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.
yall are kinda “doom n gloomin” a bit
it aint all bad. lots of parents are taking active roles in their childrens education..
parts of the Country are doing well.
I am doing well because we dont have excessive debt or needs.
for things to get better EVERYONE will have to take action..
I am doomin and gloomin a bit, but we are talking about stats here, not individuals.
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When a generation as a whole is doing worse, the question is why? I can only speak from my experience, and what I see are too many single parent families and too many kids in day care.
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And you are right. EVERYONE has to take action. But, not enough people are going to. I see too many people who are unwilling to give up their luxuries when they have kids. Sorry, if it is a choice between both parents working and getting $4500 tattoos, I think getting the ink is a bad idea. And, that tattoos are just one of many examples I have seen. Ally’s example about buying lunch instead of making it themselves is another perfect example.
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Change society to one that starts thinking excess spending and laziness are shameful and you will see school performance skyrocket as well. At least that is my theory.
I’m a firm believer that we can have two incomes and still be involved in our kids’ lives. I know many people who do it, just fine. But they know how to prioritize, and at least one of their jobs is not the kind that has unusual hours. What we need are parents who are actively involved. As I’ve said elsewhere, my three parent household works fantastic, because we have two incomes AND a parent who stayed home and watched kids. I think we had sitters for our kids a grand total of 3 times in their entire lives, and that was by friends who shared our values.
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I still stand by the numbers. Kids that have “present” parents are winning. Single parent households that include other generations to help out (grandparents, etc) are pulling up numbers similar to homes that have two “regular” parents. My type of household is doing just as well. The indicator is involvement and being present. If parents can both work but still maintain that, it’s not an issue.
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Hell, I could come up with a pretty good argument for kids seeing both parents actually doing jobs AND taking care of the home responsibly. Too many kids don’t see parents who vacuum or do dishes or make budgets… and stick to them.
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.
That is a point, but it certainly doesn’t explain the NH case because the numbers are quite low here.
I think a big part of the issue is that we now have “educators” whose main mission is not education but (a) collecting a paycheck and (b) indoctrination. And yes, parents are permitting this stuff. And states are permitting teacher unions to exist, which as FDR pointed out long ago is just wrong.
That may be the case elsewhere, but there aren’t a lot of “non lily white” kids in my neighborhood. Where math scores are at 15% or so competency. We have … sorry, HAD one black family. They moved elsewhere (not for bad reasons, they just had better offers elsewhere… nice, conservative folks). I think we have some Asian kids, but statistics tell me they should be dragging us UP, not down.
Younger generations are dumber because schools (and not just public schools either, Divemedic has some stories on his blog of his time as a teacher at a private school that are quite eye opening) are deliberating training them to be like that.