Per a variety of studies, young Americans are worse off than their parents on several levels. This is the first time children have been worse off “as a whole” since the 1800s, I believe. These aren’t the only metrics being judged, either. I saw a study yesterday, but can’t find it now, that showed Gen Alpha (our current batch of high school kids) are just plain dumber. I hate to say it, but it’s the truth.
The local high school as an English proficiency score of about 48%. Their math proficiency score is about 20%. Science is about 26%. Those are all well below state levels… and yet they recently won an award, which is proudly displayed on the front lawn of the school, the “NH Excellence in Education” award. I can’t make this shit up. They won an award for excellence in education with a proficiency rate below 50%. Yay team?
Since we began tracking the current metrics, the local high school has gone down most years (the exceptions were 2010-11 and 2012-13, when testing changed and no one can tell what the LARGE rise in proficiency was due to). Whatever is being done, it’s not working. It’s “not working” so well that our kids are drifting into third world shithole territory. And I can’t really see a way out of it.
A lot of studies show that young adults today are earning less than their parents did by about $4200 a year, despite the rising costs. The problem is, none of those studies take into account that the young adults decided to get degrees in advanced underwater basket weaving, and are now working at McDonald’s or equivalent. They’re saddled with huge debt because someone, somewhere, convinced them that they should go to university. There, they didn’t do great, or did but in such a niche category that the degree is useless, and now they can’t pay it off.
Add to that the problem that young adults currently have with food, housing, and work hours. By that, I mean that they aren’t learning efficient ways to use/get those things. For example, I cannot tell you how many times I have had some mental infant explain to me that they simply don’t have time to make food from scratch, because they work for a living (at 32 hours a week), and I couldn’t understand that. You know, because I worked 40+ hours a week, plus did all the cooking, cleaning, child care… yeah. I’ve been told flat out that it’s cheaper for young people to order out than to buy food, because it’s too expensive… and then they show me that they’d have to spend $40 for a single meal because they don’t own staples that should be standard in any home. They want their starter homes to have four bedrooms, 2.5 baths, central A/C, and heated floors. And they simply won’t work 40+ hours in a week, and throw tantrums at anything over 35. Yet they complain bitterly that they aren’t getting paid what I got paid for doing the same job years ago.
It’s frustrating. I moved to America because Canada was turning into a second world shithole. I love it here. This is the country of my heart; it is my home. I am an American, even if I was not born on this soil. I’ve fought hard to assimilate, and to learn, and to be as American as I can. And now, this country that I love is going exactly the same way. It’s circling the drain. It would not surprise me if, in 50 years or so, women were all wearing burkas. I’m just hoping that it doesn’t happen until after I’m dead.
…drifting into third world shithole territory. And I can’t really see a way out of it.
I can, but it would take a massive change in the attitudes of the population as a whole.
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Parents are not involved in their kids education enough. Hell, they are not involved in their kids life enough to be honest. All of the adulting skills you mention are lacking because Mom and Dad handed off their kids to day care and the “education” system so they could both work and have all the luxuries they want. Supposedly, they cannot afford to live without two incomes. (And, in some ways, they are right, the cost to run your average household even without the luxuries is much higher than it was when I was a kid.)
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While I am all for empowering women, women’s lib, feminism, etc… one of the worst things about that movement was to convince women that they were oppressed by being a stay at home Mom. Apparently, the belief is a woman cannot be truly fulfilled unless she has some high powered career in business, law, or medicine. I grew up in a neighborhood where every house had a stay at home Mom, and they all seemed live very fulfilling lives.
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Subcontracting parenting led to increased incomes, which led to a desire to consume more, which led to competition with the neighbors (Keeping up with the Joneses’ was the phrase when I was a kid), which led to more spending, leading to a need for more income, leading to less hours spent with children. And the downward spiral self perpetuates.
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A friend’s middle schooler refused to do their homework one day. They said “The teacher said I did not have to do it if I do not want to.” All four of their kids are being homeschooled now. They are raising children that will read, do math, and know history above their grade level.
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Want to see the younger generations do better, fix the failures of the older generations. Return to a time when no one needed a Viking range and a new car every three years. Return to two parent, single income households. Return to a time when parents were active participants in their child’s lives. Just look around. The households with the children that are doing the best in school have those things. As a general rule.
One point to keep in mind for statistics like lowering academic performance (and really a lot of statistics about ‘kids these days’) is the demographic difference. A pretty high fraction of highschool students nation wide are not Americans and are not of European descent and they simply perform differently than previous generations as a consequence.
Some of these statistics therefore don’t show meaningful changes in schooling or whatever so much as these meaningful demographic changes that will destroy the country if something is not done, soon, to get them out of here.