7 Basic Life Skills Slowly Disappearing From Kids’ Lives, According To Teachers
Technology is getting in the way of kids today knowing how to do some very basic things.
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A | Shutterstock Kids today live very different lives than youngsters did in previous generations. With technology permeating every part of life, there are so many things that they do differently, or don’t have to do at all. This means that there are a lot of life skills that just aren’t part of their lives.
Teachers get a front row seat to these deficits. As they spend most of their time with the next generation, they see firsthand how kids are missing out on skills that used to be commonplace for everyone. One teacher brought this subject up in a Reddit post, prompting others to share the life skills they had noticed disappear from kids’ lives during their time teaching.
1. Holding a pencil
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For many, holding a pencil and scratching out a quick sentence or two seems like the most natural thing in the world. However, one middle school teacher said their students do not grasp this concept at all. “Many students just make a fist around their pencil and use their whole arm to scrawl,” they reported.
The reason kids struggle with holding a pencil isn’t a surprising one. Even at a young age, they are more used to using technology for communicating and writing than they are their own handwriting. Doctors are warning that this is detrimental to children’s development.
Sally Payne, head pediatric occupational therapist at the Heart of England foundation NHS Trust, said, “Children are not coming into school with the hand strength and dexterity they had 10 years ago. Children coming into school are being given a pencil but are increasingly not … able to hold it because they don’t have the fundamental movement skills.”
Using technology constantly has made it nearly impossible for kids to do something as simple as write a word. Unfortunately, technology is becoming even more prevalent, meaning this trend is not likely to reverse unless a concerted effort is made by caregivers.
2. Cleaning up after themselves
It sounds like some kids have given up on using pencils entirely. A custodian said they swept up approximately 50 discarded pencils each day. A parent said that their own middle schooler’s teacher said it wasn’t worth it to work on tidying up with the kids because “it takes too long.”
Some teachers said they insist on persisting with cleaning anyway, while some parents said they enforced it as a rule at home, even though it wasn’t necessary at school. Because of this, it’s not clear where the problem is coming from. It seems like, for some kids, cleaning is not encouraged at home, but for others, it’s not even encouraged at school. This just compounds the problem.
JoAnn Crohn, MEd, founder of the No Guilt Mom, said that you have to teach kids why it’s important to clean up rather than just teaching them that their parents want them to. She also said it’s important to teach kids “the benefits of having an area picked up.” They have to learn these things for themselves instead of just relying on canned answers.
Unfortunately, some parents and teachers don’t give kids the chance to learn these things because they just pick up everything for them instead of making them do it themselves. Cleaning up your own mess is no longer a natural instinct for kids. Instead, some are coddled out of the opportunity of ever learning how.
3. Fine motor skills
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It’s not surprising that kids are struggling with fine motor skills if they can’t really hold a pencil. One Redditor said, “As a [high school] art teacher, there has been a dramatic drop in fine motor skills since I started teaching. Like, absolutely cratered compared to when I first started teaching.” Other teachers complained about differences in things like handwriting, while another said that they help run a high school knitting and crochet club and have seen the drop in fine motor skills themselves.
Unsurprisingly, technology seems to be to blame for the lack of fine motor skills as well. An Education Week survey of PreK-3 teachers found that 77% reported their students had difficulty with using pencils and scissors and writing. These are things that some kids simply don’t have to do at all because technology can do it for them.
It may seem like doing these things isn’t necessary if technology can step in, but kids are really missing out if they don’t have the fine motor skills needed to use a pair of scissors or thread a needle. This applies to so much beyond just education and will really stunt their development in their personal lives as well.
4. Physical activity
Several teachers in the Reddit thread pointed out that their students no longer wanted to go outside and play or do any activity that could be deemed even slightly strenuous. A school nurse said they had students come to them and complain of shortness of breath after running in PE. “I let them know that shortness of breath is a natural response to exercise,” they said.
Once upon a time, kids used to beg to go outside and play. It was really the only way for them to entertain themselves. Now, in the age of screens, kids are more used to remaining stationary and scrolling. Because of this, they’re not only enjoying physical activity less, but they’re also less used to it.
Despite this avoidance of physical activity, it holds a host of benefits for children. The CDC said that kids who are active are more likely to have strong memories, good blood pressure, and proper blood sugar levels. At the same time, they’re less likely to be depressed and come down with chronic diseases.
It’s important to get outside and be active, especially when you’re a kid, and those habits are literally being built into your life. The fact that so many kids don’t want to do this is concerning and a sign that technology really has gone too far.
5. Holding a conversation
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One teacher said that school speech pathologists are being overrun with concerns about students. Because everyone they know is always on their phones or looking at some other screen, they just don’t know how to talk to others. This is hugely problematic as it means kids are missing out on learning a skill that will quite literally carry them through their lives.
Nonprofit educational organization Understood shared that not understanding social cues or having underdeveloped social skills can be one reason for struggling to hold conversations. However, they pointed out that other hindrances, like anxiety or slower processing skills, may not be related to technology use at all.
It’s easy to say that no one really talks to each other in the traditional sense anymore, so no one knows how to communicate. However, it’s very possible that some kids have simply been affected by age-old concerns that hold them back from having effective conversations. Regardless, being able to talk to others is essential, and this is something that must be remedied.
6. Concentrating
Because they live in a world in which technology has made them used to instant gratification, kids just don’t know how to be patient and pay careful attention to things. One teacher described this as “losing powers of concentration and following the thread of literally anything longer than two sentences.”
Children are used to not waiting for anything, so they think everything in life should follow that pattern. They get frustrated when they are required to be patient or have to stick with something for a long time to get it right. Because of that, they’re more likely to give up than actually see things through.
Understood said that trouble with concentrating can come from a lot of different things, like going through something stressful, ruminating over a fight with a friend, being hungry, or being tired. Of course, it’s possible that kids have also been exposed to a few too many search engines that pull up results in a matter of seconds, too.
Children just don’t have the same level of focus that they once did, which is having a serious impact on their performance in school and their ability to maintain social relationships. It doesn’t bode well for things in the future, like higher education and work, either.
7. Tying their shoes
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An overwhelming number of teachers said that they had students who didn’t know how to tie their shoes. Of course, needing some help from your teacher to tie your shoes when you’re really young is to be expected. However, some of these teachers said they taught eighth grade or high school.
Some students told their teachers that their parents purchased Velcro shoes for them so they could avoid the need to tie them. This is a perfect example of parents enabling children and letting them take the easy way out instead of actually working and practicing to learn something that isn’t very difficult in the first place.
The same Education Week survey of PreK-3 teachers found that 69% of participants had noticed a difference in children’s ability to tie their shoes compared to five years ago. Other than parents just not caring enough to make their kids learn how to tie their shoes, there’s no clear reason for this.
Not being able to tie your own shoes is a major problem. That’s something most kids figure out in preschool. You simply can’t expect to make it through life without the ability to tie your shoes. This is something that kids will have to learn at some point.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
