Teachers Are Sharing The Major Differences Between Teaching Kids Now Vs. “Back Then,” And It’s Wild

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“I’ve been teaching for almost 30 years. I love teaching and work hard to show my students that I care about them while holding my expectations high. I don’t notice many major behavioral issues in my students; they generally seem to like me. But if they don’t, I don’t lose sleep over it because my goal isn’t to be their friend but to help them learn. I just keep showing them that even if I don’t matter to them, they matter to me and the school community. However, my biggest pet peeve these days is the effects of instant gratification on the learning process. There’s been a huge shift in the last 10 years from ‘I can figure this out’ to ‘Just give me the answer.’ Students want to be fed their education in an entertaining way and for it to just magically stick without having to put in any muscle.”

“Case in point, the other day, they came up with questions to research about marine mammals. Then, they had to go to online encyclopedias and find the answers to their questions. Even my smartest students would glance at the screen for a minute when it came up, and if they didn’t IMMEDIATELY see the answer, they quit. They wouldn’t even SCROLL DOWN. They’d just say, ‘It’s too hard. It doesn’t have what I’m looking for.’ Um, yeah, it does, but you have to actually LOOK. It’s super frustrating.”

—iteach