I instructed my high school students to watch a 10-minute video. The instruction was to watch the video intently, jot down any “noticings” or “wonderings” about the video, so that we could discuss on the back end. That would lead to a culminating reflection (approximately one paragraph). I had to stop the video at least 3 times in the first 2 minutes because no matter how many times I gave the instruction, small pockets of students went into chit-chat mode. Finally I re-started the video. It’s May. May 16th to be exact. By now, in a normal universe, my students would be socialized into conforming to certain behaviors. But this isn’t a normal universe. This is the USA, AD2025.

I see it all over the place in educational forums. “Post-covid, kids have no attention span” and shut down at the slightest nudge into their “zone of proximal development.” Sometimes I write it off as us old-timers shaking our fist at the clouds and yelling at the whippersnappers to get off of our lawns. But I think there’s something to the observation. Part of me wonders if there isn’t a bit of political economy to this all.

In the 1930s, a lone figure could tap into a zeitgeist and build a mass movement on a foundation of hateful lies. By the time anyone knew what was happening, it was too late. I worry when I can’t get 16-year-old students to comply without the threat of disciplinary reinforcement. Curiosity is absent on many days of the week. Many students complete work just to finish it, get it out of their faces, so they can put their heads down and wait for the Pavlovian bell to send them to lunch, gym, the hallway, or home. School is a chore of reluctant compliance. At least that’s how they see it.

And I can’t help but think that the nefarious forces that trade in lies, misinformation, and absurdity would delight in the willful IGNORE-ance exhibited in some classrooms today. Billionaires are robbing us blind while we’re stuck on infinite scroll. The Nazis goose-stepped, we’re tik-tok dancing.

We need to rethink education. That’s the understatement of the century, and it is horrifically overdue. We need to encourage students to THINK. The structures in place emphasize quantities over qualities. Politicians make promises to “fix education” with not even the slightest clue what that means. Frantically, they look for ways to make good on their “promise” so they can hang their hats on “achievement.” That’s where test numbers come in. Politicians pressure education officials, bureaucrats, most of whom flamed out of the classroom after five years, if that. The bureaucrats pressure principals; principals pressure teachers, teachers pressure students; students learn to do what they’re told and dutifully produce numbers that make the teachers look “good”, satisfy the principals, placate the bureaucrats, and get the politicians reelected.

None of this prepares young minds for the society they are inheriting. The skill set students will need to successfully navigate this world isn’t covered by today’s standardized tests. One could argue that modern skill sets could not and should not be standardized. One needs to learn to vet terabytes of information, evaluate, compare, and contrast, all with a mind open to new knowledge, new possibilities. With all the emphasis on Common Core and subsequent standards, they made half-hearted attempts to address this discrepancy…. but it’s not enough. Classes still rely on tedious memorization, which is all but obsolete when information is so readily available. Success in today’s world, and the future, involves being able to discern news from “fake news”, fact from opinion, information from propaganda.

But in the end, all today’s education system cultivates is resentful compliance.