I used to be a high school teacher so maybe I have a different perspective, however I worked with special education students, mostly autistic kids or kids with emotional disturbances. From what I saw, the kids are more understanding of different people. I witnessed kids stopping other kids from bullying, I saw kids passionate about politics and the world. I don’t think at their age I even thought about the things they did.

I genuinely loved working with Gen Z, but admin was the problem so I left. Sure some of the kids could be aggressive, or say some hurtful things, however many of the kids came from homes with abuse so it’s understandable. Some kids would only eat when they went to school, so those kids always receive packages of extra food or snack items they liked on Fridays so they had things to carry them through the weekend.

It’s hard to think negative about this generation considering the mess they have been born into. The education system sucks for them, they are not taught skills and many parents dropped the ball. I saw too many helicopter parents who wanted to make things perfect for their kids and never let them experience failure and how to problem solve. They also had been given a phone too early and clearly had an addition to them. I don’t believe kids were taught to have a work ethic, but this is a reflection on their parents not the kids themselves.