People all around the globe agree that Gen Z is the dumbest generation yet. Now, I don’t totally disagree, but this statement is too definitive, suggesting “dumb” is all Gen Z could be. So, what statistics make this claim true?
I read a New York Post article titled “Gen Z – the first generation officially dumbed dumber than the last” by Jeanne Erickson. And it’s true, if you’re only looking at standardized tests. According to the statistics in Erickson’s article, Gen Z has scored lower on standardized tests than the generation before it.
I believe this fact fueled the egos of our previous generations, providing them a reason to validate what they already believed to be true. It’s no secret that older generations will jump at the chance to criticize Gen Z, especially when it comes to school. But maybe it’s not Gen Z’s fault for being dumber, and the school system is at fault for its inability to adapt. The world is becoming more digital by the second, and Gen Z can thrive in it. But our school system is debilitated by it and is arguably setting up Gen Z for failure.
From my experience, students walk into classrooms equivalent to the ones our grandparents walked into, learning lessons that have stayed the same for the past 10 years. Lessons that are slow, boring, and not important when what’s taught doesn’t seem to be useful in the world today. Teachers are not at fault for this, as they have tried to make their lessons more engaging, but I recognize that it’s almost impossible with the school system’s outdated foundation and its ever-changing audience.
AI started advancing around 2022, which is unfortunate timing. Gen Z experienced most of their middle/high school education in a shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. This changed how kids viewed school indefinitely; that is to say, school became unimportant when your teacher became pixels, your classmates became your stuffed teddies, and the world seemed to burn outside your window. Education in isolation caused students’ mental health and academic abilities to decline.
Then, a couple of years later, they’re expected to thrive in a “normal” school setting with no sense of how. Gen Z was burnt out before they even got the chance to be lit. And what comes to save these kids from flunking? AI. Gen Z wants an education; they want to graduate high school, but they lack the abilities to achieve this like their parents. The timing is almost too perfect. It’s like the goal was to make the dumb dumber. So, now we are labeled as the “dumbest” generation.
The fact is, Gen Z views the lessons taught at school to be pointless, teachers are burned out trying to cater to Gen Z, and the school system refuses to change. With the creation of Artificial Intelligence(AI) and applications like ChatGPT, what’s stopping kids from utilizing it? Nothing, and I mean, can you blame them?
Don’t think I support the use of AI; I am only able to understand why Gen Z relies on it. AI thinks, plans, and processes for you, replacing all of your cognitive abilities. It’s no surprise that when AI is relied on, your own cognitive abilities decline. But this is not limited to Gen Z; they are only a reflection of how AI’s drawbacks affected schools. I’ve seen millennial’s use AI to make their grocery list. I’ve seen Gen X use AI to answer work emails. And Boomers can’t even tell what’s AI vs. what isn’t. We are all dumber because of AI; older generations are just ignorant of how it affects them, too.
So yes, Gen Z is dumb. But if a whole generation can be classified as dumb, maybe the fault lies in the world system. Stop blaming the kids and start looking into why Gen Z operates as they do.
