Not sure if you meant it this way, but this comes off as a pretty flippant take on humanity’s evolutionary history and psychology as applied to a middle school classroom. There’s a lot more going on than just humanity’s supersocial nature.
Of course, we’re social animals lol but within that reality, we have largely been able to communicate effectively and engage in learning. What the original commentor is saying is that those kids, apparently one third of each class, are severely lacking in any functional communication skills and framework.
Throughout our species’ history, we have developed efficient ways of communicating and learning. These kids mentioned are not trained to consider (or, in some cases, are completely oblivious to) how their communication and behavior is perceived by peers, teachers, and concerned parents and bystanders. As was stated in the original comment, many kids think/care only about how their actions and words are perceived by their target audience. That has always been part of the learning process, but I see it has become more prevalent and somewhat louder/more pronounced in older kids than it has been in the past.
I see a lot of factors feeding into this, but I think most of them boil down to the increased isolation and anxiety experienced by teens and preteens, today, and the lack of exposure to/familiarity with efficient, substantive, and effective communication.
Growing up is confusing and frightening enough, and, now, these kids are exposed to a lot more information that’s increasingly curated into smaller and smaller sound bytes and memes designed to highlight outrage, anxiety, and disillusionment.
I think a lot of the “brainrot” culture we see today stems from young people wanting to communicate nonsensically as they are desensitized by the sheer amount of similarly coded content and communication they are exposed to. I grew up with other ways to shut off my brain and deal with the anxiety and inherent loneliness that comes with growing up and finding more of a sense of self, but these kids don’t have the same breathing room as I did.
To your last point about education systems fighting against social behavior, I actually see the opposite. A massive amount of studies and practices have been implemented on how best to utilize the double edged sword of our social nature. Nearly every professional development training or meeting I go to deals with encouraging positive social interactions and discourse. I think if you look to schools and districts that actually walk the walk of education, you’ll see a lot of progress.
radicalautonomy@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
I’ve been teaching for 18 years. Every year before this one, things have gone relatively well. They talk a little, I quiet them down, we have a lesson, time is embedded in it for group work, and I tell them I’d like 85% of their conversation to be about the assignment. Most kids are decent. A few a superb. Some do jack shit and I struggle all year to get them to do anything. And about 5% of the students cause problems and make it harder for their classmates to learn, but they get dealt with.
Not this year. Four classes of 30+, and in all six classes a full third of the 8th grade students can’t see beyond two seconds from now. My shit is getting stolen, students leave their binder in their locker when they’re supposed to bring it to every single class in the building, and their entire purpose in any given moment is to say/do/destroy whatever they can to create laughs/anger/shock in someone else, who could as easily be right in front of them as they could be on the opposite end of the room. A third. Of each class. And it is relentless. Every teacher that shares these kids is having the exact same issues across the board.
notabot@lemm.ee 19 hours ago
Oof, that sounds rough. Are these the kids got hit hardest by the pandemic lockdowns? If so, maybe there’s a glimmer of hope that this is an aberration and next year will be a bit more 'normal ', if you can get through this year with your sanity intact. It’s got to be rough on the kids too, the ones who aren’t causing trouble must still be struggling to deal with itm and the ones who are just sound desperate.
I enjoy teaching, or at least, transferring knowledge and experience, I’ll do it to pretty much anyone who sits still long enough, and I’ve been told I’m good at it, but you couldn’t pay me enough to teach a classroom full of kids all day, so you have my respect for that.
Good luck, and I hope things get better for the kids and teachers everywhere.
radicalautonomy@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
The prevalent theory among my colleagues is that it was something about the age these students were during virtual learning (ages 9-11) that may have been the deciding factor in why they are comparably so much worse behaved that any class of students before or after them, but I couldn’t say.
Samesies. I love teaching, but sometimes I really dislike “being a teacher” because of the lack of support or any attempt at understanding what actually goes on inside the classroom day-to-day by admins, parents, or community members. I am good with mentoring a couple students each year and going them overcome their issues. But I don’t have the capacity to do it for all 50+ kids who are making it impossible for the other 120 to learn.
Thanks, preesh.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 10 hours ago
whatever happened to failing grades and detention?
or just bring back the dunce cap and the ruler and make em stare at the corner
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 18 hours ago
It sounds like a combination of Covid years being bad for student development combined with school districts on shoestring budgets not having enough teachers on hand done they can’t get enough teachers to take a vow of poverty.
blackbelt352@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
That sounds a lot like the k-8 class I grew up with from 1999 to 2007. We were rowdy, constantly got in trouble, constantly interrupting class. We got in trouble so often that for our 8th grade year we lost both our New York and Washington DC field trips. Ours is the only class that either of those trips were taken away. Substitute teachers always reported back horror stories of what we did while the teacher was away. Desks and seat assignments were constantly moved around to separate the disruptive problem groups to little success.
1984@lemmy.today 17 hours ago
Personally I think it’s good. Students that don’t respect the teacher shouldnt even be there. If it was up to me, I would send them home if they don’t behave. But that’s not something you can do as a teacher I guess.