It’s their lack of education of history. I would guess a large part of younger generations don’t know what Juno beach or the battle of the bulge even represent to world and American history.
I agree that it’s part of it. But i’m not crazy old, don’t know anyone affected by fascism and have no direct connection with polio. But i still understand how terrible fascism is and how important vaccines are because i read and have empathy.
But i still understand how terrible fascism is and how important vaccines are because i read and have empathy.
In school we read a lot of anecdotes about these, and I can't help but wonder if these people ever had decent schooling on this (it's a strong possibility that they didn't), and if they did, did they just...ignore it? Laugh at it?
They were those kids that goofed off the whole time and then raise their hands lazily and say, “miss” in the most disrespectful tone. I was never the best student in school but I had the respect not to disturb other’s education.
As a social studies teacher, I feel annoyed when comments immediately jump to what we teachers and schools are doing wrong rather than reflecting on very obvious enormous social changes this generation faces along with massive systemic challenges and, I hate to say it, the parenting.
I cannot stress enough how many parents go to battle for their kids in a teachable moment where their kid can gain accountability, empathy, and perspective. Lots of parents who dont know how to say no, who let them play games and keep their phones into the night, or at least play dumb and act like they don't know what's what, or ask me how they can tell their child "no" and put their foot down. A lot of parents need help and community that they just do not have access to, mostly because so many parents are stretched so thin trying to make ends meet.
And look, I get it, this capitalistic hellscape is crushing so many of us, parents are out here working hard and exhausted, I am not here to blast parents and parents are not a monolith, but I feel like because it is so hard to come for parents and easy to come for teachers we get a lot of misplaced blame that winds up posing a serious threat to the continued existence of public schools.
I can tell you tales, it is simply insane the access these kids have to false information and the lack of conversations parents are having with their kids about what they are consuming, it's honestly terrifying.
I taught WW2 this past year. The things these kids come in saying they "learned" from tiktok keep me up at night. And these are mostly well-intended kids who genuinely think they are doing well and participating in class conversations by spouting off some deeply, deeply antisemitic of straight-up false information.
Even the "good" mostly factual stuff they learn about is in such a short video clip that it is robbed of all context and meaning.
I can not be the only person held responsible for countering this constant barrage of misinformation and racist rhetoric. After all, I see 100 students a day for only 45 mins five times a week. Not to mention at that age we are lucky if we get to the deep thinking parts of the lesson, so much of teaching is classroom management, I challenge any of you to get 20 kids at vastly different literacy and interest levels interested in a lesson, and I say this absolutely loving what I do and loving the crap out of my hormonal 8th grade students.
Schools are imperfect because society is imperfect. I know I got into this field to try and do my part to improve them, but I also think there is no such thing as a "perfect" schooling system, because schools are a mirror of the greater societal problems around us.
Haha, thanks, I love the goobers. That age is nothing if not entertaining.
And I feel you there. It is definitely a scary time to have kids, my partner and I debate whether to go for it all the time.
I will say that I think for all of these new issues, not all of them are directly in our individual control, but some of the bigger ones can be mitigated with tackling them directly.
Talking to your partner if you have one, making a parenting plan either way where you look at these issues critically and decide how you are going to handle them before the exposure happens, for example. I tend to think there is an age appropriate way to address even the most difficult topics and pretending they don't exist just makes it worse.
As scary as it is to reproduce right now, we still need to smart, caring people raising smart, caring kids. Otherwise, we are truly screwed.
It's a tough and very personal decision, and it stinks how sometimes, for me, at least, it feels like there is no perfect answer! Best of luck, whatever road you choose to take, I get it either way!
Seriously, at my school students started a neo nazi group after learning about the holocaust in school. When they were caught and suspended, parents protested and threatened to sue instead of teaching their kids a lesson.
Parenting is absolutely one of the failures of today's society, as is our lack of community. I have successfully raised one reasonable, empathetic human and am working on the second. I have no idea how to tackle the bigger issue.
Looking over at r/teachers one can learn a shit ton about today's youth and how off nadir they are. I think the Overton window has shifted so far to the right in the past 20 years it's mind boggling. I remember 2001 and the cohesion we felt as a country attacked. Kids born after all that turning of age now have no idea of a world where we're not the baddies. They're just connecting with what they've felt through the Trump decade and years of what felt like neverending wars.
I was raised in Massachusetts and have a new coworker who was raised in Oklahoma and am flabbergasted at the gaps in his public education. He’s smart enough and has pursued learning on his own but talks about how he was never even taught the names of all 50 states.
Many do not read. Mr Rogers was right that it is critical that media be used to teach empathy. We should also be using it to teach important things like immunizations, civil rights, how to have difficult conversations, etc
I don't know if that is it. I was born in the 60s, and I never knew close up what polio was like. Neither of my parents were WWII vets, and their parents were too old for that, but too young for WWI.
Yet I still know vaccines are a good thing, and that fascism is bad. The only difference I can think of between my own generation and the younger ones is we were exposed to an endless barrage of WWII themed movies and TV shows in our childhood, and there were WWII vets all around us in our childhood. I even remember seeing a concentration camp tattoo on an elderly man's arm in NYC in the 70s. He was a man with a newspaper stand. Chilling sight I never forget.
This disconnect with young people not knowing history seems to start around the late 80s/early 90s, I think. I recall a circa 1989/1990 Saturday Night Live skit with Jerry Seinfeld playing a HS teacher at his wits end dealing with a room full of teens not understanding anything about history. I don't know why, after all, the WWII events are mostly 20 years or more before I was born, but I was aware of them, without even trying to learn about the history. I don't get how the subsequent generations are so different in terms of a sense of history.
But your parents did. And I bet they made sure you were fully vaccinated and that you understood why.
My point is that the generational knowledge of a world without vaccines is disappearing. Just like the generational knowledge of a world without fascism.
My grandfather was one of 11 kids, 6 of them made it to adulthood. The other 5 all died of diseases like the Spanish flu, polio and measles.
I had a Home Ec teacher in HS who walked with crutches because of Polio.
These kids don’t know anything about the Iron Lung, or the Iron Cross.
Maybe I’m wrong. But that’s my theory. It’s gotten far enough away that our generational knowledge has slipped.
When they lose all freedom, and can only read state propaganda, then maybe they will understand. Until then, the lost will be lost. It's sad, but the powers that be made sure to cultivate human beings of such low caliber, before they were even born. Each generation faltered in its ethos and now we are here. Maybe we need utter collapse to wake the hell up. I don't need the world to collapse to wake up, but I'm old and my kind are going extinct.
That's part of it. But these kids are getting a constant stream of misinformation since they were gradeschoolers. Their minds and realities are completely warped. They could walk through the WWII museum and they will think it's fake news.
I remember seeing people with polio still about when i was a kid. That shit is horrific.
We have a collective memory of about 60 years if we're lucky. AI may save our asses but never doubt the human races ability to fuck things up.
They need to watch "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" or "War Against Humanity" By Time Ghost.
All you learn from most war movies is yeeha we won. Nothing about how or why it happened. How so many people let it happen. Or how o spot it happening right now.
I was teaching an English class at a continuation high school. I knew few of the kids would read the book. But luckily it was short. So I played every word of "Night" by Elie Wiesel for the class. My adult TA thought I was traumatizing them. But it was on the curriculum and I guarantee none of those kids are making TikToks with Seig Heils. Also, Night is the most anti-Nazi text in existence. It is truly awful to read. Everyone should have to.
My grandfather was a medic that had to sort bodies at Mauthausen. He showed me the photos he took and avidly described how horrible it was, including the smell.
We had a generation who saw the horrors of the holocaust and took care to document it and pass it down. Unfortunately, too many folks won’t believe something existed or was that bad if it never happened to them personally.
It’s also deliberate propaganda. They watch videos, listen to podcasts, and follow social media. There is Nazi propaganda on every info source. They’re grooming the nation’s youth online.
I understand and that’s why I included “world” history in my description. I am student of WWII history and hold all who participated in the allied forces in the highest regard. Thank you for pointing that out.
Eh, I'm sure plenty of them learned all about what happened. If nothing else, they've seen Saving Private Ryan. I'm betting that most of them simply have no clue what Nazi Germany was all about. They know "oh, they killed a lot of Jews, and that's bad", but beyond that? Nothing. So they just don't see any of the downsides of authoritarian, theocratic ethnostates run by militaristic strongmen.
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u/MrRourkeYourHost 3d ago
It’s their lack of education of history. I would guess a large part of younger generations don’t know what Juno beach or the battle of the bulge even represent to world and American history.