Can't read crisis

This ColdFusion episode, presented by Dagogo, examines a deepening crisis in modern education: a growing percentage of children in Gen Alpha (born 2010–2024) and Gen Z cannot read fluently, perform basic arithmetic, or solve simple problems. The transcript argues that the crisis is not solely the fault of technology or the children themselves, but rather a combination of overused technology, failed standardisation policies, burnt-out teachers, and declining reading culture at home. It concludes by highlighting countries that are successfully addressing the problem.

Significant Points

1. The Scale of the Problem

• A teacher recounts students lacking basic problem-solving skills — e.g., unable to move a backpack blocking a path, instead 'short-circuiting' and whining. Some students go through an entire hour-long reading period without reading a single word.
• Gen Z is described by multiple outlets as the first generation to be less educated than the previous one — though Dagogo caveats that this is an average, not universal.
• US schools report that 40–65% of children are no longer able to read, a statistic drawn from NAEP (the Nation's Report Card), which categorises readers in grades 4, 8, and 12 as basic, proficient, or advanced.

Key nuance: Advanced and proficient reader scores have barely changed — it is the basic readers who are falling behind. The gap between high and low performers is wider than ever. This trend is global, not just American.

2. Technology's Role

• Handwriting vs. typing: A 2024 study by Norwegian neuroscientist Audrey van der Meer, culminating 20 years of work, showed that writing by hand involves thousands of micro-movements coordinated with the eyes in real time, stimulating the whole brain — regions for memory, sensory integration, and encoding of new information all fire together. Typing produces minimal brain stimulation. Children who learn to read and write on tablets have difficulty distinguishing between mirror-image letters.
• In practice, a school in Barren Ear (Australia) gave Year 11 and 12 students the choice to use laptops, but most chose not to. Teachers reported a 'chalk and cheese' difference: significant increases in comprehension, dialogue, and critical thinking.
• One teacher observed that devices aren't making kids 'dumber' — rather, they are stopping kids from thinking for themselves.
• Generative AI in classrooms: The Australian reported that AI may have 'fatally corroded' Gen Z's ability to think and discern. Some schools are lazily using AI-generated lesson materials — e.g., a JCPS school agenda contained a US map with garbled state names (Kentucky labelled 'Veneki', South Carolina 'Sorth Quanto'), apparently AI-generated.
• Dagogo warns that AI, if not integrated properly, risks outsourcing students' thinking — 'the opposite of an education'.

3. The 'iPad Kids' Phenomenon

• A 2024 account from a Maryland K-12 teacher (reported by Business Insider): over 10 years, students increasingly struggled with focus and basic reading after third grade. Some students could not even turn a book the right way up and open it to the first page.
• Per the Annie E. Casey Foundation: 40% of Gen Alpha children have a tablet by age two, 58% by age four, and nearly one in four have a personal mobile phone by age eight.
• A teacher told Newsweek: students appear 'apathetic and disconnected from their own learning'; technology provides 'instant gratification' that makes it hard for students to commit to 'slow, complex, or challenging' learning processes.
• UNICEF data confirms that short-form content consumption and instant gratification are rising globally, not just in the US.

4. Structural / Policy Failures

• From the 1980s onward, governments introduced standardisation to address regional disparities. Key legislation included:
  • UK's Education Reform Act
  • US's No Child Left Behind Act
  • Australia's National Assessment Program
• These introduced standardised testing and transparency, initially seeming beneficial. However, OECD data shows education outcomes are getting worse or showing minimal progress, with the decline most dramatic between Gen Z and Gen Alpha in mathematics, reading, and science.
• David Hursh (University of Rochester, 2007) argued that standardisation pushed teachers to orient lessons around short-term score retention rather than long-term growth.
• Anya Kamenetz (author of The Test, 2015) revealed that students may take up to 113 standardised tests by graduation. She noted that psychometricians say tests are being used in ways they were never designed for, and that 'proficiency' under No Child Left Behind lacks a single scientific definition.
• Dagogo characterises standardisation as 'a failed experiment that refuses to die.'

5. Teacher Burnout and Student Apathy

• Gabe Dannenbring conducted mass surveys showing burnout from long hours is a leading cause of teachers quitting.
• Many high school teachers report students who openly don't care about schooling, want to sit on phones during class, and have no desire to participate.
• Dagogo acknowledges there are still many great students, but the proportion who are disengaged is growing.

6. The Reading Crisis at Home

• Reading researcher Maryanne Wolf argues the modern environment isn't conducive to reading — there are more distractions with quicker dopamine hits.
• Fewer than half of parents with children up to age 13 say reading aloud is fun.
• Only 41% of children aged 0–4 are read to frequently, a dramatic drop from 64% in 2012.
• Dagogo frames this as not just a Gen Alpha problem but a societal one.

7. Success Stories — Countries Getting It Right

8. What Kids Actually Want to Learn

When UK children aged 6–15 were asked what they wanted to learn:

• A related survey found 84% of 6–18 year olds want more financial education in school — budgeting, earning money, building a career, and achieving milestones like buying a home.
• Dagogo uses this to dispel the myth that Gen Alpha are just 'iPad zombies' — the kids are still curious and want to learn, but the system is failing them.

Key Statistics

Key Researchers / Authors Cited

Dagogo's Conclusion

The episode closes with the message that the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one. Countries like Finland and Singapore demonstrate that solutions exist — through reduced reliance on standardised testing, greater educator autonomy, and mindful integration of technology. The children themselves are not the problem; they remain curious and eager to learn. The failure lies with the system and society at large.

'Accessing information has never been easier, but getting information and answers to questions isn't necessarily the same as actually understanding it.'