Been thinking a bit more about how on the nose this post was and how evil a lot of the comments on it are over the past day since reblogging it. I so clearly remember when the exact same demographic of my peers that are still currently on tumblr were all in high school, the things we talked about were how physically and psychologically damaging the US school system was. How we loved learning but the homework the schools gave us didn't help us learn, it just felt like pointless busywork that overburdened us with stress and barred us from rest and leisure. How we were all so tired all the time. How it felt like we were being grilled on our obedience rather than our knowledge. How physically or mentally disabled/neurodivergent and otherwise marginalized children who could not keep up with the exact demands of the institution were left behind and punished. And now so many people have the gall to act like the problem is The Kids Are Too Lazy To Learn, as if those problems have gotten lesser instead of significantly exacerbated.
Here are a few very significant things that are different from when us Nineties Kidz were in school:
the quarantine proved that virtual schooling and other forms of making classwork less strict and more accessible were logistically possible, but these institutions just did not want to continue to provide those options.
Being forced back into in-person classes in buildings without proper ventilation and or other precautions long before there stopped being a risk of illness proved that the wellbeing of the students was significantly less of a concern than making sure they were out of the way and corralled properly so the adults could get back to work
The job market has significantly worsened in every sector, and the financial security that was supposedly the carrot to the school system's stick now seems almost completely unattainable. There is no real upward mobility associated with getting into good schools anymore.
The recent political gains of conservatism means it is straight up illegal to teach about basic social inequalities in many high school settings now, and kids aren't too stupid to know that that's happening. when you understand that your educational system is barred from teaching you basic facts about the world you live in because it is politically inconvenient to the current regime, it probably doesn't make you highly value the education these institutions can provide you
so basically on top of all of the ways the school system was fucked previously, they now know that the system does not care about their health and safety, is not capable of offering them a path to a financially sustainable life, and will not teach them about the world with a framework based in our current political reality. So with all of that in mind, i ask you, in what possible world can we expect children to still give their all despite that?
i truly do love learning a ton. i was a rigorous and dedicated student as much as my physical and mental health allowed me to be in high school. dropping to get my GED was undoubtedly one of the single best decisions i've ever made in my life. if you think kids cheating their way through high school are lazy and stupid, then you care more about children's obedience than you do about their wellbeing, plain and simple. have a little bit of compassion for a group of people who are suffering under the current socioeconomic conditions exactly as much as we are but without any of the agency to get to decide what that means for them and their life.
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