Comment by Barrin92

Anyone who writes this down to schools or selection I think is completely missing the authors point. What they are describing, not just the academic but physical and mental change in young people, is everywhere.

People from roughly my age, early thirties and younger, are just chronically heedless. It's not about specific academic tasks it's a general lack of mental and physical acuity. You go in a coffeeshop or a library, you ask for something, if there's a young person behind the counter chances are you get a blank stare or you have to repeat yourself while they have a phone in one hand. Young people in my experience can't focus on long conversations, literally just looking at your face and pay attention.

Ted Gioia is quoted in the piece describing it as "checked out zombies" and that's exactly right. There's so many conversations these days where you basically have to snap your fingers in front of someone's face because they're like a distracted cat or something. I taught a soldering class at a makerspace a few years ago and every young person was physically clumsy, as if they had two left hands. Seniors participating did better than 20 year olds. The author is not just a grumpy old teacher, if you pay attention this is everywhere, and all the reading and spelling problems are downstream from it.