Here We Go Again: Blaming Everything But Standardized Schooling

"Students are not where they need to be or where we want them to be." This is a quote from the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics regarding the National Assessment of Educational Progress report released in January.

"Generation Alpha" is what we're calling children born since 2010, which covers everyone from 0-15, the group that is currently being "schooled." I've been in education long enough now to know that this concern about students not being "where they need to be" is an alarm that's sounded with each generation. The problem, of course, is that their needs have nothing to do with it. They really never have when it comes to the core mission of standard schools. This talk of children's needs is just school-ish lip service. The important part of the commissioner's quote, the true part, is that students aren't where the testing regime (the "we" in this quote) "want them to be." 

Here are a few other quotes from standard school education types included in a recent Newsweek article hyping the Generation Alpha fears:

"There's a noticeable shift in student engagement and accountability."

"Many students today appear apathetic and disconnected from their own learning."

There has been "a noticeable change in student focus and engagement in school."

In other words, our youth are reacting to schooling the way they have reacted since the beginning compulsory mass schooling, which is, let's face it, about adults telling them "where they need to be" without bothering to consult them. It's the same tired, old story of curmudgeonly "school marms" humbugging over the youth of today. 

In this article, the "experts" quoted (all of whom are, not incidentally, major TikTok creators) are mostly blaming Covid, a lack of "consequences" and "accountability" (e.g., punishment), and technology. No one directly blames the parents, although there is some grumbling about kids using technology at home for "entertainment" after spending "their entire learning day" on screens. (I hope this is some kind of exaggeration because if young children are spending their entire "learning day" on iPads, that is gross malpractice.) Likewise, no one quoted in this article specifically blames the children themselves, although it's just beneath the surface.

"When students learn that minimal effort still yields promotion and that they can be chronically absent without consequence, they stop seeing the value in showing up -- mentally or physically." This is the school-ish mindset in a nutshell: learning is hard; the point of school isn't learning, but rather earning the grades and posting the scores that lead to "promotion"; and the only way to get kids to jump through our hoops, to get where they "need to be," is through carrots and sticks. 

I blame the schools. 

I blame these TikTok teachers. I blame the commissioner and her tests and data collection and standardization. The closest anyone in this Newsweek article comes to suggesting that maybe, in some way, school itself is to blame for the apathy and lack of engagement is to say, "It's not about abandoning tradition -- it's about adapting it." 

No, it is about abandoning it, at least if we are going to do something about the centuries long problem with lack of student engagement. There has never been a golden age of children enthusiastically loving standard schools. It has always been a bore. And there is nothing "traditional" about schooling, which is why I use the term "standard" when discussing what they do. For most of human history "school" was life itself and that doesn't bore anyone. It has, however, become a "tradition" to sit children in desks and inflict our "wants" on them with little concern about their wants or needs, then complain when they aren't interested in living the first two decades of their lives in a state of forced labor, obedience, and irrelevance. It's an entire system built on the adage, "I'm doing this for your own good." And as we've all learned, when someone threatens us with our "own good" we're well advised to run like the wind.

There is so much ignorance and lack of insight in articles like this that pop up in a cycle as predictable as the sunrise. One of these TikTok educators complains about screens while at the same time noting that his school has given every student an iPad. What the hell? He throws up his hands, "I do not think we were ready for the negative impact . . ." Who knew, right?

Students have never been enthusiastic about standardized top-down curricula and testing. No human has ever thrived in an environment of constant judgment and assessment.

I have never experienced the problems these educators are reporting. I have always, generation after generation, taught children who were enthusiastic about what they were learning, who worked hard, and who easily set their screens aside because what they got to do in school was even more engaging. That's because they get to play, especially outdoors, and to take charge of their own learning, which is how Mother Nature has designed us to learn, a fact that standard schools refuse to acknowledge, except perhaps by inflicting more adult-directed crap like "movement breaks" or worksheets featuring cartoon characters. 

In an environment of self-directed learning, learning is its own reward. It is always relevant and motivating because it is derived from life itself.

"Many students struggle to find value in traditional subjects," says one TikTok educator, "unless there's a direct, tangible payoff. If they can't see how reading or writing will translate into a paycheck or immediate benefit, they're often uninterested. Intrinsic motivation -- the kind that keeps you learning even when something gets hard -- is fading." 

The ignorance in this statement is astounding. She cannot see beyond the framework of rewards and punishments, of carrots and sticks. She obviously doesn't even know what "intrinsic motivation" means. She seems to be complaining that Generation Alpha isn't responding to her punishments and rewards -- Skinnerian external motivators. And clearly, she has no idea what might actually be relevant to a child. It certainly isn't a paycheck.

If you missed this article, don't worry. Another one just like it, full of the same handwringing will be coming around soon enough, blaming everything but standard schooling itself. After all, Newsweek is in the business of eyeballs, as are TikTok creators, and complaining about "kids today" has a proven track record that goes back at least to the Ancient Greeks.

"With the way social media algorithms work, students are being fed nonstop content that's not only entertaining but also specifically tailored to their interests," complains another scold. That is exactly what play-based or self-directed learning does as well, albeit without the necessity for screens or media corporations. This is where intrinsic motivation comes from. It's the way real, deep, relevant learning has always happened, since long before standard schools came along and replaced it with tedium, carrots, and sticks.

Let the TikTok-ers humbug. The rest of us will go out and play.

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I've been writing about play-based learning almost every day for the past 14 years. I've recently gone back through the 4000+ blog posts(!) I've written since 2009. Here are my 10 favorite in a nifty free download. Click here to get yours.

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