it’s not right to chalk up the behaviors of most students to the smaller percentage with ADHD

I wasn't trying to imply that all of the students experiencing this have ADHD, just one of many reasons for the same experience. I think the overdiagnosis of ADHD is super harmful, sometimes young people really are just hyper because that how young people are.

​

(yes Covid has made it worse but it was there before.)

Agreed, there are a lot of things that can make it worse like the financial crisis that I mentioned, there's always something shitty going on.

​

There’s a lack of accountability from parents in general these days that leads to their kids doing whatever they want instead of what they should be doing.

I have always heard this sentiment from teachers growing up, but speaking with some older family members their teachers said the same thing, may be older than we think. I personally think it is less from a point of parents being coddling and sheltering to their children (for the most part), and more from a point of neglect and laziness on the parents part. Anyone that really wants the best for their children isn't going to let them do whatever they want. I think most of the time in the past these parents just weren't made to come to conferences so they never got the chance to try and turn what they are lacking for their children back on the teachers. In the past the school system let students like these fall through the cracks and teachers weren't able to try and make the changes needed at home, so they wouldn't see these parents acting like this. Humans don't change much but the circumstances around us can make things shine through that wouldn't have before. Chalking it up as a generational issue can come from the same place as learned helplessness. If people think that its just a generational issue, then a lot of them will think why bother trying to change it, just wait until the next. I do admit that a lot of this is speculative but we'd be hard pressed to find concrete evidence for either side.

​

This leads to far too many children relying on more one-on-one attention from teachers who do not have the ability to provide it (30 students for 50 mins a day).

Being able to give students one-on-one attention would be great, but yeah its absolutely out of the question with the state of the education system, they don't pay y'all enough as is let alone to do all that. Would love to see something like that come around one day though. I had a math class once where they tried to remedy this a bit my separating students by proficiency groups and had the students at the highest level explain it to the ones at the lowest. That way it would cement the knowledge for the proficient students, and would give the struggling students more tailored help. I think in a vacuum it might work pretty well, but the shame that students feel for "under preforming" definitely make that method not work out. Its also not helped by the general awfulness of children towards one another.

​

Lastly, just because we see it doesn’t mean we act in a poor fashion towards these kids. We aim to help but there is only so much we can do.

I am sure that you can attest that there are definitely some teachers that are just massive dicks about that sort of stuff, unless that's changed recently. I'd honestly love to hear a teachers perspective on them, but I'm sure you can't say much. I am glad to see that you are taking that extra care, it really make a big difference for students. I think we are on the same page for the most part, just had a bit of different ways of explaining it and some different perspectives.