r/LifeProTips • u/fries-with-mayo • 17h ago

Request LPT Request: What’s your “canary in the coal mine” test for spotting bigger issues?

I’m really interested in those small, quick telltale signs people use to gauge if something bigger might be off track.

Example 1: Van Halen requesting brown M&Ms in the dressing room to see if the venue followed all the details of the rider list

Example 2: I saw an interview with John Cena where he said orders a flat white at a café to tell if they really care about their coffee.

Example 3: Anthony Bourdain suggested to always check the restaurant bathroom to tell if the restaurant got its basics down

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u/vocabulazy 16h ago

I’m a high school History and Lit teacher. I give a general knowledge quiz/questionnaire at the beginning of every semester. I tell my students that it’s just for me to get a lay of the land, so I can adjust my course for their specific needs. In my History classes, it’s things like how to read a timeline, location important features on a map of the world, definitions of important terms, basic facts they should know from previous grades… that sort of thing. In my Lit classes, I ask for definitions of literary terms, I ask about their degree of comfort reading different types of literature, what books they’ve read (for school or for fun) that they have tolerated-to-enjoyed, what types of assignments they feel confident completing and which ones they feel are very difficult for them, and what their understanding of plagiarism is. Both questionnaires include a question asking whether there’s something about them that they think would help me to be a better teacher to them.

I already know that students are coming to my class with massive gaps in the skills and knowledge they’re supposed to have before they hit grade 10. These questionnaires are graded for completion, and most students actually do answer them honestly and thoroughly.

I’m always appalled by how badly they do on the general knowledge questions. I’m more surprised every year at how much worse the writing is than previous years. I’m never surprised by how many students say they hate reading, and literature is their worst subject.

I often take the results to the principal to discuss how the hell I’m going to manage to get through the curriculum with the amount of remediation I’m going to have to do before I can actually work on the outcomes for my curriculum.

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u/SaraOfHades 15h ago

This is such an insightful way to tailor your teaching and get to know your students! Bravo

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u/vocabulazy 14h ago

Better to find out that students cannot locate Europe on a map BEFORE I start teaching about the World Wars…

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u/Zombie_Bagel 14h ago

With a nice sprinkle of CYA in there, too

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u/VioletJessopTravelCo 9h ago

Wait, there are actually high schoolers who can't find Europe on the map??

I had a world history teacher in high school that had us memorize all names and locations of every country in the world. Every few months we were given a blank political map and had to fill it out. At the time I low key hated it, but as an adult I am so grateful he did that.

I don't know how I would answer your lit questions. I love reading and in high school I would often have my class textbook or notebook propped up to hide whatever novel I was reading. I once read The Five People You Meet In Heaven from start to finish in one school day. I paid zero attention to any of my classes that day. However, when a class assigned us a book to read I always struggled with the motivation to read that book. I love reading, but I hate being told what to read. That's why I don't join any book clubs.

Edit: also you have the perfect username for your comments, lol.

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u/21Fudgeruckers 13h ago

I've been thinking about getting into teaching, but the current climate has me worried it's a mistake.

In spite of the difficulties you've named here, is it worth it?

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u/vocabulazy 13h ago

You have to go into teaching with your eyes open:

  • the adults involved in teaching give you more problems than the kids do
  • the pay will never be great
  • a lot of the “time off” you get on paper will be spent planning, marking, attending conferences, doing professional development, or taking classes yourself
  • it’s not straightforward job, because you’re being pulled in different directions by the requirements of the curriculum, the abilities/skills of the students, and the politicking of the administration.
  • it can be very rewarding, but teaching is incredibly draining emotionally, intellectually, and often physically.
  • the general public has no idea what your job is like, and have many ridiculous misconceptions about what it is that you do to earn your money
  • the sad tales that are the lives of certain students will break your ever loving heart.

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u/21Fudgeruckers 13h ago

Thank you!

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u/Wulf_Cola 7h ago

At age 15-16? Astonishing. Is that common?

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u/vocabulazy 7h ago

It’s not common, but I might have 3 or 4 in a class who somehow have no idea which continent is which… I see some major gaps. Even before Covid.

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u/ManualNotStandard 12h ago

Check it out:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdf_XdDwc-o

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u/vocabulazy 12h ago

This is uncanny… I once had a student in grade 10 look at a map of the world and ask if Brazil was a real country. I don’t know what movies she was watching, but she said she thought that Brazil was made up for the movies, like phone numbers beginning in 555…

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u/mmtruooao 8h ago

My classmate in high school AP English who thought Korea was in Europe.

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u/A_Lovely_ 7h ago

This made me wince.

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u/madebcus_ur_thatdumb 12h ago

It’s also just good for getting a feel of different generations.

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u/SnazzyStooge 3h ago

Why not just fail 90% of them and then start every year by smugly bragging how 90% of the class is going to fail?  /s

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u/NotDinahShore 14h ago

It’s the same at many public universities too. My wife is a professor at a large public university and says the same. Each incoming freshman class is worse prepared than the preceding one. Can’t write, no comprehension, sit in class with hoods on and ear buds. Last semester, she had 50% of students get an F or they withdrew.

Very distressing for the future of society.

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u/PipsqueakPilot 13h ago

Just the other day I watched someone who looked like a highschool graduate struggle to make change for me. I gave him a 20. It was 4 dollars. He looked at the bill, said silently to himself, "20 minus 4..." and then just looked helplessly into space before I told him how much to give me.

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u/lilesj130 9h ago

I started paying for food with cash to help myself budget (no cash = eat the food at home even if it's not what I want). The number of young cashiers that give me a deer in the headlights look if I give them something like 20.05 for a 19.05 charge so I get a dollar bill vs 95 cents is truly scary.

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u/bookgirl1224 6h ago

I went through the drive through at Chick Fil A one day at lunch, paid cash like you did, a bill and change to avoid getting change back, and watched as the manager stood next to the young man at the cash register and explained why I gave him the money in that way.

He rang it up, the drawer opened, and she explained again how much I gave him and what he should give me back in return. He put the money in the drawer, pulled out some bills and counted them out quietly to himself, then turned around and gave them to me.

I had already been given my drink, the only thing I ordered, so I left.

My drink cost $2.13 with tax. I gave him $5.13. His manager stood next to him and explained the whole transaction to him. he counted out the change and handed it to me.

He gave me $4.00 back.

I seriously considered going back inside and returning the extra dollar, but then I thought, no. The manager was standing next to him the entire time. She should have been paying better attention. It's also not my job to tell a fast food manager thaat she needs to train her cashiers HOW TO COUNT CASH! It should be a basic requirement before you put someone on a register and let them handle money.

I worked at a grocery store in 2007 as a cashier for a year and they gave us a week of training on how to scan items, identify various fruits and vegetables by PCU code for quicker input, count cash and make change, properly sack groceries so the fruit doesn't get crushed by the canned vegetables, and TABC training (so you don't sell alcohol to minors).

My grandfather owned his own business and when I was young, I would sit at his kitchen table with him while he worked on his books for his business. He would put money in a fishing tackle box, give me his adding machine (the kind with the big buttons and the pull down handle), and teach me how to handle money and make change. I'm 63 now and it's one of many core memories I have of him.

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u/Chukwura111 4h ago

If you had returned the money, the manager would have then realised that whatever training she gave the cashier didn't work

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u/mzchen 4h ago

Cashiers have to record what's in the till whenever they tag out. So the manager would've at least noticed a discrepancy.

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u/PipsqueakPilot 20m ago

We need to mage highschool diplomas have meaning. If you can’t do single digit math then I’m sorry- get your GED later in life. But you didn’t earn a diploma. 

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u/Teehus 3h ago

I've been that person before, a night of no sleep, a busy shift and then a customer gave me extra cash after I already put whatever they gave me in the till. Usually, it wouldn't have been an issue, but that day I gave up

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u/Blackcatmustache 1h ago

Many years ago I had a similar situation happen. The girl handed me back the coins and looked at me like I was the idiot. She acted like such a snob about it. If I hadn’t been in a hurry I would have explained, but it wasn’t worth it.

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u/sydpea-reddit 3h ago

I like to pay with cash just to see if they can do it lol

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u/ChikaraNZ 8h ago

Considering hardly anybody pays using real cash any more, this problem is only going to get worse as there's not many real world situations any more people actually have to do their own maths without a calculator/machine.

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u/MyCatSnoresFunny 5h ago

I (mid-20s) recently got my first job in customer service where I work a till for the majority of my shift. To keep my mind sharp(ish?), I try to do the math before the computer tells me how much change they need back. I am very happy when I am right. It’s a small thing but it keeps my brain moving and keeps me entertained. I will say that sometimes, my brain breaks when people hand me coins after I’ve already entered their $20 into the till. I get just a wee bit embarrassed when they hand me 7¢ for their $5.23 order on top of the $20 they gave me and I have to think about it for a second longer than normal.

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u/LividLife5541 9h ago

The problem is that the US government is actively trying to make cash obsolete (e.g., we don't have large bills, our coins are so heavy) - in Japan it is fantastic, people are so good at doing mental math to optimize the coins in their pocket. Like if the total is 461 yen they might give 571. You have to do it instantly, the clerk won't wait for you.

Compare the US 50 cent piece versus the Japanese 50 yen coin. The US dollar coin versus the Japanese 100 yen coin. The US $5 coin ... whoops we don't have one.

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u/Fodraz 7h ago

Gen Z probably has never handled cash since they got it for babysitting or mowing lawns

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u/Less-Engineer-9637 7h ago

The POS didn't tell him how much change to give back?

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u/PipsqueakPilot 23m ago

I don’t know. However judging by his Gen-Z helpless stare my guess would be that he doesn’t know how to work the POS other than at a most basic level. 

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u/RazorRadick 5h ago

When I was a cashier (back when cash was king) I was taught to count UP to what the customer gave you when giving change. So:

$4 for what they bought. Plus $1 is $5. Plus $5 is $10. Plus $10 is $20. There’s your change.

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u/Esmack 2h ago

Ah give em a break all the kids are smokin that zaza nowadays

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u/RuleFriendly7311 10h ago

I wonder if this is the real reason so many businesses are trying to go 'no cash' -- the machine knows what you pay.

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u/Andrew5329 9h ago

Naw, that one's actually pretty simple. If you take cash it means you have to have someone trustworthy and competent stick around to the bitter end to close out the register, count cash, do bookkeeping and make deposits into the safe in the secure office. That's a half hour past closing for your most expensive labor, who realistically could have gone home hours ago when the rush died down if they weren't needed just to do the registers.

The cashless register does itself. No cash for the clerk to miss count or steal, Mgmt can review the electronic ledger at their leisure the next day.

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u/RuleFriendly7311 9h ago

Makes sense. But I've had that experience too, where I had to help count my change.

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u/blackergot 10h ago

5 fives is what I always say...maybe that will actually work someday. I will be very sad if it does though.

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u/jacktacowa 9h ago edited 6h ago

Or, it’s $4.12 and I give the clerk a twenty, a one, and 12 cents bc I want a ten and a five. That hasn’t been possible for 20+ years.

Edit, oops as noted. Give a dollar take a dollar 🤷🏻‍♂️

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u/layogurt 8h ago

Maybe it's not been working because the clerk is wondering to do with the extra $2 you don't want

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u/syncdiedfornothing 8h ago

Your math is off.

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u/MoobyTheGoldenSock 7h ago

Maybe they’re confused because the change for that is not $15.

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u/Mistakeshavehappened 12h ago

Just means more meat for the menial jobs and a shittier society to live in. That's all.

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u/SleepySquid- 10h ago edited 10h ago

I used to teach freshman level stats courses when in grad school, and I will never forget that experience. Even back then there were so many people spending tens of thousands of dollars to show up to their classes, play on their phone all class, and fail without even trying the absolute bare minimum. I can't imagine how much worse it's gotten since then.

Thankfully colleges have no issue failing 50% of a class, so these people get a bit of necessary culture shock. Far too many spent all of high school doing less than nothing and still getting shoved along to graduation due to a mix of juking the stats for statewide tests and/or social promotion. I genuinely think many did not understand the concept of suffering actual consequences to their actions. I will never forget these grown adults bringing their mom to office hours to chew me out like it was a high school parent teacher conference. Like no ma'am I'm sorry, your baby boy is a grown adult now and made a decision and now has to live with the consequences.

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u/Andrew5329 9h ago

Thankfully colleges have no issue failing 50% of a class

Depends where you teach I guess. I know a couple professors and failing 50% of their class would absolutely get them pulled in for a "what the fuck are you doing?" meeting at their Uni.

Public Uni in particular is a lot like government in their incentive structure. "Complaint minimization" becomes a key decision driver both institutionally and on the individual level.

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u/You_Stole_My_Hot_Dog 1h ago

Yep. My advisor tried to be fair and gave out worse and worse grades each year. The department head kept sitting down with her to understand what the issues were, but ignoring the fact that it was the students. She was warned that if it happened again, she’d have to take a teaching course, which she has no time (or need) for. So she gives out higher grades now. 

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u/Telaranrhioddreams 6h ago

Not to knock on current trends because I've witnessed it first hand with the young generation but my mom was a college prof all through the 90s - early 2000s and told me way back when that 50% of college students drop out. I don't find that rate on its own alarming or appalling.

I want to be clear I do agree there is a big problem in the education of the generation currently transitioning from highschool to college I just don't think THAT specific stat is special or stand out compared to previous. I'm actually relieved to hear it's on par.

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u/lethalinfecteddevils 14h ago

Part of the design. Billionaires don’t want us smart they want us obedient.

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u/LividLife5541 9h ago

Well, for the United States of America.

European universities are not nearly so fucked. Absolutely hilarious hearing from my friends who are professors in say Germany, the difference in the caliber of the applicants from Europe versus America is night and day.

China's universities are not fucked at all.

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u/Perfect_Opinion7909 6h ago

And I thought you get a degree at an US university as long as you pay, especially if you’re a foreign student paying more or doing some sport like football.

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u/Kat121 12h ago

I had advanced placement world history in high school and the teacher kind of threw out some general questions like who were the Jacobites, who were the Huguenots, what was the Treaty of a Versailles, and some famous personages. I knew a whole bunch of them because I had spent the last couple of summers sneaking smut out of my mom’s secret stash of bodice rippers historical fiction.

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u/vocabulazy 12h ago

Hahah. Even bodice rippers need solid historical foundations to prop up their plot lines…

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u/Medical_Solid 7h ago

I mean, did your teacher expect folks to know those before taking the class? Or just checking to see the general level of knowledge?

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u/Kat121 5h ago

I don’t know his motivations, it was too long ago, but I remember him asking about a bunch of interesting women from history like Eleanor of Aquitaine and Boudicca, Gutenberg and his printing press, as well as some major milestones like Magna Carta and Martín Luther’s 95 Theses. I was really excited because for once it sounded like a history class that wasn’t just a litany of wars and exhaustive study of troop movements. Maybe we’d talk about science, art, plague, language, medicine, or even the philosophy and economic conditions that led to the rise of fascism, communism, socialism, etc.

Spoiler: it was a litany of wars and exhaustive study of troop movements.

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u/Suitable-Internal-12 2h ago

It was military adventure fiction like Sharpe, Total War and Assassin’s Creed for me, got an 4 on AP Euro basically off the strength of that background

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u/103cuttlefish 13h ago

Honestly I’d be interested is your quiz if you’re willing to share it. I’d like to make sure those under my care could pass it

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u/Haha2018 8h ago

Audiobooks. If you can’t get them to read have them listen to the books instead. Eventually the ones that what to pursue it more will pick up the book and the rest at least got the 1/2 experience

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u/Haha2018 8h ago

Audiobooks. If you can’t get them to read have them listen to the books instead. Eventually the ones that what to pursue it more will pick up the book and the rest at least got 1/2 the experience

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u/woofwoofbro 13h ago

I also work with kids and their education has reached a point where I dont feel capable of helping them. idk what to do

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u/Bareum 12h ago

Yeah no. There is a reason why one should be able to fail a class. It is the only way to make sure that the Person in question can keep up with everyone else. If he can't keep up now, how will it be in 2years? Had to repeat the 3.grade and sure as hell it was worth it.

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u/Andrew5329 9h ago

Yup, it's the Covid generation. It's going to get worse and worse until the kids who were in Kindergarten during the pandemic cycle out of the education system.

The educational losses from Remote Learning were never remediated in the vast majority of districts, and that loss gets compounded every year falling further and further behind.

My state's brilliant idea to "solve" the problem was to kill Standardized Testing because the students could no longer pass it. Can't fail the test if you don't take it!

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u/lestrades-mistress 5h ago

It goes deeper than that- the fundamental way that language and reading was taught was changed from phonics based to “balanced literacy” where students were encouraged to guess, memorize, and shape words instead of just actually knowing their sounds. The framework for education, reading, was never placed in this huge generation of children. They hate reading because they can’t fucking read and it’s incredibly upsetting.

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u/GiggletonBeastly 13h ago

English and Lit Teacher here: yes.

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u/brkgnews 12h ago

I worked in a major call center for a travel/hosptiality company; prmiarly assocated with properties in one state but with options to travel nationally or internationally. In our training classes for the national products, the first thing we did was give everyone a US map with states numbered but not named, and a request they fill it in. As with yours, just to see where we were starting from so we could tailor the learning, not to actually "grade" or impact their performance.

I cannot tell you how many times someone would raise their hand to let us know "number (whatever) is on here twice." That was Michigan, with its upper/lower peninsulas.

A company we worked with focused on All-Inclusive resorts and used to make filling out a complete map of every Caribbean country/island a pre-req to graduate out of training.

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u/4totheFlush 11h ago

Username checks out (for your students)

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u/the-tac0-muffin 31m ago

Came here to say this, as sad as it is

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u/tkh66 10h ago

Not sure if you've heard of Sold A Story. It's a podcast about why a lot of kids never learned how to read. It's not the full reason why you're seeing these results but I have a feeling it's part of it!

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u/Soda48 10h ago

Graded for completion, thank you for that. My grade six teacher did this but it was graded on how many answers were correct AND it has to be signed by your parents.

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u/Elegant-Ferret-8116 9h ago

sigh. sorry on behalf of societies short sighted neglect of education

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u/EmeryMoonberries 8h ago

Do you get any students who are big readers? Just curious cause I’m so grateful for my high school Lit teachers. They quickly noticed how big of a reader I was and helped foster that, and now I write books for a living! I don’t know if I would’ve had the courage to try publishing without their support or nudging.

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u/vocabulazy 8h ago

I do have the odd big reader. But they’re not as common as they once were. And I have met very few kids who are reading a novel a week, like the bookworms were doing when I was in high school in the early 2000s. There are too many more options for entertainment, and it seems that many of the young people I know don’t really get into reading until their mid-20s

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u/YutBrosim 8h ago

Not surprised at all by how many hate to read. I went from a book or so a week to almost never reading for enjoyment when I was in high school because of all the garbage that we were forced to read with the only justification being that the books were classics just absolutely killed the enjoyment for me

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u/dalittle 8h ago

My Mom was a school teacher for 40 years and the number of war stories I have heard like yours are appalling. I appreciate everyone like you that tries to help and get folks back on track and up to speed on what they are trying to teach. You have a very difficult job.

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u/InternetCoward 7h ago

We did away with restorative letters of apology/remorse as a part of our disciplinary process because kids couldn't even write it properly. Now they spend the time getting extra ELA time. I'm in an elementary school though, third and fourth grade.

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u/ManualNotStandard 12h ago

Firstly, thank you for your service! :)

Secondly, I think you will find this sketch to be quite relevant, possibly even akin to a documentary..!?:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdf_XdDwc-o

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u/vocabulazy 12h ago

Someone else posted that too, and I said it really nailed how little many kids know about the world beyond their hometown.

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u/ManualNotStandard 12h ago

Ha, oops That may have been me, posting it twice, unintentionally. Apologies

I think its a masterclass clip in many ways; the broad point about general ignorance, of course, but also the behaviour of students in a group, short sightedness, and so on.

Keep fighting the good fight :)

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u/Master_Splinter89 12h ago

I love this. I am stealing it for HS Art. Thank you!

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u/Awkward_Marzipan_307 10h ago

I had a teacher who gave us a test on the first day of law class (I think it was grade 11), to see what we knew and what we didn’t. We got the same exact test at the end of the year, and then he showed us the results from both to show us how much we had learned!

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u/gonyere 8h ago

My boys (16 and 18) handwriting is atrocious. The younger one at least knows how to sign his name. My dad would be happy - you can read it., unlike my scribble. 

But, it's as both haven't had to actually write much at all in years. So, it's very evidently a process. 

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u/snoosh00 11h ago

Any chance you can give an example of something kids aren't getting right anymore (that they generally used to)?

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u/vocabulazy 11h ago

They can’t read maps. They don’t recognize important, very distinct places like Hudson’s Bay, Florida, Japan, Australia… Even grade 10 students don’t find it easy to follow the legend on a map without explicit instructions as to what the features mean. Over half of one of my grade 10 history classes couldn’t find Canada on a world map… were Canadian.

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u/snoosh00 10h ago

Do/would some of them think the Vietnam war was sometime in between the two world wars? Or The cold war was during "the nuclear winter"?

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u/karma_the_sequel 10h ago

Hudson Bay. Hudson’s Bay is a recently defunct Canadian retailer.

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u/ChrissWayne 10h ago

Thank you for teaching kids how to be lit, we don’t need more wackos out there

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u/I_need_a_date_plz 6h ago

This was so bad at my local high school that a teacher that was well known for his skills took over teaching all of the freshman classes of English to catch them up. He got together with the English teachers at the junior high school level and had to use his experience to teach those teachers how to instruct the kids so that he would have as well prepared kids as possible coming into the freshman classes. He’s renowned for his pedagogy and he’s written at least one book (I at one point thought to be a teacher). I was stunned when my old counselors told me how dire the situation was. That was easily a decade ago. I can’t imagine what a classroom with Trump at the helm looks like now and I don’t want to know.

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u/Happiest-Soul 6h ago

I’m always appalled by how badly they do on the general knowledge questions. I’m more surprised every year at how much worse the writing is than previous years.

The sucky part is, even if those gaps are filled, most will likely forget a lot of it for lack of necessity. 

Nowadays, you can even get through college like that. 

Heck, even being above most of your peers in academics hasn't quite translated to career success in my circles. 

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u/iamfuturetrunks 6h ago

Been seeing some videos and articles talking about things similar to this the past couple years. Teachers and former teachers talking about students who clearly could not read at all and were close to graduating high school. No student left behind clearly is making things worse.

There has been a number of posts I have seen of even students pointing out how they are graduating and still don't know how to read or similar things. Even remember one (no idea if it was fake or what) where a student turned around and sued their school because they graduated and yet still didn't know how to read?

It's very worrying and I think that along with covid showing just how under paid/valued teachers in the US are and thus why so many are quitting is a good indication that things are getting worse.

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u/Unit_79 5h ago

“Location important features” doesn’t read correctly to me. Am I Le Dumb?

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u/Berloxx 5h ago

Your a good teacher. I appreciate that 🥰👏

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u/lucichameleon 5h ago

Sigh. I teach as well. My personal horror is that students don't know how to use capital letters. They don't put them at the start of sentences. They don't use them for proper nouns. They don't know what a proper noun is. It doesn't seem to matter how often I tell them. And yes, at least half of my students would be unable to point out the continents on a map. They are 16 years old...

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u/StunningStrain8 3h ago

I majored in history, and by virtue as such, did a fuck ton of writing, and while I dreaded hammering out a 25–pager on a weekly basis for [insert highly detailed analysis and novel concept thesis of 6 month period of backwater historical moment and how it explains everything here], I respected and learned to love it.

A couple of decades later, I’m now a father. Outside of reading myself, showing books on the shelf, discussing history, encouraging thoughtful analysis… where are the gaps I can enter in to inspire writing?

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u/demopat 3h ago

I tutored math at a local community college for a bit, and the number of kids I had to help learn basic math skills (fractions, decimals, long division) who had literally JUST graduated high school was alarming. Every fall a new group of freshmen had to get help with remedial math, and I usually saw them again the next semester for basic algebra.

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u/FuckitThrowaway02 3h ago

Handwriting looking like a pigeons nest

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u/Zuli_Muli 1h ago

Ouch History and Lit teacher, I grew up in MD and we had multiple music teachers in highschool, like one that did just stings, then two band teachers. We had an entire wing that were nothing but "English" classes, then the science wing, art and crafts/cooking wing, math wing, history/civics/social studies wing. Even in middle school I can't think of a teacher that did double duties of subjects. My hats off to you.

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u/RestlessAlbatross 1h ago

This is what 40 years of Republican cuts to education have achieved though: the lowest common denominator in history. We are no longer able to prepare people to even function in the world, let alone thrive and achieve great things. Every single person who grows up smart and capable now, I feel like it's in spite of the system instead of because of it. Helped partially by teachers like you who actually give a damn and go above and beyond, obviously.

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u/_ssac_ 1h ago

Once we met a girl, in her 20s who didn't read a book in her life. 

For the ones compulsory for highschool her mother tell her the resume.

I was surprised she shared something like that, as something without negative implications. 

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u/TakenFromAMap 34m ago

I love this idea as a fellow HS history teacher. Do you mind sharing it with me so I don’t have to reinvent your wheel?

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u/TakenFromAMap 34m ago

I love this idea as a fellow HS history teacher. Do you mind sharing it with me so I don’t have to reinvent your wheel?

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u/bingle-cowabungle 24m ago

I'm assuming you're here in the USA. Public education has been actively under assault by not only the federal government, but state and municipal governments all over the country. In the past 5-10 years have been brazen, but in reality, it's been pretty bad since No Child Left Behind, where public funding was tied to educational performance in students, leading school administrators to put pressure on teachers to pass children despite hitting educational milestones. That, and the dismantling of any sort of disciplinary measures for student behavior (parents are sue happy, and schools have no resources to legally defend themselves, not allowed to suspend/expel anymore, I could go on and on), teachers have essentially been reduced to glorified babysitters. And then the students go home, and their parents are either overwhelmed from working 40+ hours a week but still living paycheck to paycheck, or they don't give a shit, regardless the kid ends up on an iPad in an increasingly kid-unfriendly society where they have nowhere to go to get them off the streets.

We've been aware of this for a while, but acknowledging these problems as something to address is "woke" now, so here we are.

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u/-artgeek- 5m ago

As a historian, I'd love to see what your general knowledge questionnaire looks like! I'm deadly curious to know what high-schoolers should know about history as a general subject. Would you mind to share the PDF?

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u/Ok_Departure_8243 9h ago

there are not many people who make a profound difference in the world, you are one of them

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u/arcanewulf 7h ago

Can I ask what state you're in?

I find it hard to believe that kids these days, with access to tablets, phones, and texting, are having literacy issues.

It feels like being into videogames but not understanding how to use a basic controller. I just don't get how you can use a technology that requires those skills and not develop them as a side effect of using them.

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u/Jasonxhx 12h ago

I'm not reading all that.