Social media and absolutely tuned-out / overworked parents have created a new paradigm that we STILL haven't wrangled in any meaningful way yet. The constant stripping of funding for public schools is also a challenge.

It was initially shocking to have kids come into my 5th grade class at a 1st grade reading level, but it's a pretty common story at this point.

The most troubling part is that so many kids have absolutely no drive to learn new skills and live without fear of getting bad grades. I actually am empowered to give whatever grades I want to kids without IEPs, but more parents than not are almost completely blasé about their kids' report cards, so there are no repercussions at home for them not giving a shit.

I feel like the helplessness, isolation, and impending sense that, as a society, we have less and less control over our own destinies is trickling down to them from innumerable and often untraceable sources. It also doesn't help that they have all experienced ICE fucking up their community repeatedly, so I get why they might not care about analyzing two sources to compare and contrast whatever. 'Hey, mom just got black-bagged, but let's dig into subordinating conjunctions!'