Though not an English teacher, I can definitely see a difference in my math students pre- and post- covid. I'm now starting to get the students who were distance learning 4-5 years ago. They would have been in 5th-7th grade roughly then. There are many many key concepts in number, quantity, algebraic reasoning, and ratios and rates that they are quite poor in and it hinders their abilities in my high school Integrated Math courses.
Not to mention the compounding effect remote learning had on social and behavioral development which makes teaching even more difficult than usual.
And our school district had a relatively strong response to Covid compared to neighboring districts. Our students were 1-1 with chromebooks and staff were doing the best they could with distance learning. I can't imagine how bad it must be for some of these other areas that weren't prepared nor had the technology to do any kind of productive teaching.
Unrelated to covid is the undeniable affect social media and unrestricted phone/internet access has had on these generations as a whole. People claim that it's just a "generational thing" and that we've seen this before but
no we have not.
Not even the television has had an even remotely comparable impact on how youth consume (mis)information, disengage from their surroundings, and have been stunted in social and emotional development. Unregulated "AI" is only making things worse in that regard.
You can point the finger at bad parenting, and there is a responsibility they play in all this. But in case you haven't noticed, the world is on fire and many parents are just barely trying to survive in this hellscape we call modern society.
The problem, no matter how you dice it, is that unregulated late capitalism has caused kids to be stunted in their academics, qualified teachers to leave the profession, and families to struggle to hold things together.
Jump! Jump!
Slide! Slide!