Are Children Raising Themselves?

Children are no longer acting or behaving like children. What message are they sending us?

As a volunteer Teacher’s Aide, I am witnessing an alarming and frightening phenomenon in the children I am trying to help, many of whom I know, and in those in my community. Also, I read and listen to the news about what’s happening in my country.

At the school where I volunteer, even the teachers are in shock. Many are in their profession for ten, fifteen, and twenty years or more, and can’t understand what is going on.

More than half of them come to school late. I see them on the streets, dragging themselves, taking their time as if they are going to a funeral, and the dead can wait.

School calls at 7:30 AM. Children here no longer hurry to get to school on time.

Are parents aware of the value of punctuality?

Most of these children don’t care if they get zero, fifty, or ninety in their exams. They aren’t excited, enthusiastic, or worried about exams or learning. They don’t study, and most don’t take notes. So, there is nothing to study from. There are 35 students in the class, and more than 90% of them have no interest in learning or in a better future.

Are the parents aware of this? Do parents check these children’s books after school? Do parents ask their children how school was and what they learned today?

The PEP, or Primary Exit Profile, which determines which high school they attend in September, is at the end of April.

These children will be jumping from five subjects in primary school, which will end in June. To 12–17 in high school, which starts in September. They have two months to prepare.

Children are failing all five subjects. There are eleven and twelve-year-olds who don’t know how many times 4 goes into 8. Some don’t know how many times five can be divided by itself.

Here, parents must buy new uniforms every year because their children have outgrown them. A bag every year, sometimes, because some children don’t take care of their books or bags. Every year, the book list is different. Notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, glue, and whatever else the school needs. Money for extra lessons, Saturday and Sunday classes too.

Given all the money spent, you would think parents would demand their money’s worth by being involved in their children’s education.

Sixth grade is a recap of what was taught in the fourth and fifth grades. The majority of these children don’t remember what they were taught two years ago. When I asked, they said, “Miss, I don’t remember.”

How is this possible? How come the parents aren’t aware of this?

My sister, who is a teacher in Pennsylvania, is experiencing the same issues I am complaining about, but with older children.

They really don’t care whether they succeed or fail, and neither do many parents. Most parents don’t show up for P.T.A. or on consultation day. One child said her Mom said she has better things to do. Another child said her mother said she can’t be bothered.

What kind of heart would tell that to her child?

Consultation Day is when parents receive a report on their children’s progress.

If they aren’t interested in my education, why should I try? Some children might be thinking like this.

If they can’t do the work, they don’t care. If something is taught in class and they don’t understand, they ask nothing and do what they want, no matter what the teacher says. They are not enthusiastic about learning anything, old or new.

This frustrates the teachers, and they feel as if the classroom is a battlefield. But they return tomorrow to try again, many times without hope and support.

The emotional state of children is never under consideration in my country. You find a way to live, or you die. There is no middle ground.

More than 98% of them don’t know what they want to be when they grow up. These are eleven and twelve-year-olds, and many can’t read, and they don’t care. They aren’t ashamed either. Failure is nothing to many of these children.

Their focus is all over the place.

They disrupt the class over and over, frustrating the teacher, who must stop every few seconds to tell a child that he is teaching, and others want to learn. He has to keep explaining that if they don’t listen, they won’t learn. Because of this behavior, only one subject was often taught that day.

These children take all day to do seven simple fractions, slowing down what the curriculum that the Ministry of Education had mandated for their education.

Their value of education has surpassed 0%.

Teachers only have X amount of time to spend on one topic.

They come to school unprepared for class. Many have no books, pencils, or the necessary tools to learn. Many go around borrowing. Most don’t want to learn and give less than the minimum. A teacher says her son got 0% at an open-book test. When she asked how, he said he didn’t care. He didn’t feel like opening the book.

This child is in a prominent high school here.

The majority of these children have no interest in learning, and the few who do are ridiculed and mocked.

Are these children raising themselves? What kind of homes do these children live in? Are their parents aware of what is going on in their children’s lives?

How can a child without disabilities be 11, have been in school since they were 3, and still can’t read, and the parents aren’t aware of this?

They have no interest in their future; does that mean we won’t have one very soon? They said children are the future.

Looking at what AI, War, Greed, Racism, Poverty, and Cruelty are doing to our world, can you see a better future ahead?

They say children are our future. Does their behavior and lack of interest in their life and future mean hell is around the corner?

What are these children seeing that adults can’t?

Seeing this in schools and in my community terrifies me. Is this happening in other communities, countries, and schools worldwide?

We know hell inches closer every day. We are unaware if children are aware of what is going on. We don’t know what they know, and no one asked them. Many are on their phones and tablets unsupervised.

A child told me she was tired because she didn’t sleep last night. When I asked why, she said she was on her phone most of the night. Her mom didn’t know. She is eleven years old. She slept through most of the class and didn’t do much work. The teacher and I tried our best, but our powers and responsibilities are limited.

Maybe they know more than us.

Is this the reason why the birthrate is shrinking worldwide? Women are terrified of having children now.

Are other countries worldwide familiar with what I have written about?

Can we stop it and save the children, saving our world in the process?

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.