Teacher bemoans her 2nd-grade students cannot tie their shoes or eat an apple without it being sliced: 'I’ve been teaching since 2011, and I’ve seen a decline in overall capability in today’s kids.'

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Sep 15, 2025 8:00 PM EDT

Are the kids alright? I'm not super sure. I'm sure we've all been hearing for decades now that kids are becoming less and less capable than those who came before them. First, television was blamed, then video games, and now smartphones. It's one thing for individual teachers to say, "Kids in my class at my school have regressed over the years." There could be several reasons for this, including but not limited to changes in the town's population, changes in the school's administration, and regression from the teachers' end. However, if every teacher in America is saying that kids are regressing and the phones seem largely to blame, I wouldn't totally dismiss their theory. After all, kids couldn't bring TVs and video games into the classroom in the '90s. Teachers see firsthand how phones affect their students, and their concerns should not be taken lightly. They often care more about their students' success than their parents do.

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  • The teacher in this story does not blame the phones per se, but she has noticed a significant decline in her students' abilities since she started teaching 2nd grade in 2011. Many of her kids lack basic life skills, such as tying their shoes and putting on a sweatshirt, because their parents handle everything for them and don't allow them to be challenged.

  • Boy in green sweater writing on white paper
    via CDC

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Many kids cannot do basic things anymore

    I've been teaching since 2011, and I've seen a decline in independence and overall capability in many of today's kids. For instance:
    via u/Poison_applecat
  • I teach second grade. Most of them cannot tie their shoes or even begin to try. I asked if they are working on it at home with parents and most say no.
    via u/Poison_applecat
  • Some kids who are considered 'smart' cannot unravel headphones or fix inside out arms on a sweater. SMH
    via u/Poison_applecat
  • Parents are still opening car doors for older elementary kids at morning drop off. Your child can exit a car by themselves. I had one parent completely shocked that we don't open the door and help the kids out of the car. (Second grade)
    via u/Poison_applecat
  • Many kids have never had to peel fruit. Everything is cut up and done for them. I sometimes bring clementines for snack and many of the kids ask for me to peel it for them. I told them animals in the wild can do it, and so can you. Try harder y'all.
    via u/Poison_applecat
  • Sliced orange fruits on white ceramic plate
    via Karolina Kołodziejczak

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • We had apples donated and many didn't know what to do with a whole apple. They have never had an apple that wasn't cut up into slices. Many were complaining it was too hard to eat. Use your teeth y'all!
    via u/Poison_applecat
  • Grand-Fun-206 This is why encouraging kids to fail when it is safe is important, or they won't take bigger risks as they get older and can't persevere. I've got Year 11 students dropping classes because the content is getting harder, not because they are failing, they just don't want to ever get a low mark and learn from that.
    via u/Grand-Fun-206
  • Mo523 This is a good point. All these basic life skills make it easier to be away from an attentive caregiver (a caregiver supervising a few kids vs. a teacher with a classroom; I realize the roles overlap.) BUT they also build important things:
    via u/Mo523
  • Realizing that learning isn't instant and you are going to fail a bunch of times before experience success. Experiencing that success and feeling competent because you can do hard things. Feeling like you are independent and are capable of problem solving when things aren't as expected.
    via u/Mo523
  • Joan Malone 11074 I have kids as old as 21 and as young as 6. I've been witness to an astounding lack of perseverance and resilience among kids in both of these generations, as I've been involved with school activities and extracurriculars since 2009. Parents not teaching their kids basic "How to Life" skills are doing them a terrible disservice.
    via u/JoanMalone11074
  • BalFighter-7172 I've taught middle school for 40 years, and I have seen a precipitous decline in both capability and behavior, especially over the last decade or so.
    via u/BalFighter-7172
  • Andstuff84 I've been teaching middle school for 11 years and just in that short amount of time (compared to yours) I even notice the same decline. Can't read a clock, can't find information on a 4 sentence google slide, won't read or follow directions. I would say it used to be 10-20% of the class that would have those problems. Now it's 80-90% that do with the 10-20% being able to complete the task without giving up and asking for help.
    via u/Andstuff84
  • Odd-Secret-8343 I'm sure I'd see the same thing if I was still teaching. Been out of the game for about 4 years and when I left it was not good. I saw a decline once kids that had been raised around cell phones ame in. They just are screen zombies with no understanding of how to help themselves. I can still remember the endless meetings about "learned helplessness."
    via u/Odd-Secret-8343
  • Eadgstring I teach high school and half of the kids are feral.
    via u/Eadgstring
  • Adept_Push College prof here. I'm always shocked that they can't even PRINT their name legibly. IN COLLEGE.
    via u/Adept_Push
  • Student sitting on chairs in front of chalkboard
    via Shubham Sharan

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Dragonchick30 Every year I say that I'm going to do more handwritten stuff and then I give up a good portion of the year because some many of them have such terrible handwriting I actually cannot read it. It's like a 4 year old and I teach high school!
    via u/Dragonchick30
  • Whose_my_daddy I had a high school junior in my class complaining on a quiz because there was no word bank-on an open note quiz! 82% of the class failed! Now they want fill-in-the-blank notes!
    via u/Whose_my_daddy
  • RegularVenus27 I teach 7th grade and the number of kids that still don't know how to ties their shoes is almost staggering. Edit: it won't let me directly reply to some of you for some reason, so to clarify, yes I do try to teach them to tie them when I tie them. I have them watch at least. If it's in the middle of class, the best I can do is have them watch me do it. Some of them do seem embarrassed, but I feel it's more of a parent fail than anything.
    via u/RegularVenus27
  • UndecidedTace To be fair, I tried to find lace up shoes for my Kinder kid to learn on, and had to hit four stores before finding kids shoes with laces. Everything everywhere were slip ons or elastic "laces".
    via u/UndecidedTace
  • Poison_applecat OP We had to wear Velcro shoes until we could tie our shoes ourselves. I wish that was a rule.
    via u/Poison_applecat
  • SidewaysTugboat I have a personal rule that I won't tie shoes for my second graders. They can find a friend to do it or stop wearing shoes with laces. I tell them to ask their grownups to stop sending them to school in shoes they can't wear on their own. It works pretty well. At least one kid this year came back after a weekend and knew how to tie his own shoes.
    via u/SidewaysTugboat
  • Squirrel179 Also, not being able to open the car door is due to the child locks in the back seat. They don't allow the door to open from the inside when enabled, so you really do have to let them out. That's why I've never used my child locks!
    via u/Squirrel179
  • Great-Grade 1377 My first graders this year are more like kinders. And not just mine. All the classrooms had loads of cryers the first couple weeks. Most couldn't write very well and some could not even read all their letter sounds. I'm having to remake all my lesson plans and baby proof my classroom because I have so many that cannot respect boundaries and not do things like eat candles or take apart pens.
    via u/Great-Grade1377
  • dagger-mmc Some of my 11th graders were unsure how many seconds are in a minute and how many minutes are in an hour. We're losing recipes
    via u/dagger-mmc

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