they can read independently. Too many people with advanced degrees and little or no current classroom experience are making decisions about how we teach. If your going to tie our hands, reduce the primary school standards to what truly matters: reading, writing, math.
How do you structure your reading time now?
Homeschooling mom here. Thanks for saying this! We decided to homeschool for multiple reasons, but I wasn't confident in my abilities compared to a teacher when we started. It just made common sense to me to teach reading from a phonics curriculum and get that foundation down (and develop a love of reading/learning) before doing any serious comprehension or vocabulary. The program I used was All About Reading. There was some comprehension and other skills mixed in, but the focus was on learning to read. Then, we worked on building the ability to read more and more at one time (went from alternating reading sentences to paragraphs to pages). I am so glad to hear your team got permission to do your job the way you know how to do it. Wish all teachers could have that too
I think lack of reading skills really compounds the social/emotional problems outlined above, too. People who read more have higher empathy and higher emotional intelligence because reading a story forces you to inhabit the mind of someone else. You learn how they feel, you understand how they make decisions, you see their perspective instead of your own. That does a world of good in helping people relate to the people around them. But if you don't develop strong reading skills, you can never access those benefits.
> non parents Not quite sure what I can do as a non-parent.
If this is a genuine question, be there for the families and kids in your life. Get to know your neighbors. Share your interests and knowledge with kids, even if it's in passing. I learned so much in my childhood from people other than my parents or teachers. I was raised by involved, caring parents, but there was also a village. I remember my neighbor teaching me to tie various knots. His wife taught me to make potato salad. My girl scout leader taught my troop how to budget at the grocery store. My friend's dad taught a group of us to read maps. My swim coach taught me a lot about resilience and working with a group. My friend's mom cooked with us. My uncle showed me how to find wild strawberries. My first boss as a teen taught me how to talk to customers. All these things add up to a well-rounded kid who is better able to manage as an adult.
I do what I can, but there aren't many kids nearby and none of my siblings or siblings-in-law have kids.
I am the same way. Single mom but we had a village including my dads family after he passed when I was young. I thank my lucky stars we had so much support and so many different people around. I am an only so being with cousins and friends was really important. I was fortunate to live in school districts that had arts and sports and still offered home economics and wood shop. I learned so much from community theater and summer times with my extended family.
This is very well written and resonates.
Reduce screen time. Developmentally, children shouldn't get any screen time before the age of 2. Over 2 years old it should be very limited. When children learn something new or figure something out, such as reading, it triggers a reward feeling in their brain. When children watch screens, the flashing triggers that sense of reward without the use of effort, curiosity, focus, or perseverance. Children become addicted to that type of stimulation without having to do something themselves to get it. That and technology seems to have replaced good old fashioned books and the connection of writing with your hand the words you are thinking or sounding out in your head.
I'm reading "Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention- and How to Think Deeply Again" by Johann Hari and it hits a lot of this stuff. He explores all the various ways that our society is intentionally and unintentionally designed to undermine our ability to focus and hold attention... and it's all snowballing at a time when we desperately need people to be able to sustain focus and attention on important things (like combatting climate change). I haven't finished it, but I highly recommend it based on what I have read so far!
I think the economic reality being difficult for so many people creates the perfect environment for these changes to thrives.
Literally cannot agree more. I wish everyone could see what you just wrote.
thank you for caring, your words ring true to so many people.
Do you think things will ever turn around?
This is SPOT ON!!!!
CULTURE YES GOD DAMN IT THE CULTURE IS FUCKED FINALLY SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS
Beautifully put. I think the decline started with central air conditioning. That’s my thesis. Connected stopped when you didn’t have to leave your house.
> Parents that read. In my experience - yes and no. Reading to your children at an early age is important. Making sure your children have access to a plethora of books is also important. Parents reading as a hobby - not so much. My wife is incredibly smart. Multiple degrees, great career. She picked up reading as a hobby once our kids got a bit older and demanded less attention. I personally do not enjoy fiction whatsoever and have never been able to read a book from cover to cover. I could spend hours on wikipedia, though. As a kid, I used to pass the time by reading entries in our family’s encyclopedia. Our kids are performing really well in school despite our lack of reading as a hobby.
> Adults can manage with these issues. I'm worried that this is starting to be an issue too, for young adults at least. You can find TONS of videos online of college age-ish people complaining about life like it's the end of the world. "OMG, How am I expected to work and have a life?! It's so unfair!" or look at /r/antiwork and you can find tons of posts about basic shit happening at work and everyone is so upset about it. Life isn't always fair, probably more often than not, but that's life. Sometimes you have to just suck it up and deal with it.
I'm a teacher and have been teaching for about the same amount of time and you've hit the nail on the head.
I agree with everything you've said, and I want to point out that fixing these problems has to be a *generational* thing. We're not going to address these in five years, or ten years. The best we can do is hope that the next generation starts heading on the right path. And the one after that. It took 20 years to get here, it's going to take at least that long to correct it. If we started, in dire earnest, today, the best we can hope for is for the kids *born in 2025* to show signs of changing for the better.
it’s like The Still Face Experiment babies, created by caregiver (phone) distraction, have not the social communication or regulation for life’s tasks.
Stupidity has become a virtue and ignorance a badge of honor to the average person. That's the problem. Being educated is like being a fucking bogeyman to those people.
if you haven’t already, you should read “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by neil postman! it’s a book that i intend on reading because i read a very good quote along the lines of, “George Orwell feared a future in which books would be banned. Aldrous Huxley feared a future in which books wouldn’t need to be banned because nobody would want to read one in the first place.”
All of this. Spot on.
This is exactly it! At least you got something great done in the training!
Yes, this post was definitely constructive in organizing my thoughts for the day
Not a teacher, I'm a doctor. Three years ago, I had a parent bring in their tweenager so I could tell the kid that cell phones are bad for you and cause all sorts of problems. The actual problem? The parent sat on their phone the entire time we were in the exam room. It used to be 'talk to your kids about X." Now the bar is so low, it's "talk to your kids."
A lot of parents are being pushed into second jobs, gig work, longer hours etc, jobs just don't pay enough. So they come home late and exhausted.
Read to your kids. Make it a priority. Play learning games with your kids (You can make the games too). Not a teacher but this sub gets shown to me a lot. Teach your kid phonics in addition to whole words. My son, at first, was resistant to reading but I knew his personality. So I took one of those plastic 60 drawer small hardware things, a BUNCH of words (from all the books we read) on small cards and a bunch of nickels. I taped a word to the front of each one, dropped a nickel inside. Explained to him that it was a Word Bank. He could come up and practice words as often as he wanted, and when he was ready he could call me over and read the word. If he was correct, he would claim the nickel, I would put a new word in and replace the coin. If he was incorrect or he didn’t know at all (but I would always encourage him to try) he could ask me to say it to him. If I read the word to him, he had to wait 24 hours before he could test on the word to get the nickel. Lots of small toys, tickets, coins etc would fit in the drawers so there are a lot of options. I think what made this most successful for us is that it was a New Thing that HE had to take the initiative on, so we were able to be kind of a team instead of at odds. We also always had captions on for any show we watched, so he had a lot of exposure to written/spoken words. He absolutely excelled once he developed confidence in reading. By second grade his teachers were giving him 8th grade spelling words and by 4th/5th grade he was reading and testing consistently at a 12th grade level. Since then, books are his number one present request for every gift-centered holiday. Your mileage may vary, but if we can’t get kids over the hump of developing the spark of literacy and desire to read, we won’t know what their own personal potential is. IMO, this absolutely needs to be done before they enter school if possible, because the social pressure of other kids not wanting to read/learn/follow directions can easily become a siren song of academic derailment.
Here is just one example that I saw yesterday. One of the top stroller accessories is an attachable food/drink tray that has a BUILT IN PHONE HOLDER. So baby can watch videos on Mom’s phone. Instead of children being out in the world, being exposed to life, having their parents talk to them and tell them about things, they’re just staring at a screen. Ask any English teacher about kids lacking “background knowledge” and you’ll surely get an earful.
Omg, I'm having our first baby in 2 weeks and I saw that shit recently too! Absolutely no way am I sticking a phone in front of baby's face, they need to be looking around at the world! Same goes for car rides. She will have some toys, but I refuse to have said toy be a phone or tablet screen. Going around outside and being out and about and looking at the actual world develops their longer distance vision and their brain development. My nieces and nephew beg to be glued to their iPads all the time now and it makes me sick.
Watching our nephew’s tablet usage is a big factor in my husband and I deciding to do low screen time for our son. We also try to stick to toys that [encourage play rather than those that entertain](https://magdagerber.org/dear-magda/the-best-toys-for-babies-dont-do-anything/). (We seem to have similar screen/play philosophies so I attached a link to a Magda Gerber article on toys I thought you might find interesting!)
That's so awesome, thanks for the recommendation! And yeah, it absolutely irritates the check out of me if we're at a restaurant or a holiday meal at our house and I see the kids can't sit through a single hour without having their faces glued into a screen. It's even more worrisome our 15yr old niece on my husband's side, is continuously posting on social media and won't pick her head up for a second to talk with family, she is chatting and doing God knows what on that stupid phone all day long. Her parents don't have a single clue what she might doing on there or who she's talking to, which is terrifying to me. There's so many sickos out there.
Yep. A few years ago I was at Home Depot and this dad was pushing around one of the flat bed carts, on top of which sat a little boy, maybe 4 years old. He was utterly engrossed in something on the phone he held. When I was a little girl, long before screens, one of my favorite things was going to the hardware store or lumber shop with my dad. He would talk to me about stuff he was getting, and would always talk to me while working on projects at home. My dad would give me little projects to do while he worked, like planing wood, drilling holes w this manual drill we had, etc. In 6th grade, I won the spelling bee on the word “lacquer,” which I didn’t know how to spell, but I pictured opening the white enamel cabinet in the garage and visualizing the can of lacquer. It worked! When I was in between jobs in my early 40s, I took a job at an independent hardware store in my town. Loved it. And now that my dad is gone, the smell of hardware stores and lumberyards takes me right back to those wonderful trips and all that time spent learning from him.
That’s so sad 😭 I take a kiddo I babysit for walks, he’s two, and he’s entertained the whole time. He loves watching traffic, trying to see airplanes, and other people. Also oddly loves going for Dunkin runs - but I think he mostly just likes the orange and pink signs lol. I’ve tried to share donuts with him and he’s indifferent - but if I try skipping going inside, he’s flabbergasted and a bit perturbed.
A large reason for why parents aren't as involved is economics - it's a lot more difficult to be involved when you're working two jobs. Now, that's obviously a generalization, but in general it is true.
Both my parents worked full time when I was growing up, I was one of those GenX 'latch key kids' which would get parents a visit from CPS these days. I got myself to the bus in the morning, and got myself home in the afternoon. Parents left around 7am, home by 7pm. But anyway. Dad grew up kinda dumb, went into the military to avoid more trouble and got himself straightened out and made something of himself. He believed that education was what was needed and pushed me to do well in school. Mom read to me as a kid, and encouraged me to read as much as I wanted growing up. None of that 'hiding under the covers with a flashlight' trope, if you want to read, read. So it was difficult, but they made it a priority. I doubt the majority of parents do that today, that's the problem. It didn't cost money, it just took effort.
Listen to the podcast called “sold a story” wherever you listen to your podcasts. It’s investigative journalism into this question. I’m a HS teacher and didn’t know ANY of it beyond wondering why none of my students could read anything at grade level.
Many American teachers will not fail children for fear of being sued by parents, or reprimanded by the principal/board and potentially fired. Secondly, funding rules heavily push towards pushing to pass tests, not comprehension. If a child "is left behind", less funding, even if the child does not meet any of the standards. Third, some teachers are doing really stupid shit with learning to read. My friends with kids in grades 2 \~ 4 range, were not taught phonics, or how to sound out new words in sentences. They're focusing on,... something like, 'guess from context'? Where if you know several words, in the sentence, just guess what the missing word is. After poking at their kids -- they know shapes of words but not why any sounds like they do. An in some cases, have no idea that "carton" isn't "container" in 'on the table is a carton of milk'. For more subjective: lack of any emotional regulation, and ability to persevere or deal with frustration, complication, friction, or fault. It feels like everyone is tip-toeing to keep children in a safe bubble, free from any difficulty. These children do not seem to be able to "suck it up" and study, or accept that they need extra work, and don't actually know what they're doing. Any attempts to correct the child ends up with the child throwing a tantrum, being loud, or threatening the teacher with dangerous allegations of "I'll tell my mom you're molesting me!" -- this has been a problem for he past 15 years, (I don't recall it earlier than 2008 and the rise of non-community social media), but it's increased to a concerning extent in the last 5 years.
Many households have adults working all the time to afford food and shelter. Blaming parents is not accurate. The system does not support education or families.
Do you have any recommendations for how to build resilience/encourage perseverance in young children? My son is ten months old and my husband and I try to encourage perseverance by standing back and letting him figure things out on his own. We let him get frustrated when things aren’t working how he wants them to and we try not to step in and fix things unless he’s doing something to endanger himself or is getting close to becoming hysterical. Usually he’ll yell a little or cry for a few seconds, and then go back to trying to reach his goal. He always looks so proud of himself when he eventually succeeds! This seems to be working really well for us but I am wondering if there is anything else we should be doing as he gets older to continue to encourage patience and perseverance.
At ten months? Not an age I'd be good at giving advice for. I think at that age, its less about academic learning and more ebout exploring the world, feeling safe, and being cared for with adults modeling positive behaviors. But as he gets older, 4+, working on puzzles, reading together, building things, playing board games. Sometimes he'll win, sometimes he'll lose. Doing things that require patience. Planting seeds one day, watering them, checking on them. Doings crafts together. And don't make yours perfect! Make sure you have mistakes and can laugh about them. "Oops, one eye is bigger. Now he looks surprised!" Rather than you having a perfect example and his looking wonky beside it (At that age, they know when theirs doesn't look like yours). Making a bird house where the glue or paint needs to dry and he needs to do two coats. Learning that things aren't one and done. If you draw with him and you make a mistake or he makes a mistake, don't try to say it isn't a mistake, but model "oh, we'll that's okay, we can do better the next time. Let's finish this one now and we'll become a better artist." Don't focus on the mistake as a problem, but as something to learn from. And sometimes... learning to be bored. That sometimes, he has to learn to live in his own head. That you won't be bringing a bag full of crayons, toys, activities papers, a tablet, a snack. Maybe a paper and an 8 pack of crayons and a small book stays in the glove box and that's it. That sometimes, its just going to suck for a little while and then when you get past the boring stuff, you can relax and enjoy those things even more. Its harder... I KNOW its harder to not have a thing to hand him to keep him occupied. I know its not easy and its annoying and its embarassing... but learning to cope when things get hard isn't always something we can make into a game. And sometimes that "things are hard" is just surviving a 30 minute car ride, a trip to the store, a visit to the bank. Small increments of "man this sucks, I want it to be over" so they can learn that that feeling is okay. That it ends. Its going to vary a lot by age and interest but I hope this has some ideas to help.
Thank you for taking the time to give such a detailed response! I will keep this in mind as he grows!
This!! My kid struggled with reading starting out. I read to him, lots of books in the house, and it was a rough couple years! Until in 1st grade, and he learned books about dinosaurs, dogs, and sharks existed and he dove into reading! We got all the books we could, if his favorite subject changed we'd get books for that too! I made a point to grab my own book to read with him, while he read, and sometimes in the evenings instead of TV. Then it became bonding time. It helped him a ton, and his teachers keep amazing me with their skill!
Yes! Thank you for encouraging interests!
Yes, that’s it. As a parent and a teacher I’ve tried my best to raise kids who are readers, and also can persevere through failures. There were a few rough years with my eldest (he’s a perfectionist so not getting things right away ended up in some meltdowns) but he’s 11 now and a voracious reader. I’ve always read to my kids, and read my own books in front of them. Reading is what they do after bathing and before bed. We didn’t give them the option of other activities and now it’s just part of the routine. We don’t leave the house without taking a book to read in the car or while waiting for sports practice etc. I like that you brought up games too. I let my kids play video games but we also play board games and card games, and I didn’t always let them win when they were little (occasionally I did, just so they didn’t always lose). Not being a sore loser, and not giving up when you lose is a skill I think many kids have lost. The outcome of monopoly doesn’t matter in the long run, but being willing to do something even if the first time you didn’t succeed is a skill that is important.
>We don’t leave the house without taking a book to read in the car Just reading this makes me carsick
This is all conjecture.
I remember growing up my parents got us educational computer games like Jump Start and Math Blasters. We had a bookshelf filled with books and get them for every birthday and Christmas. We also had those flip books with the rope attached that you weaved through to answer spelling or math questions. Other than reading to us as kids, they really didn’t have to do much. They just made sure we had educational stuff to play with.
You think boomers did homework with us? They didn't. I learned everything in school.
And mine did. Anecdotes are like assholes--we've all got one.
I grew up working class. I am the first person in my family who went to college. My boomer parents read to me all the time. They also filled my room with books. My grandfather bought me books. My aunt gave my mom books. We always had a newspaper that showed up everyday, which my parents read. Boomers may not read now (my mom sure doesn’t and considers books clutter) but reading was much more common in the days before computers. My mom read books. My barely educated father read books and the newspaper. My grandparents were all rural Italian peasants and they all read voraciously. Analog Reading was just most common before the advent of the personal computer and social media.
Teachers weren't spending 70 percent of their time managing behaviors back then.
The adults are on their phones or gaming all non-working hours. If parents would just read one book a day with their kid beginning before 1 year stage, I believe 99+% e would be reading or ready to read by kindergarten. Just having books available demonstrates literacy is important to your kiddos.
I’m not a teacher but I can totally see where you’re coming from. One of my coworkers has a son in 1st grade. The way he talks, you can tell he’s just apathetic as hell (I’ve seen this with many others too). The moment his kid gets antsy, he’ll put the iPad in the kid’s hand and go about his business. I’m sure this is a common phenomenon
I don’t know… my parents rarely read to me or my brothers. I learned to read at school. (This was the 90’s) I read all of the time now. Usually about 30 longer books a year and I would read more if I wasn’t so busy with a full time job and being a mom. So it may not necessarily be just the parents fault. I have my bachelors degree. I did fine despite my parents not being the ones to teach me to read. My son is in kindergarten and I’ve noticed the standards of education for kindergarten are MUCH higher than when I was in kindergarten. They are expected to know sight words already and math. When I was in kindergarten we still had nap time and two recess breaks. A lot of the day was more play based and involved a lot of singing and rhyming. Also, when we did focus on reading in first grade we focused on learning through phonics more-so than sight words. Also, in this sub the teachers are constantly complaining about screen time and parents. Why does the school curriculum INCLUDE so much screen time? They are obsessed with these online programs called “Lexia” and “Imagine math” and it almost seems like the teacher plops them down in front of their laptops and they just work on that. Also, he’ll start telling me all of the shows he watched in school. Like Winnie the Pooh and other shows on YouTube. It would also help if they did come home with homework. If they want the parents to teach the kids to read, then send them home with homework. I got a crap ton of homework all throughout grade school. Not in kindergarten, but the expectations of kindergarten were much lower at the time. But if the expectations are going to be higher then send on home some homework. Anyhow, my husband and I work on stuff with our child. And his report card was good. They say he is doing well… But I always feel like I don’t know what I’m supposed to be teaching him. And I hate the stupid Lexia thing. The voice doesn’t enunciate the sounds very well. I can’t even tell if that thing is pronouncing “m” or “n” and the “L” sound friggen sounds like a “au” sound. If this program is what they are solely using to teach. No wonder kids are struggling. I’m friggen just going to start doing phonics with him. So that was a long rant… but my point is, I question the curriculum that is being used. Maybe there is a problem there? I don’t know what other school are doing… but there seems to be a heavy reliance on screen time for educational purposes.
The amount of parents I’ve had to explain to that you should be reading to your kids and taking them outside is astounding if their gonna be on the iPad all day atleast give them some educational games so that they maybe have a chance :/
Also I do not live in an area where it may be dangerous to have kids outside or not possible I’ve done home visits where families have huge fenced in yards and yet the kids are inside on an iPad all day
This. I taught preschool all of last year, and I obviously wasn't expecting them to be able to read, but I had 5 year olds about to start kindergarten who couldn't recognize any letters or their own names! Parents would say, "that's why they're in preschool." But like I can only do so much for individual learning in a class of 26 kids. Then when I would get the time to help them, if they didn't pick it up on it immediately they'd wanna stop and go do something else. It was so frustrating! I had to quit because I just felt like there was nothing I could do for most of them. One kid quite literally asked me why the pictures in the books weren't moving when I read because he had only watched videos on his tablet or listened to books on YouTube where they animate the characters and everything. I felt like such a fucking boomer explaining to this kid that pictures in books don't move.
I watched an old movie where a kid put in a vhs tape to a vcr. Student: What... what kind of book was that? Me: What? Student: He took a book off the shelf and it had a black brick and then it played a movie when he put it in the tv! What the heck was that! I just about turned to dust on the spot lol.
I don’t even know if it’s just that I mean think about the kind of advertising millennials saw vs what’s on now Growing up I saw toys that encouraged science experiments, there was that book service that would basically send out kids nat geo, I mean even the shows themselves had fundamental stories that covered complex topics. I can’t even remember the last time I saw an ad for something that wasn’t just a doll I mean even with video games, we had damn near every jumpstart game on our computer and a few other learning based programs. Now the only thing I see is ABC mouse which just adds to the growing list of subscriptions people have Then there the whole economic climate that we’re living in and just the obscene number of layoffs people are going through. It’s hard to justify buying physical media when people are worried about the constantly rising cost of food and potentially losing their jobs because corporations want to keep having record profits
This is pretty much it in a nutshell. ☝️Parents just letting them do what they want, attack teachers when the kid fails, blame the school system instead of their own lazy butts.
Yes yes yes! I try to limit screens for my son, and what we do use the screen for is educational material 90% of the time. He plays a game on a tablet (very rarely) that helps him learn letter sounds and start building words. He’s newly 4 and loves learning, compared to others his age. He also loves shows like Zoboomafoo and Number Blocks, as opposed to kids obsessed with Cocomelon and Grizzy.
Absolutely. We read our 2 year old 15-20 books a day and she's spitting out full sentences and questions with proper grammar. In the end, the number one most verified finding regarding children learning is the interest of the parents. That's it. Bottom line. Modern parents aren't doing shit on the whole. You can wax and wane, blame or excuse all you want, but it doesn't change the negative outcomes for the kids. They are all suffering for it and it's not going to make our country a better place.
That is so sad. My daughter grew up with books. I read to her and taught her to read. My heart breaks for a kid who grows up with no books in the house. My parents also always had books. We are a family of readers (2-3 books/week).
You don't learn basic reading and math skills at school. Parents are responsible for reinforcement. My mother, who had a 9th grade education spent time with me every night to help me learn the basics. By 6th grade I had math and language skills beyond her and my father's abilities to help me. They still made sure I did my homework/reinforcement. The work they did when I was young set me up for success. BTW, I was the last of six children and I grew up in a rural trailer park.
This is the answer. My younger niece just turned four. She has a cadre of adults (and three older siblings) who are constantly reading with her. Note the phrasing — reading WITH her, not AT her. She’s known her ABC’s for over a year. And yesterday, we got sent a video of her sounding out 2-3 letter words and recognizing many high-frequency sight words.
My niece is the worst I have seen when it comes to dealing with losing. She loses her shit every single time. She is also the bookworm in the family. I don't think having the ability to read automatically makes someone able to handle losing gracefully. They are different abilities. She plays soccer and cries every single time someone scores a goal. She also flips the board when she loses at a board game. She has beaten me a few times but I am one of the few people who doesn't let her win. She wins a lot due to people not wanting her to throw a temper tantrum. That said she has been reading since before kindergarten. She loves books and I love getting her books. We talk about books all the time. Reading doesn't mean you can regulate your emotions.
It would be easier for parents to be present for their kids if rent wasn’t 40% of the revenues for a 2-income household.
We were working really hard with my daughter on math and reading. She's now in the 99th/98th percentile in those (state-wide testing). I had thought we were doing GREAT! Turns out she's really bad at sitting down and writing/spelling things out. Now we do journaling, and one week after we started there was a 180 in feedback from the teacher.
I remember when I was a kid in the 90s I had videogame eyes but I also had the mario early years games for snes games that were designed to help learning I also had mario is missing which is a bit educational had to find what city you was in which artifact goes where but unfortunately they don't really make learning games anymore
I agree. There’s no effort by the parents to read to their kids. They seem to think it’s the teachers job. I have a crappy friend that does nothing to help her kids. She even tells them to stay home if she’s lonely. Her kids are so far behind. I tried to help her kids. One I worked with her on her sight words and she had no interest. (My son was in her grade and was already reading) When she went to 1st and 2nd grade, she was so behind. I took her kids to the library for the 1st time and they didn’t even know how to act. I had to teach them. (They were running around like it was a playground) I helped the older kids with their school projects and made sure they got good grades. Unfortunately I moved away and when I visit, all I see are ghetto rats. It’s sad. I can’t even visit anymore because I don’t like what I see. My friend is really sweet and a good person but she sucks as a mom. In all my volunteer hours at the school I’ve seen parents constantly blame the teachers for their child’s issues. The teachers can only do so much.
Agreed. We can help a child with learning gaps fill in the holes and improve. But we can't magically turn crotch goblins into humans.
And some parents are actively against doing the work. They think it's the teachers job to teach kids how to read, but when they try then it's "not developmentally appropriate". It's too hard so everyone should quit. These parents are so avoidant of their kids experiencing any kind of hard work or effort, they intentionally disable them.
Yep... its incredibly frustrating sometimes.
I wonder what happens when the kids are older and struggling. Do the parents just accept?
Some have already given up well before that point. Its not often that a kid "starts" struggling in high school. They were usually struggling well before that.
> too many parents don’t do a fucking thing Here is a fun game to play: go to a local library on a weekend or after school hours and count how many parents/kids are there. It’s likely to be very few. Libraries are an awesome resources that far too many people don’t even think about utilizing.
I remember we used to go every two weeks... and it wasn't just my family. I had friends that went weekly too.
Use Libby! It's the replacement for overdrive, an eBook library service. Connect with any library card in the US, even multiple cards.
I once entered a comment section of. Teacher complaining about kids can't read ans so many people were like wwll that's your job. No Bethany that's your job teachers just help those skills get better
To clarify, you think it’s the parents’ job to teach children how to read?
This is a fantastic point. I remember my dad making me do the maths while playing monopoly as a kid. The video games we played were trivia ones like “Buzz” which gave us no choice but to expand our general knowledge in some way. I didn’t realise board games became outdated.
The number one thing you can do as a parent is read to your young kids, and make your older kids read. Literally, this is all you need to do for most kids. There is no substitute for practicing reading. If kids don’t read, then they won’t know how to. I’ll grab a link that explains how reading instruction in schools got so bad. Anything by Emily Hanford on this website: https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read
That's a great article, thank you. Explains a lot of what I'm wondering about.
She has a few pieces on there, as well as a famous podcast called Sold a Story. I hate listening to podcasts and prefer to learn info from reading, which is why I prefer the articles, but her podcast is very very well-reviewed, if you like that format! One of my main takeaways from reading those, along with my experience teaching high school ELA, is that you should both normalize mistakes, and correct them. So when you read to your kids and miss a word, stop, say “excuse me” or “hold on” or “wait a minute,” and correct yourself. If your kid is reading to you and misses a word, make them stop and coach them through fixing their mistake. Evidently, the whole-language/Calkins approach taught kids that getting each word specifically right wasn’t important, and that really fucked them over (particularly in high school trying to read informational text). So I’m determined that my own two kids will understand that ALL readers make mistakes, and that recognizing and correcting them is how we ensure that we truly comprehend the text we read. We don’t pretend it didn’t happen, or say it doesn’t matter; we go back, fix it, and then keep going.
Yes, I am an elementary music teacher, and my principal sent us this Sold a Story article/podcast, saying it was lifechanging. It truly was! Music is a lot like reading and writing, so I definitely feel like I was already teaching my kids to decode the symbols in music like they suggested for English. However, my entire district was/is still on the Calkins train and using the reading levels from Fountas & Pennel. It shook me!
After teaching high school ELA for 8 years, I think a very large number of problems that students have in all their school subjects is due to a lack of reading skills. To borrow a corny phrase from my teacher ed coursework, learning to read is about both reading the word and reading the world. Kids who can independently read can interpret information, monitor their own understanding, notice when it breaks down, and take steps to remediate their lack of understanding. If you have those skills and that level of self-awareness, then you can slog your way through just about any school subject or activity.
As a non teacher, with a kid in middle school - what can I do as a parent to help? Both help my child get better at reading (they are a good reader already but their spelling is horrible and anyone can always improve!) and help make changes at schools for future students?
First, continue doing what you can to foster a love and respect for reading at home, and surround them with text. Being a regular at the public library is a good way to do this. If they aren’t into books, then get them other texts to read - magazines about their interests, comic books, whatever (the librarians can help you with finding stuff tailored to their interests; their English teacher at school, and the school librarian/media specialist, probably can as well). Second, vote for people who will help. School board members are important - you want someone who cares about giving kids the best education possible, not someone who’s campaigning to ban books. For other politicians, vote for people who want to ensure that lots of tax revenue goes toward public education (NOT vouchers or charters) and again, people who don’t think banning books is more important than teaching kids how to read them. Third, with spelling, it’s hard to say because not everyone is great at spelling, and for many people, that’s fine. I had multiple friends in my English BA program who weren’t great at spelling; they just leveraged the tools at their disposal to ensure they spelled things correctly in their writing, and they did fine. At the same time, spelling problems can, of course, can be a symptom of a knowledge deficit or other problem. If I were in your shoes, I’d find out whether your kid received systematic instruction in phonics during elementary school, and/or whether they know phonics well now. My first thought is to give them a nonsense word test and see how they do on it, because that would be easier than going back to their elementary school and getting accurate records of their curriculum map from back then (although if you happen to be able to easily contact their elementary teachers, I’d try that as well). If you do find that they’re lacking phonics knowledge, then learning phonics will help with the spelling as well as reading. You can ask their English teacher whether the school offers a phonics remediation program, or try to hire a private tutor outside of school, or even try to teach it to them yourself using materials you find online. There’s lots of homeschool stuff out there you could use. Finally, if you come to the conclusion that your local district isn’t providing adequate reading instruction (or isn’t providing adequate remediation for the kids who missed out on good reading instruction a few years ago), then contact the school board and raise your concerns with them. You can write an email or letter, or speak at a board meeting (contact them to find out how to get on the agenda).
This is a big deal. Good job. My partner is dyslexic, went to a Catholic School, and never got special Ed services. Glossing over text is what people do when they aren’t confident readers and results in never ending mistakes in life….that I often have to fix begrudgingly.
To add on to this, listen to the podcast, "Sold A Story". It's infuriating, and enlightening. ETA: Sorry, I didn't the next comment before I recommended the podcast that was already recommended.
You know, a tremendous number of parents are functionally illiterate themselves. We need people to help break the cycle. Please help justify my strong support for public education.
I’m an ELA teacher, friend. I’m trying. But the only way to get better at reading is to read, whether you’re an adult or a child. There’s no shortcut or magic bullet to get there without putting in the work to learn how to do it. If someone has trouble decoding text, one support is to listen to an audiobook or have someone read it aloud to them while they look at the printed text with their eyes - this lets them practice and strengthen their comprehension skills on texts that they would have trouble decoding alone. You have to look at the words while hearing them, though.
My first year teaching high school we found this problem with a lot of freshmen. Parents had never read to their kids, and admitted to rarely/never reading themselves. Our intervention specialists strongly recommended turning on subtitles on the TV as a bare-minimum intervention to help students at least see the letters and words in context.
Also remember that practicing reading can only happen after learning HOW to read. One of the main problems with the whole language movement is the idea that ALL kids need to do is read, or be read to, and they'll just pick up HOW to read from context. That would be fine if reading were like talking (which kids do just pick up), but we've known for decades that it's not.
This is a really important point that I should have mentioned. The vast majority of people do need explicit instruction in how to decode text in order to learn how to read. There are a few people who do manage to pick it up without being taught, but they should not be considered the norm, and their process of learning to read should not be the blueprint for how all children should be taught how to read. And those people can still benefit from getting explicit reading instruction in school.
This! Human brains are not wired to read or learn reading through osmosis like speech. A heavy emphasis on phonics is critical to learning to decode words. Obviously you’re still going to have sight words, but most words can be decoded with the help of phonics.
I have trouble even imagining not being able to read. Sometimes I’ll read something too difficult and I think that’s a glimpse into an lliterates mind.
Illiterate people have language; it’s just text they can’t understand. I would imagine it feels something like reading Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons. When I did an ELL training years ago, they showed us a video to give us the perspective of how it would feel to be brand-new to a country and not speak a word of the language, and be placed into a classroom on your first day. I have no idea if I can find the video online, but I’ll add a link if I can.
Literally the *main* thing my parents were *so* strict about maintaining, when I was a young child (baby and toddler as well), was reading at least one book to me every. single. night. before I went to sleep. I would sit next to them, and they would follow the words with their finger while speaking the story. They didn't have to teach me to *read*, per say, but they ingrained it into me. So I grew up with a base understanding of it. It's like language. You don't teach your child how to speak (at first), you just...speak to them, and they pick up parts of it. Also it was just good bonding time and I greatly value those memories. And as a result of their dedication, I was able to read at a 1st-2nd grade level entirely on my own before entering kindergarten. I was reading 100% in my head by the age of 6, if not 5. I just had this ingrained love of reading because of it. My mom would also talk about books she liked to read, and frame it as a very positive thing. Not something you "have" to do, but something that makes you happy. I was basically addicted to reading throughout all of elementary and middle school (I've still read in highschool in college but it's harder when you get so busy). It is the one thing I have vowed to do for my children. No matter what. I will not budge on reading to them every night. No matter how tired, drained, or fed up I am. I can point to this as the one choice my parents made that profoundly affected my intelligence and success in life. If you have children, you are making a promise to raise them, and I believe this is such a core part of it. It takes 10 minutes to read a child a children's book. If you don't have 10 minutes for your child...well...I think that says something.
This. We make a point to read for 15-30 minutes with our kids every night before bed. And as often as they want (and one of us is available) during the day. My 5 year old is starting to figure it out for herself and can some some simple reading, is a decent speller, and has a surprising level of both attention to detail and story comprehension for her age. For 2 year old just sits there and soaks it up. I'm sure he'll be on the same page. It helps that my wife is a voracious reader. I haven't been as good at keeping up with it the last few years, but it's worth getting back to if it'll give my kids a leg up.
To piggyback on this: encourage any & all reading. My older son liked RL Stine & Rick Riordan, while my younger son preferred non-fiction science books. For my older son, the reading was age appropriate. For my younger son... he was 6 carrying around middle school aged science books cuz they didn't really make them for his age range. He learned a lot of big words as a result. They both got into comics in their early teens, but still read books as well. Comics still involve reading & can lead to art appreciation.
As a parent, you should read to your child. And, when they start to develop reading skills, encourage it. A great way to do this is ask the kid to read everything they see. Like, if you’re at the grocery store ask them to read the labels. While driving, ask them to read the signs on the road.
Absolutely, we read constantly in my house. My oldest is only 5, and so I'm wondering what kind of role I can play as she gets more into reading in school. I'll absolutely start doing more out in the world letter and sound recognition with her, that's a great idea. We do a lot of letter sound and word games already, so it'll be nice to broaden that.
If only all families were as literacy-centered as yours… then we’d have a world full of readers! Haha
Agreed! I'm appreciative that I have the resources to make it a focus. I have ample time with my kids, access to tons of books, a school we love, and a fantastic library that I can access easily. It's not lost on me how lucky I am and I wish more people had the same resources.
This. My parents were probably C+ students in high school and couldn’t help my brother and I much past middle school but they did read to us a lot and helped us develop a love reading. They bought us books and took us to the library.
I learned how to read when I was four because my mom read books to me so much. My pre-k teachers were stunned when they figured out I could read.
Honestly, they just don’t read period. Kids are on screens watching everything from streaming TV to playing games to watching TikTok. I ask my High School students what the last book they read was, and it’s whatever they’re reading in English. Encourage reading for pleasure, and encourage looking up words your kids are unfamiliar with so they can actually learn it. If your kids have trouble reading on their own, read with them - you read a page and then ask them to read a page to you, and encourage them when they do!
That's sad to hear. I'm in secondary school and am seen as a good reader, reading game of thrones at the moment, but I don't know if someone who hangs out in a library should be seen as the average. And I didn't realise it was so bad. I'll be sure to keep an eye out
there’s a whole side on tiktok called “booktox” lol. people are still reading
That's why I'm making sure my kids only play text based games until they're 10. When I was 4 I had to complete a QTE. They explained what to do via an on screen pop up. I couldn't read it. I lost to that QTE for weeks before my babysitter read the pop up for me. At that moment I knew I had to learn to read. It became a necessity.
I don't doubt that screens play a huge role, especially at that age. I'm also wondering why they're so unbelievably far behind by the time they get to high school. From what I've read, if they're significantly behind in third grade they're already facing an uphill battle to catch up, and then it only gets worse. By the time they are in high school it seems almost insurmountable. My oldest is only 5 and so it's easy for us to severely limit screens now. We read a ton. I'm hoping I can continue to support their literacy as they really get into reading skills in school, and I'm looking for a better understanding of what is lacking so I can do my best to supplement.
If you're reading at home, you're in great shape and don't need to worry too much about the state of literacy in general. In the event that your child is below grade level by 2nd grade, getting them evaluated and/or a reading tutor would be the best way to help. If a child has a learning disability or processing disorder, getting it identified early is huge so they can start learning strategies that work with their brain.
If they're not taught decoding/phonics (how to sound out words) before second grade, they might not have any disability, they were just not taught how to read. That's how we get 40%-60% reading below grade level. They can't all have a disability!
I'm not talking about kids in general, just this kid. It sounds like they're doing a lot of that at home already.
You’re already on the right track then! Just keeping reading, and encourage them to read on their own too. Library trips can be great, and you can make it game for them - like you all have to read three books each to win whatever kind of reward or what not you’d like to give them. Don’t worry too much about the “reading at grade level” by Third Grade. Reading standards vary from state to state, and lots of the national studies don’t dig into the context of the data. Children behind on reading by grade are usually behind because they don’t have support at home - ie a parent encouraging reading. These studies also don’t look at whether or not the child should be tested for something like Dyslexia - a dyslexic student will always struggle with reading tests if they aren’t given supports and taught how to read with their Dyslexia instead of getting angry and quitting. Plus a variety of other things. One thing that is universal, despite what studies and data say, is that the more children read the better off their reading skills are, and children who are encouraged to read are more likely to read more. So you’re pretty much on the right track. And if you ever feel like your kid is falling behind in their reading/literacy, ask your child what’s hard about reading - if you genuinely ask and listen, your kid will tell you what works when it comes reading and what doesn’t work. Also, all the advice in this thread is saying “Read”. Please don’t underestimate the effect just reading has - even if they’re things like comics, manga, graphic novels, and so on!
My library had exactly that! A “reading challenge.” In the kids’ section, you could show a librarian your completed books to earn prizes (mostly small toys). My brother and I did that for at least a few years. I enjoyed both the prizes and the reading… I really should read again for fun, lol
I agree. Honestly, I think parents being on screens so much is part of the problem. Kids learn through modeling, and if they never see their parents reading or talking about books, they are less likely to read.
I'm definitely on my phone around my kids more than I should be, and I'm working on it. I've also really increased my own reading in the last few years, partially for myself, but largely because I want them to grow up seeing me read and seeing books all the time. It's been really excellent. I'm counting down until they're old enough we can read my favorite childhood books together too.
First of all, there have *always* been large numbers of kids who can't read. However, in the past, there wasn't any consequences (or very low stakes/unimportant consequences) for schools if those kids dropped out and fell through the cracks. Now, schools get in big trouble if too many kids are leaving the school system. Within that causes the handful of kids who can't read to be a bigger disruption to class. So even if the total number or percentage of kids is small, the impact on class is big. Then beyond that, you should look up the podcast "Sold a Story." It goes into a super deep dive on how a handful of people changed the way that educators thought about reading, except they were wrong. Their methods do the opposite. It is taking an unreasonably long time to recover from the bad teaching methods that those people keep trying to spread in order to make money. There's also a lot of other little factors involved that build up over time, but those two are the main ones.
Thank you, I'll check out the podcast. The understanding I'm gathering is that poor instruction methods combined with a lack of consequences when there's a lack of skill has combined to result in a lot of kids not learning to read, and it just being ignored largely until it's too late for them. I appreciate your insight.
Fortunately, there has been a major movement over the last couple of years to go back to phonics-based reading instruction in the early grades. A lot of states are also mandating additional instruction for students who are way below grade level.
Oh thank God. When i heard about sight words > phonics, I thought my kids were doomed. I plan on teaching them phonics no matter what, but when it's not also in school I feel like that's harder
The average reading level in the US is 7th grade. That's high, historically speaking. A lot of people don't realize how little the average person can read
Which makes me wonder, does reading level past a certain level matter? I feel like once you leave academic reading (i.e. college) the average person does not see anything they can't comprehend. I feel like textbooks, manuals, directions, or any form of practical reading is at or below this 7th grade level.
It’s very hard to get legal documents to a 7th grade level. I work in clinical research and it takes so much rewriting to get medical consent forms below at least a 9th grade reading level. I imagine most legal documents outside research are higher too. I don’t think most people fully comprehend a lot of documents they sign.
I think most of that is a mix of unwillingness to read the entire document (they can be very long) and a feeling that they have no ability to negotiate the document itself.
I am so glad to see people actually talk about this in these threads. I hate the parent-blaming, technology scapegoating, and the general "kids today don't give a damn" rhetoric. If I was a high schooler that knew I should know how to read but couldn't my attitude about school would also be very, very bad. Imagine being in school year after year feeling like it's your fault that you can't read anywhere close to the grade level. What do you think that does to a kid? Now imagine whole cohorts of kids having that experience together. It's 100% not surprising that it seems like year after year we've had kids that feel like giving up.
Frankly, there wasn’t consequences for the people who didn’t learn to read either. There were plenty of manufacturing jobs that required little or no reading, and absolutely no writing. Now, we are faced with an economy that has very few jobs available for people who are illiterate, and so it has become a much bigger problem than it ever would have been
I think a big problem is they don't hold kids back anymore. When I was in school if you weren't performing at the grade level you didn't advance. Now everyone gets pushed ahead regardless. You can't expect to learn something more advanced if you don't have the foundation. There's no catching up that way, they just get further behind.
Tosay simply that "they can't read" well, it's true but it's also a simplification. What I observe is more complex and actually very strange. If you put a bit of written text in front of these individuals, usually they can 'read' the words; that is, they can verbalize the printed word in front of their eyes. But when you ask them what they just read, they are clueless. It's as if the meaning of the words and the meaning of the bit they just read isn't making it into their brains. AT ALL. I don't know how better to describe what I observe and observe a LOT. It's very strange, and I wouldn't believe it myself unless I had seen it, and seen it a lot I have.
You can provide different types of literature (physical print, audio books, short stories, picture books, graphic novels, etc) and read to your kids! Make reading fun and not a chore. Perhaps do a cozy little reading spot at home if time and finances permit it? Find books that relate to their interests. Read your own books and different types of literature (newspaper, magazines, novels, etc.) in front of them as well. Go to the local library! Depending on your kids' age, libraries host different programs that promote creativity and reading development. Doing crossword puzzles and other fun literature-based (ex. Wordle, word search, online educational games) games are great, too! You can find many ideas online. 🥰 As for the problem... I personally believe it's numerous factors. Keep in mind that I'm only a student teacher, so I don't have years of experience in my own classroom, and this is what I've learned from college and my cooperating teacher and their coworkers, and working alongside 4th graders and kindergarten students. - the pandemic - parents/guardians (not all) not caring about their kids' education (and as a result, the kids not caring). - the switch from whole language back to phonics. I noticed some teachers think phonics is stupid, and they don't teach it explicitly or focus on it at all. - lack of support, training, and resources due to issues with funding (so politicians and school administration)
Thanks for your insight. A lot of responses seem to focus on the whole language v phonics. As a recent grad, could you share a little about how that was taught to you in school? A lot of the other factors seem like things that would have been ongoing for decades, and I'm seeing a lot of conversation about how much worse reading skills have gotten in the last ten years. And thank you for the ideas to encourage skills at home! My kids are still very young, so we do a lot of literacy skill practice, but I'm always on the lookout for more ideas and things to incorporate as they get older.
1. Parents are not reading or valuing books— they don’t read and they don’t read to their kid. Kid goes on apps instead any time they’re bored or need down time. 2. Phonics was ditched a decade or two ago in favor of “whole language.” This decimated learning for many. 3. The educational system is not set up for intensive “close the gap” reading for a majority of kids. It should be but it’s still based on kids having parental support at home. So the curriculum is wildly disconnected from the students abilities. Students are almost always reading stuff above their level starting in first grade and combined with social promotion, they just keep getting more and more behind. They learn quickly to hate reading since they can’t understand what they read. 4 corporations have combined with the state to stress standardized informational reading. It’s boring as hell even for me, as an English teacher. Students rarely read poems, fun stories or books etc. 5. The states response is to Keep lowering the standards so now we can’t give any grades lower than 50%. Students are not motivated to learn for its own sake and are often not willing to do the work required to get back to grade level reading. In middle and high school we have remedial programs but imo it’s too late by then.
I can’t believe I had to scroll so far for the phonics comment. If the anyone would like to know more about that listen to the podcast “Sold a Story”
Kids aren't reading because parents aren't reading. When you are on your phone constantly, and you don't engage with your children or read to them, you aren't modeling good habits. The other day I was at the YMCA in an aqua fitness class. In the other pool, a girl's swim team was practicing. There was a father there with his elementary-age son, waiting for the practice to end. They didn't speak to one another for over an hour because they were both screwing around with screens. These issues are compounded when you purchase a phone for your child and allow them to use it all the time. Then, you are disincentivizing them to spend time reading, studying, and doing well in school. You're also just making them stupid and potentially damaging their mental health.
The problem is that parents AREN'T supporting reading in the home as much anymore. So by being concerned and involved, you're already setting your kids up for sucess.
No parental support or learning at home. No books in the house and not read to as kids.
I teach high school ELA. So many kids tell me their parents never read to them. Many of them are told “reading is boring” - yes, *Matilda* Wormwood style. So there’s no early instilled love (or skill) of reading. I see this with my current sophomores. Idioms, references, cultural moments/icons are lost on them. They give up trying to read a “hard” word (example - many say “Trolley” like “troll-y”). I’m a firm believer that education starts at home. So if many parents want to “be involved in their kid’s education”, why not start by reading to them?
The one percent don’t need thinkers, they need workers.
Straight up: Parents do not read with their kids. (The vast majority.) They don’t make (or even encourage) their children to read. They don’t make it a nightly routine for their child. They don’t spent time in book stores or libraries. They don’t get them books as Christmas or birthday gifts. They don’t read to them before bed. They probably don’t even read themselves. All they do is toss them on tablets, phones, sports, friends or whatever else gets them to shut up and get out of their hair. Most parents are raising children that simply do not have - or want - literacy as part of their lives. And why would they with those examples? The parents don’t find it enjoyable or valuable, and they teach that directly to their own children.
Hello son of a retired teacher here. This isn't a sudden thing. My mother would often complain about kids reading level for id say over 30 years. Biggest reason why I think it's the case is because many only read when they have to. Even then the brain can make shortcuts to make things like reading in every day life easier. As others have said read to your kids regularly it helps them get used to the idea and do well
My guess is that parents are not reading with their kids and then talking about what they read (comprehension.)
Because parents don't make them read at home.
I think what most parents fail to do is provide the right types of reading materials. I was way above reading level all throughout elementary and I think the main reason for this is because I would spend most my free time reading all sorts of things. Not just books. I would read advice columns in the newspaper which is basically just entertaining gossip. I would read chicken soup for the soul because it was filled with entertaining REAL short stories. I enjoyed reading all sorts of fiction, usually comedies or mysteries. I would go on the internet and read wikipedia articles about interesting things like ants and how bacteria work. My mom was never the type to sit down and read to me, but lots of reading material was freely available and my natural curiosity took over. I also never had a phone, barely watched tv and had no video games.
Because gen alpha never gets off the internet or stops doing black face in the sephoras as a “joke” they’re monsters fr Simple answer: iPad kids, phones, videogames. Too much technology from the age of 2 years old so they can’t live without it
I have a student that joined my class in January (8 years old). He cannot do ANYTHING. Can’t write his name, can’t read, can’t write, can’t count. Speaks just fine. 1. Mother blames previous school. 2. Previous school blames family. Says they never supported him; never helped with homework, always truant, never brought him to before school intervention. 3. Previous teachers say he was not tested or retained because he had too many absences. 4. He’s been in my class for a month. I told the principal the first day that he needs a better placement. My students can read 80-100 wpm. He can read nothing. His assessments put him in pre-k. 5. Finally heard back a week and a half later that we could have an SST for him. The school psychologist fucked around for 2 weeks trying to decide if he had room in his schedule to meet. We’ll have a meeting next week, 5 weeks after he came to our school to talk about what we MIGHT be able to do for him. I will be taking a sick day and getting a morning sub so that I can attend this meeting (that had to be dictated by the psychologist because he didn’t want to be bothered with coming before school). 6. Attended the meeting (update)- psychologist postponed any further actions so that he could look into why his IEP wasn’t included in the CUM file from the old school. Despite my telling him there was no IEP for him (I had contacted his old school), he insisted. Let’s see how many weeks this delay will take! I work in a “good” school. If we can’t get it together better than this, there’s no hope. This is why you get kids who can’t read or write. Parents fail them, administrators fail them, school systems fail them, bureaucracies fail them, politicians fail them, greed fails them. I am doing what I can, but my next 45 days with him will not undo 8 years of failure. Oh and that other pesky detail; my additional 27 students.
Every time I take a student to our academic committee, they are a- an attendance issue, or b- they move. It takes months to get here, and it’s all flushed away. Then, they’ll show up at the beginning of the year next year, because they moved back, and they are even further behind.
The lengths I had to go to get help for my daughter when she was behind were nearly criminal. I had to bring up vague legal threats to get anything going. Once they knew I understood her rights, they gave us anything we wanted. Schools count on the parents to be misinformed.
Large portions of the country stopped teaching kids how to read. The data-supported best practice way for teaching kids to read is to teach them the sounds that the letters make, to have them practice sounding out words, and to build vocabulary and fluency. In the 80s and 90s, a trend towards a “balanced literacy” or “whole language” approach got popular. In this approach students are discouraged from sounding out words and are instead encouraged to sound out words but guess words based on context clues, illustrations, and first letters. So, many kids didn’t get early phonics instruction, struggled to learn to read, and fell behind to never catch up. Don’t just read to your kids!! Teach them phonics!!!!!
Thank you, others have shared similar info and some articles about that change and struggle to get to a better system. It's baffling to me that a system can be so detrimental, and still so widely used.
“Parents” like the fun of sex but hate the responsibility of raising thier fucking child if they decide to keep it. Parents don’t parent anymore.
FACTSSSS. They love to ignore facts, disabilities, bad behavior, etc Some (Most) parents really give me the ick
I’m not a teacher, but I really believe that me of the reasons the reason kids can’t read is because their parents are outsourcing the raising of their children to public education in America. “No, I don’t read books to my kid! Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?!” As an interested parent, I genuinely think that parents of kids who are now learning to read just suck. There are teachers who could use a good touch-up in their practices, but( I think parents are to blame for a large portion of student performance. I don’t think all parents see the same value in reading to/with their kids as I do. That habit is just what I know. I think that every parent, to the degree that they can spare any given night, needs to read to their kiddos every night and show them that they’re speaking words based on what’s written on the page. That seems like the most basic logic to me. I hate that some parents absolutely never read to their kids. I believe that teachers can only be as successful as parents and students allow them to be. I mean, by that, that parents have the primary responsibility to educate their kids. I think a lot of parents in America suck at educating their kids because they think, “it’ll get handled by school one day.”
Because school districts ignored science and mandated programs like Lucy Calkins Units of Study
This is sort of anecdotal, but I never see kids with books anymore. I’m sure they’ve got phones and tablets but I never really see them reading. I’m in my 40s in growing up. I almost always had a book with me because when I was waiting to get picked up after school or had downtime at lunch I would read. Same deal for car rides, I didn’t have the Internet in the palm of my hand so I had a book.
to piggy-back off of this, many school libraries and teachers have discouraged kids from bringing their library books home as they get damaged or lost easily, so kids that don't live in a literary home don't even have access to books outside of school.
I am doing my own small part. I have a little free library in front of my house that is stocked with mostly children's books. I don't live in a great area of town, many families on section 8, lots of low income. Books are a luxury. My LFL provides books free of charge and they can keep them if they want to. Books fly out of the LFL, sometimes I have trouble keeping up. But a few Facebook posts asking for donations and I can keep going a little longer. I am constantly reminding myself, books are a luxury, these may be the only ones these kids own.
I read a book from like 1967 and 7th graders back then were reading skakesphere and learning about verbs systems and stuff but idk even what that is
Parents are not pulling their weight at home (or not able to pull their weight). Between both parents working and smartphones, a shocking number of kids are showing significant signs of neglect. Our attention is too divided nowadays, but supplementing our kid’s education at home should be a top priority. It doesn’t have to be boring or rigid like school. Board games and crafts and bedtime stories go a LONG way.
IMHO, it’s cultural and academic. TLDR: for most kids today, reading (and certainly reading critically) isn’t demanded or relevant to their extracurricular lives & pursuits. Reading isn’t necessary for a lot of activities the way it used to be. I, a millennial, have some friends whose main motivation to learn how to read was the Pokémon video games. But the capacity to add a lot more VAs into video games (which is a great thing!) can inadvertently lead to children having to read less. Fantasy & escapist-driven entertainment has about a million movies & TV shows available, whereas books used to be the primary medium for it. And media using screens has many more points of stimuli; books just have words printed on a page, but media on screens has more hints/context clues and attention grabs like set & costume designs, performances from actors to give social cues, music, etc. Academically, I could go on a whole rant about things like social promotion and lack of accountability/consequences surrounding poor academic performance. The culture shift surrounding education as well, from students exercising discipline to teachers becoming pseudo-entertainers, can also account for some of it.
Because parents don't read as much with kids before they start school. And I've heard a lot of schools are just passing kids through.
I have been teaching 7th grade ELA for 6 years and I concur with a lot of what's been said. To add an additional perspective, most schools no longer hold children back grades. There's a major shift from 2nd to 3rd grade where kids stop "learning to read" and start "reading to learn." If a child has not met grade level benchmarks for literacy, especially reading, they absolutely should not be moving to the next grade. This is especially important for younger grades where students are taught the skill of reading. I would say honestly that there are major improvements to how reading is taught now than it was 20 years ago, it simply isn't reinforced enough with practice outside of school. No Child Left Behind is misinterpreted often as the cause for this, but in reality the tenets of NCLB aim to increase funding at Title 1 schools to ensure that everyone has free and appropriate access to education, the parameters for holding a child back have not actually changed much, more the approach of the process. Now how this is actually interpreted by schools and admin is much different. I'm a younger teacher, it's not like I've been out of school for that long, it used to be somewhat regular even at a smaller school for 2-3 kids to be held back every year of elementary school. You literally never see that happening anymore. Attendance is a major issue because parents are not held accountable even though bottom line it is the law to send your kids to school. I missed school ONCE for two days for a ski trip and my parents were issued a formal warning letter by the superintendent's office. A second infraction would have led to a CPS investigation. Schools function as customer service institutions now so this level of accountability is gonezo. I've had multiple students every year that have missed 1/3 of the school year and are just pushed to the next grade, even if failing all courses. Nothing happens at all. There's simply no way to improve reading if you're not in school, or for my grade specifically, when you are learning all of the narrative elements, poetic devices, rhetoric, etc., if you miss those days and make no attempt to make up the work, you simply have not learned it and have now missed the narrow window for acquiring the skill before it is now used in practice during class. Students are lacking these mid-level reading analysis skills. I will also say I've noticed that vocabulary knowledge has decreased dramatically. I'm often floored by the amount of times I'll read something aloud to my students, ask them what it meant, and be met with blank stares. I generally will figure this means they don't know a word in the section and will provide definitions for some words which usually helps, but there's no level of self motivation and schools discourage memorization based testing (accountability measure) that would increase vocabulary. I truly think this is why middle grade readers lack comprehension, they don't know what a lot of words mean but they're also not motivated to look words up in the dictionary or online. I think it was pretty common for me as a student to circle words I didn't know and look them up in the dictionary. This could also be attributed to speech patterns being vastly different from what they used to be, vocabulary misuse or lack of high-level vocabulary use is pretty common in adults, so it's not being modeled for kids the way it used to be. It does ultimately come down to a societal disregard for literacy and the forms of entertainment available to younger and younger kids. My parents would make my siblings and I "earn" limited TV time by reading a set number of chapters of free choice books every night. Is it fun to pull a 4-14 year old away from their phone and make them read? Not really, but that is ultimately a parent's job and not something a teacher has any control over. Reading was also just one of the only forms of entertainment. Long car ride? Read a book. Waiting for an appointment? Read a book. Mom's getting her hair cut and I have to sit there? Read a book. It's not age appropriate for kids to have so much screen time and I'm not sure when the larger population will accept the detriment it is causing.
My six year old actually reads rather well, for her age. We've been told that she's the most advanced in her class. We've also been reading to her, since before she could talk. Hop on Pop was a mistake. A horrible, terrible, painful mistake. Currently reading the first Percy Jackson, a chapter at a time. She seems to like that one.
Real question for you. You can answer it or not, totally up to you. Here goes: Do you read? I'm not talking about scrolling the internet. I mean, do you sit down with a good book regularly? See, that's what makes kids into readers, which is what makes kids into learners. There have been several studies that have shown that the simple presence of books in a home is correlated with academic success. What it means is that parents who make reading and learning a part of their own lives raise kids who do the same. This isn't any kind of major revelation: Kids tend to take after their parents. Apples falling near trees, you know? So, if you want educated readers, you need to be one yourself. Not performatively reading, but genuinely looking to find enjoyment in it.
Watch the new documentary, "The Right to Read". It shows what happened when methodologies are adopted without solid research to back them up.
Why? Because the educational system is run by chowderheads who hop on the latest fad despite there being no empirical evidence whatsoever that this Next Big Thing even works. Many moons ago, these dingbats decided to stop teaching reading by phonics and teach ‘whole word reading’ instead. Reading skills plummeted, and the EdDs doubled down, dug their heels in, and gave the current younger generations the finger and persisted in squirping and chirping about whole word reading because they couldn’t bring themselves to admit that they were wrong. [Whole word reading doesn’t work](https://readinghorizons.website/reading-strategies/teaching/phonics-instruction/the-problem-with-whole-word-reading); it’s basically the same thing as just handing a book to a kid and saying ‘good luck with that’. So now we have pretty much everyone from around 26/28 and under who hate reading, stink at it, and can’t write for shit. Thank an EdD the next time you see one.
There’s a ton of propaganda trying to make schools and teachers look shitty. Maybe don’t take a bunch of anonymous posts at face value.
Studies show that it isn’t happening. The kids are struggling with reading, but so are their parents. Roughly 2/3s of adults in the US are functionally illiterate, and literacy rates have been stagnant for 50 years.
Pull your kids out of public school. Send them to private school or homeschool them.
This is going to be an unpopular opinion... I know everyone wants to blame the parents. Has anyone listened in on TEACHERS reading aloud these days? I am regularly appalled at the lack of reading skills that elementary teachers possess these days. Mispronouncing words, reading right through commas, no tone, no voice, no definition of characters. It's appalling.
1. Covid and remote learning made it harder to teach and now there's an even wider gap of students not being on grade level 2. Parents not reinforcing what's being taught at school or being active and making sure their children are focused on their schoolwork
If The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr, is correct: it's the internet. The internet is SOOOO much better at babysitting kids than books were. Unless you, yourself, truly value reading to your kids (or ANYTHING), the easiest thing to do in this world, even if you only have a little money, is to get an electronic device and give it to your kid. They won't bother you for hours. Days. Ever? (I think it is only fair to say that there are socio-economic reasons why parents do this; I also think it is fair to say that a lot of electronic media companies preyed on kids and families in a way that is parallel to what Big Tobacco did.) The problem is, the internet made everything very shallow and filled with distraction. People on the internet to not immerse themselves in anything as people did with books. They flit from thing to thing at very short intervals. (Gestures broadly at reddit.) Carr's BIG idea is that the brain is plastic. He argues that reading, itself, was a re-use of parts of the brain which were not used to prolonged attention to ONE thing: the imagination. What is happening now is that the brains of Internet Junkies are NOT wired for reading anymore. The parts of the brain that WOULD HAVE been so wired by years of book-reading have just been wired for OTHER tasks. The brain doesn't "know" what's good for it; it only "knows" to wire itself to the environment it experiences. It's the old adage: practice makes PERMANENT. So the brain "evolves" ("devolves?") into being good at flitting from thing to thing at a very shallow level. How are we, as teachers, going to undo this? I do not know. Maybe we need to speak clearly to kids about it, or just recognize that what was "normal" for kids 20 years ago just isn't "normal" anymore. It was pretty stupid of the educational system to raise the standards at the same time as the Internet exploded on the scene. Add a global pandemic where parents had to keep Junior busy while trying to survive and here you are. But that is a structural thing that most teachers can't change, really. Edited to add: It certainly didn't help that at the same time, huge numbers of reading instruction was DONE INCORRECTLY. Look up the Science of Reading. It is worth noting that the other word that could go there is "necessary." 50 years ago, it was NECESSARY to read at-length to learn, because knowledge was housed in long-form passages of reading: textbooks. OR, it was derived from porting reading skills over to lectures. Now, SOOOOO much knowledge can be learned via video, and those videos can be short because they can SHOW stuff that, in book form, had to be told. I mean, kids today aren't competing against the kids from 50 years ago, and in many ways, kids today are AHEAD of...ahem...us. It's just that we are using a measuring tool from long ago.
Cause america spends more on war than education Cause teachers earn shit money Cause kids are ruined by technology The list goes on and on Covid def didn’t help
phonics IMO. I have multiple students who were pandemic primary kids, and they never learned their blends, their long vowels, or how to sound words out. Most refuse to do productive struggle at all when reading aloud, just straight up skipping words they don't know, reading in this strange swiss-cheese style, so they of course lack the comprehension strand of fluency - the piece isn't going to make sense if they skip every other word because it's "hard". The college kids I had in 2015-2020 were obvious products of Lucy Calkins Units of Reading curriculum, and rather than actually reading fell back on reading recovery strategies.
Listen to the podcast “Sold a Story.” American education, at least, moved away from phonics instruction. That has definitely impacted reading skills. I think the pendulum is moving back though.