Biggest changes I’ve seen in students over 20 years.

I graduated college in 2003 and I’ve been teaching since 2009. I can’t believe the biggest changes that I have seen in kids, and it’s been slow-but I understand now why the Boomers complained about GenX and why GenX complains about millennials. <br><br>Here are some of the biggest changes I have noticed:<br><br>1. No phones in class. When I started kids had phones for texting parents after school. If they had them out during class, they were taken away until the end of class. 2014 was the first time I caught kids scrolling through their phone and 2018 was the first time I caught kids on social media. This was also the same time that I had kids tell me that their parents wanted them to have their phone during school as we didn’t have enough land lines for kids to call out if an incident happened. (We were not 1:1 at the time and did not have enough computers for kids to quickly look something up.) <br><br>Now we are 1:1 and literally have a cart of computers in each classroom so kids can quickly look up something but we also have so many kids on their phones during class. To be honest, most of the time it is not worth the fight. I have more important things then to fight over a phone when 90% of the class is working.<br><br>2. In 2009 kids did all their homework by hand. Now most kids type everything. <br><br>3. We were told in college not to friend students on Facebook. Now we are told not to friend students on Instagram.<br><br>4. When I first started it was unheard of for a kid to be diagnosed with anxiety. Now it is a common diagnosis. I literally have a kid who had such bad panic attacks that they had to be taken out of public school. <br><br>5. When I first started, most of my kids had siblings. Now a lot of my kids are only children. <br><br>6. When I first started, all my kids grew up on public school. Now it seems like a third transfer into public school from charter schools, private schools, or homeschool. <br><br>7. Increase in kids with IEPs. I know we weren’t identifying kids when I first started as much as we do now. <br><br>8. When I first started, I assumed that all my kids had access to a computer at home. Now we know that isn’t always the case. <br><br>9. Most kids saw their grandparents often. Now a lot of my kids don’t know their grandparents as they live on the other side of the world. <br><br>10. Most kids played outside often when they were kids. Now many kids don’t do that any more.<br><br>EDIT: I am reading through all your comments. Thank you so much! I think it is important to remember that this wasn’t meant to be negative. Kids adapt to their surroundings as best they can. It’s our job to help them be the best they can be. I have always thought that the previous generation complains about the next one. It is our job to help them be the best they can be, even if it isn’t the same as when we were kids.