Kids Today No Longer Know How To Do These 10 Very Simple Things, Says A Teacher
Prostock-studio | Canva Pro Every generation thinks the "kids these days" are hopeless little weaklings, but today's kids really do seem to be built different. Growing up in a world where the internet has never not existed seems to have made them… well, a bit "soft," as the saying goes.
But don't take it from me: Take it from the poor souls saddled with the duty of teaching them once they arrive at school. One teacher recently posted a list of things kids today simply do not know how to do, and it doesn't present the brightest picture of today's youth!
"What’s happening to our kids? I need answers!!" That's the question teacher and content creator Patrice, known as @mommy_n_zacky on social media, asked. In a recent video, she shared a list of things she finds utterly mystifying about her students, things they "no longer know how to do, and I don't know why."
10 things kids no longer know how to do, according to a teacher:
1. Read a clock
This was a standard part of preschool education for many of us older generations, but it seems the advent of digital clocks being everywhere means most kids today are totally stymied by a wall clock.
"They're always asking, 'What time is it? What time is it?' I'm like, 'look at the clock,'" Patrice said. "They're like, 'I don't know how to read that.' And they say that to you with confidence. What's happening?"
2. Write in cursive
We've all heard this one: Cursive is a thing of the past, in the literal sense. As Patrice herself pointed out, it is no longer taught in most schools, so kids today have no idea how to even do it.
"I wish more of them knew how to do this," Patrice remarked. "This is like a lost art… We need to bring that back." Especially because not learning it means they often can't read it, either.
3. Memorize phone numbers
This one is downright dangerous. "They don't know their parents' numbers," Patrice said, echoing things many teachers online have pointed out. "They don't even know what apartment they live in. They don't know what street they live on," she added.
This is incredibly dangerous if a storm or disaster knocks out electricity and phone signals. What are these kids going to do? Teach your kids these things! Their phone isn't going to hold out in all circumstances! And speaking of which...
4. Remember their address
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Patrice said that when her students are asked where they live, they say general things like "down the block," and when pressed, they don't actually know the details of their home address. "I'm talking about third graders, y'all," she said. "Third grade."
Which is odd, given the hysteria about child abductions and trafficking these days. As a kid growing up in the '80s, during the last hysteria about these topics, drilling these details into our heads so that we could tell a cop or helpful adult if anyone tried to mess with us was a standard part of childhood.
5. How to count money
"They don't know how to count money, and it's partially not their fault, right?" Patrice said. "Because we're always using cards, Apple Pay, things like that. But if you give them a few coins, they don't even know the names of the coins. They don't know the value… They can't add it all together."
Parents, your kids need to know these things. They need to know them!
6. How to tie their shoes
Many teachers have pointed this out, and also that many kids lack the fundamental fine motor skills to even LEARN to tie their shoes, having spent their entire childhoods swiping on tablets instead of learning to hold a crayon or play with toys that require motor control.
"They have these fancy shoes, and they don't know how to tie their shoelaces," Patrice said, adding that most of them have Velcro shoes. "Hey, if it works, it works. But, I mean, come on, we should know how to tie our shoes."
7. Their parents' names
This is in line with the address and phone number issue: If your child is involved in some kind of dangerous situation, how are they to get back to you if they don't even know who you are? "I'll ask them, what is your mom's name? They'll be like, I don't know," Patrice said in shock. "I don't know what's happening."
8. What year they were born
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Now come on! "Some of them can tell you their birthday, but what year they were born, they don't know, nor are they interested," Patrice said. God help us. Hope there's never a power outage or a mass data erasure, or y'alls' kids are absolutely cooked!
9. How to use a dictionary
Of course they don't. Who needs to know how to actually do anything for themselves when there are phones and ChatGPT to do everything for them?
But it goes beyond how to look something up, according to Patrice, and includes "being able to put things in alphabetical order." She said they not only don't know what that means, "but they're also not interested in figuring out what it means."
10. How to follow directions
If it's more than one step, Patrice said they can't handle it. "If I tell them, go over there, get me that book, and then when you're done, wipe that desk off and then bring me the paper out of the book, they go, okay," she explained, but as soon as they've gotten the book they have forgotten everything else they're supposed to do, because they weren't actually listening.
"I don't know, parents, if y'all can help us out, we need to go back to basics," Patrice said. "We're gonna do our part as teachers, but we just need a little help… We're a community. We work together. So let's set our kids up for success." Good advice — and the kinds of things that didn't need to be pointed out until recently.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
