Austin Scholar #138: Testimonies from teachers on the state of our education system
& how to help your kid overcome these challenges
Hey, y'all!
This week from Austin Scholar...
Austin’s Anecdote: Testimonies from teachers on the state of our education system
How to help your kid overcome these challenges
Scholar’s Sources: What I’ve been thinking about…
Life after my first-ever math midterm has been… no less stressful than before. I had two full papers due on Friday?! And this last weekend, I decided to chill out and take some introvert time, which means this week I’ve been trying to catch up on all the social connections I missed.
The number one thing I’ve realized about Stanford is that there are always a million events you could be going to and an endless number of club applications you could fill out, but you have to figure out what is most important to you and where you want to put your time. I’m definitely still working out that balance.
Austin’s Anecdote: Testimonies from teachers on the state of our education system
I’ve written before about helping kids use social media productively. This week, my well-curated For You page on TikTok was really doing its job. Specifically, it fed me content that directly influenced this newsletter.
I saw a countless number of videos from teachers in the public education sphere describing their experience teaching kids in 2024.
I think you’ll find their testimonies illuminating.
Here were my top three:
“Not sure if y’all knew this, but a teacher is often measured by their ability to move their kids from one test score to another.
The real thing is this: I can move a kid who comes in with less skills. It is really challenging, though, to move those kids who already have lots and lots of skills who are looking to excel.
And it’s not that teachers don’t know how to move a grade-level kid to the next grade level.
What’s challenging is that due to the dearth of skills that students are coming into the grade level with, you have to spend such a tremendous amount of time with the kids who still need to develop study skills that you only spend – at best – 20% of your time with the kids who are on grade level.
As a result, those children are not getting the differentiation that the other kids are.”
This experience is extremely aligned with the ideas I’ve discussed in the past about teachers not having the bandwidth to individualize learning for every single student, which can cause your kid to waste their time in class. Especially post-pandemic, students are coming to classrooms with such a huge variety of skill sets and knowledge gaps that it’s impossible for kids to get the most out of their class time.
“Breaking news: there’s a new pandemic going around schools everywhere. No, it’s not COVID. I think it’s something much, much worse. It’s called learned helplessness. And it’s everywhere.
The more years I teach, the more learned helplessness I see. But what is it?
Learned helplessness occurs when an individual continuously faces a negative, uncontrollable situation and stops trying to change their circumstances, even when they have the ability to do so.
It happens if the kid is taught that if they stop trying, the answers are going to be solved for them.”
The learned helplessness epidemic is truly one of the most heartbreaking things about classrooms today. Your kid needs to be able to solve problems on their own – to have agency, independence, and ownership over their actions and their education.
“I’m not understanding why they aren’t telling y’all. We all know that the world is behind because of the pandemic, but I don’t understand why they’re not stressing to y’all how bad it is.
I’m not even trying to be funny, but these kids are…
I’m going to just say this: I teach seventh grade, and these kids are still performing at the fourth grade level.
I don’t care how you flip it, turn it, swing it, they’re still performing at the fourth grade level.
And nobody’s talking about how they just keep moving, passing kids on. I can put as many zeros in the grade book as I want to – they’re going to move that child to eighth grade next year.
Why aren’t they talking about that?
And why don’t y’all know that your kids aren’t performing at their grade level? I just got here 30 days ago, but they’ve been performing at the fourth grade level since fourth grade.
Why aren’t we talking about it?
And fourth grade is me being nice! I still have kids performing at K, 1, 2 and 3 grade levels.
I could probably count on one hand how many kids are actually performing at grade level.
And these are our future leaders, future doctors, future nurses… our future.”
This is the video I saw this week that sent me down the rabbit hole – hearing from a teacher experiencing and working through all of the challenges I’ve discussed in my newsletter reminded me how crucial it is for parents to be aware of what’s going on with their child’s education.
I think that’s the biggest lesson to take away from this video – that just knowing the state of your child’s educational journey already puts you ahead of millions of parents across the world. It’s even more powerful if you can take that knowledge of what your kid is working through and do something about it.
How you can help your kid overcome these challenges
There were three challenges highlighted in the above videos: no adaptability in classrooms, learned helplessness, and lack of parent knowledge about what’s happening. Here’s how you can help your kid overcome each one:
No adaptability in classrooms
If I’m being honest, the best solution to a lack of adaptability in classrooms is using online apps. Have your kid spend thirty minutes after school every day working through an online app (such as IXL Learning or Math Academy) so they can get that individualized learning plan that teachers don’t have the bandwidth to provide to every student.
For students who are a little bit older, in addition to online apps, they can create learning plans for their more complicated AP and honors subjects, drawing from supplemental resources like YouTube videos, materials from College Board, and things like Fiveable to ensure mastery over the content.
Unfortunately, traditional schools don’t optimize for every student to make the most of their time in classrooms, so you have to do most of the work on your own.
Learned helplessness
The biggest part of combatting learned helplessness is ensuring that you – as a parent – aren’t doing everything for your kid.
You must let them fail.
Do puzzles with them and don’t tell them the answers. Watch them work through the problem. Set up a bake sale or lemonade stand together and make them calculate how much supplies they need – without interjecting even if you think they’re wrong. Show them how to clean up their messes, don’t do it for them.
Show your kid that they are capable of working through challenges on their own.
Teach them not to rely on others to make everything better.
Yes, I’m sure this will be hard to do, but know that you’re setting them up for success in the long run.
No parent knowledge
I think this is probably the easiest one to work through – it relies primarily on you taking the time to ask your kid about what’s going on at school.
Take a look at their homework each night so you know what they’re working on.
Approach conversations about your kid’s education with curiosity, not judgment. If your kid feels interrogated, they probably won’t give you a ton of information. This is when you’ll hear answers like “fine” and “whatever.”
Instead, ask them specific questions about a teacher they don’t like, an assignment that was giving them trouble, or a friend they’re trying to make.
The more specific your questions are, the more your kid will talk to you, and the more you’ll learn about their school life.
Participate in parent events at school.
Talk to teachers.
Take every opportunity you can to get involved in your kid’s education.
Scholar’s Sources: What I’ve been thinking about…
On increasing reading speed
In my previous newsletter, I received a comment asking about how to help your kid increase their reading speed.
Unfortunately, the best advice I have for increasing reading speed is to simply read more. Work with your kid to find books about content they’re interested in (Barbie books, dragons, dinosaurs, mysteries, etc. – there are enough children’s and chapter books out there to find something for your kid) and have them read more.
My dad had this rule where we could stay up as late as we wanted – as long as we were reading. So, I, feeling like I was outsmarting my parents, stayed up an extra half hour almost every single night reading.
The next thing I would recommend is to help your kid increase their vocabulary. The app I’d recommend for that is Membean. But in reality, nothing beats reading more.
One of the key aspects of helping your kid learn that I’ve talked about a lot is using learning science strategies. Unfortunately, these concepts aren’t taught to teachers. According to BrainWare, “on average, teacher candidates correctly answered just 49% of a set of questions on basic principles [of learning science]. On one question, just 6% of teachers answered correctly.”
If we want classrooms to improve their efficiency, teachers must be versed in the science behind learning and know how to implement strategies and practices that are backed by evidence.
This article by Zadie Smith was another article for my Why College? class and I absolutely loved it.
Smith talks about her revelation regarding Joni Mitchell (who is my best friend’s favorite artist, so I’m familiar with and enjoy her music too) and I couldn’t help but relate her experience with Joni to mine with Lana Del Rey.
My sister and all of my friends are obsessed with her – yet I couldn’t get past the weird way she sang certain words. The extreme emphasis on consonants made her speech sound, for lack of a better word, wet to me, and I just couldn’t get behind her sound.
But after hours of being forced to listen to Lana Del Rey in the car with my sister, I realized that if I just listen to one of her songs over and over and over again, I don’t pay attention to the way she says her words anymore.
Instead, I’m simply immersed in the music. In order to get over my dislike of Lana, I just had to listen to more Lana.
Thanks for reading. Go crush the week! See y'all on Sunday.