A former 10th-grade teacher warns parents and others entering the profession that students can’t read and regularly act out in class. She says it led her to quit.
Did she quit because 10th graders can’t read?
In a TikTok circulating on X, a teacher named Hannah Maria says she quit a month before the end of the school year.
“Technology is ruining education,” she says, explaining that every kid in her school district is issued an iPad. “[It’s] directly contributing to the literacy decrease we’re seeing.”
She says she has witnessed high schoolers “throw tantrums” when asked to write a paragraph, use ChatGPT to complete their work, and refuse to handwrite.
“They don’t care about making a difference in the world. They don’t care about having a resume,” she exclaims. “I think we need to cut off technology from these kids until they go to college.”
Hannah Maria isn’t alone in leaving the industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that roughly 600,000 teachers have left the profession since 2020. Common reasons for leaving include burnout, overworking, and lack of compensation.
And the issue of declining literacy among students doesn’t help. The 2024 Nation’s Report Card shows decreases in students’ reading scores since 2022, continuing the downward slope that began even before the pandemic.
How did social media react to her warning?
Redditors on r/Nottheonion discussed the former teacher’s warning about technology’s impact on students.
“If my 10th graders could barely read i’d walk out too. she shouldn’t be responsible for educating students that should’ve been held back in 5th grade,” one wrote.
“My friends are both college professors, hearing the horror stories of college freshmen will make you lose faith in the younger generations,” another said.
“I have been working in education for 12 years and that teacher isn’t wrong. Seems like the youth have taken less interest in enhancing their intelligence and, yeah, those phones play a big role,” a third added.
Others reminisced about how they learned to read in primary school.
“My mother learned how to speak English when I started going to school. She’d copy my phonics books and work on them with me,” a commenter shared.
“I remember my immigrant parents spending hours each night reading to me and helping with my pronunciation,” another recalled.
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