Educators ... what have we done wrong?
Why are our graduates so dumb and lazy?
I've been working in education for 35 years, and, as Facebook, brutally reminds me, my first students are now in their 50s, so I've helped educate the Millennials and Gen Z. Reflecting on these two generations, they are stereotyped as the Dumbest Generation (Millennials) and the Laziest Generation (Gen Z). That is not a great legacy for my years in education. Of course, stereotypes are not accurate, and I can point to so many former students who are brilliant and industrious, but stereotypes are given for a reason, and I bet most of us can provide examples that affirm these stereotypes.
While educators are not solely to blame, we should reflect on what we have done to produce these generations.
Let's look at two factors: the Industrial Revolution and the "Easy Button" mentality.
The Industrial Revolution
In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, the impact of the Industrial Revolution swept through America. Our culture unquestioningly embraced the "good" of speed/efficiency in mass production, and consequently, that bigger is better. American capitalism has flourished during this time, and we are living in, arguably, the most materially wealthy time in history.
Over the past 100 years, education has also adopted these pillars of the industrial revolution, but what is good for many industries, is bad for education.
Schools have embraced standardization, moving as many students through the assembly line as possible. Students are explicitly and implicitly praised for getting the answer quickly, finishing their test first, and "mastering" content as quickly as possible. In addition, bigger is definitely seen as better in class sizes and school enrollment. However, mass production is counter-productive to learning.
Research has continuously affirmed that students need personalized instruction, specific feedback, and high levels of student engagement with the teacher and peers. Also, it takes time to learn well. Deep learning involves creating and strengthening neural pathways (schema theory), and that takes preparation, challenge, practice, repetition, and time ... and over the past 100 years, nobody in education seems to have had the patience for meaningful learning.
Was the industrial revolution good for education? We can debate this, but it has produced the dumbest generation.
The Easy Button Mentality
Essentially, the easy button mentality believes that it is the role of society to take whatever is difficult and make it easy ... and making things easier is always good. Technology, of course, is the primary tool to make things easier.
One of the first products of this perspective is the television remote control (1950). Clearly, it is too difficult to get off the couch to change a channel, so a remote control is needed. Yes, a remote control is easier, but was that truly good for us?
Another example is the power leaf blower. It is too difficult to rake leaves and sweep up debris after yard work, so we create a blower to move the debris into the street (or into our neighbor's yard). Operating a leaf blower is definitely easier, but was that truly good for us?
The easy button mentality can be seen in almost every facet of life, including education.
However, it goes against a universal truth, most concisely summarized in fitness jargon: "No pain, no gain." If I go to the gym and use only the lightest dumbbells or the lowest level on the elliptical machine, I will not grow in strength or cardio-vascular health. In fact, when something becomes too easy for me, I should step up to the next level of weight or resistance in order to continue to grow.
That translates to other areas. If I never push myself outside of my comfort zone socially, I will not grow interpersonally. In fact, another saying re-iterates this: "There is no growth in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the growth zone."
Our brains grow much like our physical muscles do. We need to "work out" our brains and make them hurt. Ben Franklin said, "What hurts, instructs," and he is right. When was the last time your brain hurt because you were thinking so hard? Due the the most pervasive "easy button," our phones, I rarely use my brain for anything. I don't need to recall phone numbers, directions, or random facts; everything is a swipe away.
Yes, everything is easier for our brains, but is that truly good for us?
Ever since John Dewey, our educational system has been student-centered. This means that we have spent 100 years making learning easy for our students. In fact, learning styles (which became popular in education in the 70s-80s) have the premise that students learn easiest by using their dominant learning style: auditory, visual, kinesthetic. Consequently, teachers have spent the past 50 years designing lessons to match the learning style of their students. However, the opposite is true; students learn best when something is presented in one of a student's non-dominant learning styles because it makes the brain work harder. While the myth of learning styles is finally becoming recognized, education continues to make things easier ...
- Mental math is hard, so we develop more advanced calculators to make it easier.
- Reading primary sources is hard, so we have created textbook anthologies with secondary excerpts.
- Cursive writing or even writing with pencil and paper is hard, so we use the computer to type ... but typing is hard, so we have voice transcribing.
- Reading an entire novel is hard, so we have audio books.
- Completing any academic work is hard, so we use AI to complete assignments for us.
- ChatGPT Plus was given free to all college students in April and May (2025) because the last few months of the academic year are hard, so let's make it easy for them.
Instead of student-centered (or learner-centered), we need to be learning-centered. Instead of asking how can we make learning easier for the student, we should be asking how can we best encourage deep learning and brain growth. We know that we learn best when our brains work hard, so making it easier is not learning-centric.
When Apple first showed up and offered free computers to schools in the 1980s, educators across the world accepted them with open arms and much fanfare but without asking if computers were actually good for learning. Today, we are finally asking that question.
Johnathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, has set his research sights on the benefits of any screens in school, and he is finding little evidence that digital devices (of any kind) help learning. In fact, it appears to be making us dumber (The False Promise of Device-Based Education). This aligns with the generational stereotypes of those raised in the digital age of education.
Today, learning is easier for students, but is that truly good for us?
Looking at these two aspects of our culture ... the Industrial Revolution's impact on education and our current "easy button" mentality, I am not shocked that we've produced the dumbest and laziest generations.
So what should education look like to reverse this trend? Here are a few quick suggestions ...
1) Differentiation of Learning Styles -- use a wide variety in pedagogy and assessment to hit multiple learning styles (multiple intelligences is a better paradigm). This is done not to cater to the student's dominant learning style, but to ensure we are stretching the student's brain to work in their non-dominant learning styles.
2) Be Learning-Centric -- Identify what classroom activity or homework assignment is best for learning, and require the students to complete that ... even if (especially if) it is hard. Don't allow students to choose their own experience; they will most likely select what is easiest for them, stunting their brain development.
3) Take your time -- Speed does not correlate with deep learning. Resist the industrial revolution concepts of mass production. Carefully design curriculum to utilize what we know about meaningful learning and schema theory. It takes time to build a cognitive foundation, scaffold around the foundation in order to make our brains "sticky" so that students retain new materials. Then, take the time to circle back to previously learned materials in order to solidify meaningful learning.
4) Use Hard Assignments to Develop a Love of God and Others -- Simone Weil in her essay "Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God" claims that doing a complex math problem helps her build attention so that she can pray more intimately and love her neighbor more fully. As she says, "school studies" should help us fulfill the two great commandments to love God and others. (stay tuned for future blogs about this article as I read more from Simone Weil)
As we step into the learning groove of another academic year, slow down and make your students work hard. The slow, hard work of school is best for learning.
Remember, "what hurts, instructs."
