Gen z is a pop culture term for kids born in the era of computers and smartphones. As a teacher, I experience different sorts of students frequently. I see many struggling to learn and concentrate. Most just give up and tease others.
I have been a teacher for two decades for the pre-school classes but I see most disoriented students in Gen Z.
Importance of Reading Skill
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Reading is one of the four basic learning skills. It is also basic for communication. Our mind has a great storage of things that go into deeper memory and are finally forgotten if they are not repeated.
Reading enables us to rejuvenate everything we learned. The reading does not mean the book reading, in your Ipads or laptops you do have to read. The teaching has changed but we have not yet found a replacement for basic learning skills.
Maybe in the future, there are just some electrodes attached to the human brain and they pour all the knowledge or understanding into the kids.
In this futuristic fantasy, people will pay for the advanced level of learning. the money will decide how the child stands in society. Just like the modern world.
Reading requires a concentration level. The child will have to devote his attention to learning it. The attention is the problem. The child is always looking for some excitement. He is always in the awe of new and wonderful things that this world has to offer. So it is quite crucial to increase the attention span.
Was Attention Span Always a Problem
Little children who attend preschool are always interested in random things but now they just don’t seem to focus on anything including gaming activities. Even the kids of 4th standard and above have dangerously low attention spans.
They only learn by mocking things. Few children have wholesome learning otherwise most children just know the chunks of it. Even if it is repeated.
The kids have less attention span than adults, which is normal. The kids have a maximum span of 13-15 minutes. But I now witness students with 2-3 minutes of attention span only. Some have even less than that.
Some factors contribute to it. Like hunger, peaceful mind, tiredness, etc. So can we say that the minds are tired? But why?
The main thing contributing to it is cognitive ability; let me explain it further.
Cognitive Ability and the Things Affecting It
The ability of the human mind to comprehend things, which involves reasoning, and connecting dots to reach to conclusion is cognitive ability. It matures with age. This is just the basic understanding of the term. it can be considered general intelligence.
The development of cognitive ability is gradual and in modern times we give our children too much screen time. Which does not let them develop gradually.
In some aspects, they are too ahead but the development is not wholesome.
the factors affecting it are:
Genetic: This factor is always on the list. Cognitive ability depends on genes. But it has so much potential to enhance.
Life-style approach: The routine and the dull circumstances can also harshly affect your cognitive ability. If you are not straining your mind to do anything new then it is supposed to get stuck. Change and develo[ment is necessary for cognitive senses.
Stress: This is the root of many problems. Stress can inhibit your brain to understand and solve. People can seem incapable of understanding the basics.
Cognitive Load: When it becomes necessary for an individual to divide their cognition between tasks (for example, memory and attention) it becomes more difficult for them to focus on the main task at hand and such a divide ultimately can decrease performance capability.
What Habits Are Causing the Problem
Well, there is active research on this problem, and every day we see new development but my experience has shown me that most factors affecting cognitive ability are stirred by excessive screen time.
We can’t avoid media at all but we have to make our children push their brains to learn further. They are getting used to fast-moving things, but the world around them, the real one has its own slow pace.
We cannot make them equipped with knowledge that comes with tolerance and patience. The mind gets tired very quickly and then it just lingers on.
In the early stages of life, there should be no screen time and after at least 2 years you can make it for 1-2 hours.
Nobody said that parenting will come easy. If you have to work then make sure that there are healthy activities at the daycare, not just screen time.
Our kids are the future of the world. Take care of it. Gen Z deserves better. I said better not expensive and most advanced.
It is just my humble opinion. As a teacher, I constantly worry about how they are going to learn anything worthwhile. They only know the very sharp stuff they learn from cartoons but it has not sunk in them.
Cut down screen time if you aim to bring up healthy minds.
