To worry about life now that young people's basic skills are so poor

[CurdinHenry]

They're taking on responsibility for such important things and you have to check everything they do because the ways of thinking that used to be taught and hammered home just aren't any more and their concentration is shot (never mind their incentive to work hard since they often won't be able to afford to move out of home regardless).

Not their fault, the fault of the education system and wider society.

(Scotland specific, maybe England is better)

Do you actually remember what you were like as a young person @CurdinHenry ?

Yes I’m really pleased my son chose to do an apprenticeship, there is a lot of competition for these roles though, it’s not the full back… Didn’t do well at school, just train as a electrician/plumper that some people think it is.
My step daughter hated her first day at the hairdresser (didn’t like in her words… Washing people’s manky old hair) but like you said it’ll do her good.

Yes I was lucky enough to have a good and reliable education system

Oh thanks, I was unaware the way they were raised was down to me. I wish I’d said something about that in my own post…oh wait 🥴

I didn’t say reading a bus timetable was critical thinking either. I listed the two as separate examples of why I agreed that some young people aren’t as switched on as they may have been in the past.

Plenty I wouldn’t have been able to do that my granny could do… and she’d have said exactly the same about my generation as I’m saying about this one 🤷🏻‍♀️

she’d have said exactly the same about my generation as I’m saying about this one yes exactly, it always gets said - it's just change, not terminal brain rot. Older people always moan about younger people.

Oh well glad we agree then 🥰

And those caarrraaaaazzzy teenagers in the late 1950s early 1960s with their new fangled rock and roll music. Degenerates. Not to mention fecking hippies with their long hair and ridiculous idealism

I think a lot of it is people overestimating their own abilities, which humans are prone to do. They think other people are thick but they themselves are clever.

Not sure about your own critical thinking tbh

My young people are fabulous unlike the dickhead they report to sadly

My old mum can do things without a calculator that I can't, but I know what an algorithm is.
Also, she sent thank-you letters to gift givers , that the young-uns don't do anymore - she literally never told me to do this.

Although, I understand what posters are saying, that the world has moved on, I do slightly worry about what devices and sm are doing to young brains , but that is complete projection from me, as I type this whilst trying to watch my show on the telly 😳.

And yet on your other thread you want sympathy for having such strong social anxiety you can’t even attend a family event.

Ha ha - indeed . You are correct though, my sons apprenticeship was competitive too - it’s not always as people think , a lot of those getting them are perfectly bright enough to do Uni but are actively choosing other avenues

Don't be ridiculous! I work with junior medics in their 20s and other clinicians and admin staff right down to their teens. I have young children. These people are not idiots. If anything I see more humility and less over confidence and bragging, I see more understanding and people skills and less condescension. This next generation coming up are doing great. So much easier to deal with on terms of their personalities than those set in their ways and insistent on 'respect' from everyone even when they make mistakes and cause issues.

Ach shish, how old are you?

They are, especially Maths.

How can you expect children to learn and be fully functional members of society when their parents have little intelligence themselves? How many parents lead very 'small' lives, whether geographically or mentally

Schools and society can only do so much if they don't have decent role models at home

Functional skills stagnated between the 1990s and the PISA tests in 2012. But the shock of those results really pushed the government into action in terms of basic skills literacy and numeracy skills. Tests show that there has been significant improvement since then. Young people today are NOT less skilled in these basics than previous generations. The mean is higher than it used to be. They are the best we've ever produced.

What is more likely is that the young people your company are now employing are from a less capable strata of achievement than you used to get. There are lots of reasons why that sort of things happens - wages and opportunity stagnating, new opportunities drawing the better qualified away, fashion making some types of jobs less fashionable, etc.

I have taught 'equality and diversity' in various places, in Birmingham we can look at diversity in the classroom and you 4-5 languages, at least 3 different religions loads of differences.

When I was teaching in a small college on the Welsh boarder. All students were white, all spoke English with a bit of Welsh learned at school, on the face of it not very diverse.

So we made a poster of 'Equality and Diversity in the Zombie' apocalypse' and my goddess, the skills these teens had.

Between about 20 young people they could:

Brew spirits to use as antiseptic
Drive a tractor
Throw knives
Make various folk remedies
Shoot a gun
Water dowsing
Build a fire and cook over it
Knitting
Sewing

And many more I can't remember.

I suppose it depends what you think basic skills are.

I think levels of literacy are declining.

I read recently that the average reading age amongst UK adults is 11!

Very few people seem to read actual books for enjoyment anymore and use their time playing video games instead.

Reading improves vocabulary and general knowledge.

I also think resilience, work ethic and basic manners are being lost.

What an ageist thread, there would be outrage if this was about older people.

I read recently that the average reading age amongst UK adults is 11!

That isn’t a new statistic & look at how many MNs posters struggle with comprehension.

Do you know what the average reading age was 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 years ago?

The average reading age hasn't changed. Hence the Daily Mail.

Have you seen what a year 6 child has to be able to read and comprehend now though.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/682dbf58baff3dab99775154/2025_KS2_English_reading_booklet.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/682dbe67a599d03a16bff380/2025_KS2_English_reading_answer_booklet.pdf

I think young people are ahead in other ways. They’re also balancing many older basic skills alongside newer skills many older generations struggle with.

The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress."
Said by Peter the Hermit in A.D. 1274

But civilisation hasn’t ended yet!