Are Kids Lazy, or Just Smarter Than We Were?
Why today’s teens might be doing school (and life) smarter, and what we need to unlearn.
I love learning. Love it.
In fact, I hold a master's degree, and if I could afford it, I'd pursue a doctorate in anything. I love learning.
However, I don't use anything I learned in school, unless reading and typing count.
Everything I do in my day-to-day life, I've learned on the job or through trial and error. I'm a professionally licensed adult with a career that requires a master's degree, and I genuinely believe I could have learned my profession more efficiently through employment...
I'm not exaggerating, and it sounds like many Americans agree.
In 2019, a survey of 2,000 adults found that Americans utilize only about 37% of the knowledge they acquired in high school in adulthood. Additionally, 84% of the people surveyed stated that they learned things in high school that they never use.
The survey also asked individuals to choose between taking a traditional calculus class and a tax preparation course; only 13 percent said they would take calculus. Another 17 percent said they would prefer to take algebra over a class on household repairs.
Man, household repairs and taxes would have been beneficial to me! Even something as simple as teaching me what a credit card was would have been helpful...and saved me a lot of trouble from the salesmen who were all over our college campus with their 0% interest for 12 months.
The five most worthless things learned in school were the Pythagorean Theory, knowing the value of PI, the periodic table, types of rocks, and the difference between protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Nope, I've never used any of that, but I bet if you needed to know this for your job, someone would teach you.
Overall, 89 percent of individuals surveyed stated that their lives would be easier if they had learned practical skills in school.
Now, I get it.
It's essential to be exposed to a wide range of topics so that you can determine what interests you and have some working knowledge of various subject matters.
But give me a break, I knew when I was 16 that I would never use calculus or care about Silas Marner, and I bet you feel the same way. I bet school administrators feel the same way.
Silas Marner was really, really painful to read.
Yet, we had to suffer through these things, so we make sure our kids suffer through them too. Then we complain about how lazy and unmotivated teens are when they use Google to find answers instead of solving problems by hand, or have AI write their papers instead of reading The Scarlet Letter.
If I were brave enough as a teenager and had access to those tools, I probably would've done that too. That's problem solving.
Are they lazy, or using the resources at their disposal for senseless busywork?
Maybe if we made learning more worthwhile, they would put in more effort? When I enjoy something, I make it a priority, and I use ChatGPT when I need to. What a great resource!
If adolescents were doing anything else, I'd worry about their intelligence. "Work smarter, not harder." Right?
Most of us are so lazy that we won't even walk our carts back to the cart corral at Walmart, and we're complaining about our kids Googling answers to historical dates...that I never use.
I have a calendar and Google. I get alerts when an important date is approaching.
Jamie Leigh Schmoe
The world has changed.
Just because we had to suffer through these subjects doesn't mean everyone should forever.
When our parents and grandparents were younger, the rate of knowledge growth was significantly slower. On average, knowledge doubled about every 100 years. Today, knowledge doubles in just a few months. Some say our knowledge doubles every 12 hours, depending on the field of study.
Our kids are living in a different world from the one we lived in. They need to interact differently for their survival.
So are they lazy, or are they simply adapting?
We can keep mocking them for using Google and ChatGPT…or we can admit they’re navigating a world we never had to survive.
If we want better outcomes, maybe it’s not the kids who need to change. Maybe it’s the system.
Before we write off the next generation, let’s all snag a copy of Silas Marner for old times' sake and remind ourselves how it felt to be in high school.
Don't be jealous that they have better tools than we did. Just say, "You're welcome." Our generation did that.