Texting was once discouraged by teachers, but now it's being encouraged due to an increasing number of younger people being unable to properly communicate through writing.
A high school teacher, TikToker Miss Makenzie, shared "just another teacher rant" in a video expressing frustration about the oft-overlooked problem of students becoming essentially illiterate.
"For some reason, there's still this argument that even though kids are a couple of grade levels behind, it doesn't really matter," said the TikToker, quoting the general consensus.
"They can graduate, they can move on, it's no big deal. Who cares? As long as they can read and do random stuff, they're fine!"
"No," she asserted.
The 10th-grade English teacher shared with viewers a serious conversation she had on the topic with a coworker.
Miss Makenzie continued:
"These kids can't text each other."
"Couple years ago we were so worried that texting was 'ruining grammar' and writing. These kids can't even text. They voice-note. They voice note to text.
You can watch the clip here.
She maintained that students "can't Google anymore" because they're too busy speaking into their devices instead of typing to seek information instead.
"They're speaking into ChatGPT to find their answers and just copy and pasting," she said, and asserted, "They are illiterate."
Miss Makenzie expressed concern for unprepared students who will eventually be forced to navigate society beyond campus halls with limited cognitive skills due to reliance on technology.
"How do you expect them to go into the world?" she wondered.
While we can circumnavigate roadblocks with accessible information at our fingertips, Makenzie stressed the obvious solution as an argument was counterintuitive.
She added:
"Yes there's ways around it, it's called technology."
"That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be teaching them how to friggin' read and write."
TikTokers were flummoxed by the current situation with our students.
@gmakenzie/TikTok
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@gmakenzie/TikTok
People from previous generations shared their contrasting experiences.
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A New York Times op-ed from 2023 suggests that educators aren't allowed to expect accountability from students, which subsequently leads to perpetuating blame culture.
It raised the argument that if students aren't being held accountable to study hard and ask teachers questions about the things in class that they don't comprehend, then it's not their problem.
Further exacerbating the frustrating issue is the "no zero grades" policy teachers are required to uphold. The extreme grading leniency prevents teachers from issuing zero grades on incomplete or entirely incorrect exams and on tests that are missed.
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