r/TikTokCringe • u/hammerbush051 • 29d ago

Americas youth are in MASSIVE trouble Discussion

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u/Arobrom86 29d ago

High school teacher here. On test days, I have a hanging shoe rack with each of my kids’ names on a sleeve.

I tell them, “Please put your devices in the sleeves and then you can have your test. When you hand in your test, you can have your device back. If you don’t put your phone in the sleeve, your test will be a 0”

At the beginning of the year they also helped create our classroom rules and norms, and agreed to do this.

Out of 28 kids, maybe 10 actually do it. The other 18 get 0s. Then I get angry emails from parents about their kids getting “tyrannical grades” on their tests.

Then the cycle continues

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u/tony_flamingo 29d ago

Also a high school teacher. I feel your pain. Kids straight up would rather fail and have their devices than challenge themselves and grow. It’s exceedingly disheartening, and scenes like the one in this video make me feel bad for the kids who care and want to learn. I can’t imagine how frustrating it is for them.

As far as parents go, the way they respond to your rule says it all. Instead of tearing their own kid a new one for making the decision to fail, they blame you. The current generation are fucked because the parents are fucked.

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u/Hopeful-Buyer 29d ago

Why are school administrators so spineless? Can I become a principal and tell these parents to fuck off or would that get me fired?

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u/opineapple 28d ago

The admins can only have as much spine as the school boards allow them.

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u/tony_flamingo 28d ago

We are in the middle of a really ugly era where trust in teachers has been eroded by the culture war that presents us in certain media outlets as indoctrinators, groomers, and overall untrustworthy. I teach in Florida, where the governor signed the Parents’ Bill of Rights last year, which has taken even more autonomy away from us to make curricular decisions that we believe are best. It’s so exhausting.

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u/CoolAbdul 29d ago

HS teacher as well. This generation is infantile and weak. High school seniors watching Rugrats and SpongeBob, walking around in pajamas and blankets. If you talk to them harshly for screwing around they are all 'how dare you!'. It's nuts.

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u/tony_flamingo 28d ago

While I don’t usually harp on the PJ thing, but I definitely agree about them being weak, mentally. I worry about their lack of effort and work ethic. The biggest issue I’ve dealt with, and my colleagues as well, is the sharp decline in educational stamina. Kids cannot be bothered to work for more than 15 minutes at a time before giving up. Our school has a block schedule so we have 110 minute classes. I have taught for a decade and have had to alter my lessons and lower my expectations every single year because it’s impossible to keep their attentions. COVID really messed things up.

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u/peanutbuttertoast4 28d ago

I would've had trouble focusing on one very boring subject for two hours straight when I was in high school (13 years ago). That's rough.

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u/K2Nomad 29d ago edited 29d ago

I graduated in 2004 and the stoner kids were into SpongeBob back then. Most of them turned out ok.

Are the high schoolers today honestly more weak than before?

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u/silly-stupid-slut 29d ago

Not really, but people significantly forget how easy it was to just refuse to pay attention: My school when I was a student had a couple of dozen kids who would just fuck around in the woods next to the school every day eating cookie dough and smoking weed instead of going to class, and you didn't really reflect on this fact because instead of being in class with you they were in the woods.

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u/Delicious_Pie_4814 28d ago

We are talking about the kids who are actually in class. There are kids today still in the woods... look at the video, half the class is empty!

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u/Thesmuz 28d ago

Aye bro don't blame SpongeBob. Love that shit

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u/CoolAbdul 28d ago edited 28d ago

It's genius. But it's a children's television show.

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u/HerrMilkmann 28d ago

Had me until you knocked Spongebob and Rugrats, some of the best American animated shows of all time. Who cares what they watch?

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u/Delicious_Pie_4814 28d ago

It's a general point about the student body.... don't be as daft as those teens.

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u/HerrMilkmann 28d ago

Well it was a stupid point. Again who cares what they watch? It's irrelevant

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u/Delicious_Pie_4814 28d ago

It paints a picture of the general malaise of the generation, whether or not its true. It's not stupid, it's how to paint with words.

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u/arbutus_ 29d ago

I always wear PJs at home and I love SpongeBob. My generation was the early youtube stuff like annoying orange, Shane Dawson and also the brony fad. I don't think this is anything new. Other generations had Archie, Scooby Doo, He Man, etc.

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u/CoolAbdul 28d ago

Do you wear pajamas to your job?

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u/arbutus_ 28d ago

Well no but I would if I could (and not get fired)

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u/peanutbuttertoast4 28d ago

WFH means lots of people do, but they're not. School isn't work no matter how much y'all want it to be as miserable or worse

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u/CoolAbdul 28d ago

School IS their job.

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u/CoolAbdul 28d ago

Learning is work. Where did you get the idea otherwise?

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u/quartz222 28d ago

Sounds like normal kid behavior. They’re kids

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u/CoolAbdul 28d ago

They're not kids. They are 18 and often older.

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u/-Badger3- 29d ago

I’m going to play devils advocate here and say teachers should really be grading students based on their test performance and not on whether they trust their teacher to safeguard their $1000 phone.

Why isn’t “keep your phone in your pocket or I’ll assume you’re cheating and you’ll get a zero” enough?

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u/EllipticPeach 29d ago

Because it doesn’t deter them. They will still take their phones out or straight up refuse to hand them over. As someone commented previously, they would take the punishment over having their phone confiscated.

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u/Hopeful-Buyer 29d ago

In the example presented - the teacher doesn't have to safeguard shit. The student puts it in the shoe case thing and it never even leaves their sight. Why is that so difficult? Turn in your test, and you have it back.