Handling Gen Z Students

I have great sympathy for the teachers of kids my daughter’s generation. After all, these Gen Z kids (born between 1997 and 2012) consider themselves to be peers of everyone – their parents, their teachers – and treat all those folks with the same derisiveness. This drives parents up a wall (and worse), but those teachers have to suffer this fate at the hands of so many kids. Plus, while parental love can help tide over such treatment, what about the poor teacher? It turns out the teachers have found ways to cope with such, er, abuse.


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Now that my daughter has entered the feared board exam year (10th), the teachers try to, er, motivate the kids by telling them that they are going to end up on the streets, so it is time to shape up.

 

One kid responded to this (separately, out of class) pointing out that she lived in a 4 BHK, had a Mercedes, so she was definitely not homeless. Upon which a classmate cheerfully corrected her saying that the teacher’s comment wasn’t about her parents, it was about her future. Such understanding, sadly, only comes when it is for insulting others, never for oneself.

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There is this awesome serial involving the making and selling of drugs (not cartel scale, just a chemistry wizard in a remote corner of the US) called Breaking Bad (it has one of the highest all-time ratings on the Internet for any serial). I myself have encouraged my 14 yo daughter to watch it, but she won’t since her peers don’t watch it. Apparently even a serial on drugs won’t be watched if the reco comes from a parent… (Note to self: Maybe there is some reverse psychology that can be applied on other matters)

 

The English teacher told the class recently to watch, yes, Breaking Bad. “Children, just skip the drug scenes”, she said cheerfully. As if there’s anything left after cutting those out! Then she asked the class, “How many of you have had a parent tell you to watch this serial?” Several hands shot up, including my daughter’s (such honesty is reserved only to push me under the bus). “Very bad”, tut-tut’ed the teacher, “I want to meet all these parents”.

 

“Whoa! M’am, but you just told us to watch it yourself”, protested one kid. “Ah, but I told you to skip the drug scenes. Did your parent tell you to do that?” Checkmate.

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The chapter on reproduction is always embarrassing for students at school. The Biology teacher decided to have some fun. “I know many of you find this topic cringe-worthy, students”, she announced. If the class was expecting some sympathy, they had come to the wrong teacher. “But why”, she continued, “It is a part of each one of you. Learn to embrace who you are”, amplifying the cringe-factor. Our teacher wasn’t done yet. She pointed at a random student and declared, “You are one of them”, then at machine-gun speed went around the class, “So are you”, “And you too”, “Let’s not forget him over there”… it was mayhem in the class.

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Now I know how the teachers cope with Gen Z students.

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