An 8th-grade teacher in Dallas, Texas, recently spoke out about an issue that’s been more prevalent than ever. According to her, her students are suffering from serious learning problems, including literacy, critical thinking, and even basic reasoning skills.
The problem was revealed by TikTok user heymisscanigetapencil, also known as Ms. L. She, an 8th-grade history teacher, opened up about the issues by wondering how some children “ended up at this point.”
According to her, out of her more than 100 students, only two of them are reading at a great level. “18 of them are at a kindergarten level, 55 of those students are between a 2nd and 4th-grade level,” Ms. L added, describing those worrying numbers as “typical” as of lately.
However, the issues do not stop there.
“It’s not just literacy, it’s not just lack of content knowledge, it’s just not critical thinking skills,” Ms. L explained. “It’s basic thinking skills. My students can’t decode almost nothing.”
The Texas teacher explained that many students can’t apply inference or process questions longer than a sentence. Some are even struggling to connect cause and effect or to track multi-step ideas. “It’s scaring me a little,” she said.
Ms. L mentioned an example during class while doing guide notes. She had her students write down, “Maryland was founded as a safe haven for Catholics.” Then, Ms. L asked one student, almost immediately after, “Where were the Catholics, one more time?” The student couldn’t answer her question, seemingly confused by it, and without the ability to decipher it, even by looking at the very thing they just wrote down.
Worst of all, this happened with multiple students. “Some of them never answered me,” Ms. L said, adding, “they never figured out the answer.”
Struggling Students, Reactions
Even simple extra credit assignments are impossible for most of her students, as they are unable to follow instructions as simple as writing the assignments on a separate piece of paper. According to her, they seem to struggle to comprehend something that isn’t presented in a multiple-choice format.
Many users reacted to the harrowing revelation from the Texas teacher, blaming phones and calling on teachers in general not to pass students.
“We have crashed right into Idiocracy,” one user wrote. Another one said, “The empty blank stares you get are frightening.” A third one added, “This is actually terrifying. I didn’t realize it was this bad.”
If what Ms. L is saying is true, and it probably is, then we’re in for a tough generation of people, unable to process even the most basic things in life. Parents should do better.
