Gen Alpha STILL Can’t Read

Thank you to Fora for sponsoring this video! If you’re interested in becoming a travel advisor, learn more here: https://yt.link/gRZkdCU 📖Your Money or Your Life: https://amzn.to/3VExSUV ☕Support My Channel!: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/williamsauQ 📱My $15 Phone Plan: https://mint-mobile.58dp.net/rn6rJQ 🏛️My 4.6% APY Savings Account: https://www.sofi.com/invite/money?gcp... 🌍My World Map: https://amzn.to/3Y90Sac Business inquiries: [email protected] Chapters 00:00 Start Here 01:25 Chapter 1: The Origin of School 03:06 Chapter 2: The Blueprint of Modern School 06:21 Chapter 3: The American Classroom 08:24 Chapter 4: The Pathway to Opportunity 09:55 Chapter 5: The Cold War Classroom 12:00 Chapter 6: The Vehicle of Change 14:07 Chapter 7: When Schools Became Statistics 17:00 Chapter 8: The Purpose of School 18:47 Chapter 9: A Lesson From A Former Teacher Why can't Gen Alpha read? Over the past few years, many people have pointed to tablets, smartphones, social media, artificial intelligence, and shrinking attention spans as the reason reading scores have declined. And while those things have undoubtedly changed how children learn, I don't think they tell the full story. In this video, I take a step back and tell the complete history of school to answer a much bigger question: 'What is the purpose of education?' We trace the evolution of the school system from the first schools in Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, to the Prussian model of public education, Horace Mann's Common School Movement, the Industrial Revolution, the High School Movement, the GI Bill, the Cold War, Sputnik, the National Defense Education Act, Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, school desegregation, No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, and teaching to the test. As the story unfolds, a surprising pattern begins to emerge. Every generation asked schools to do a little bit more. Schools were expected to teach literacy, build citizens, prepare industrial workers, create economic opportunity, strengthen national security, reduce poverty, improve public health, address inequality, and eventually prove their success through standardized test scores and measurable outcomes. Over time, the mission of school expanded from simply educating children to becoming one of the most important institutions in American society. This video is not just about the Gen Alpha reading crisis. It is about how the purpose of school has changed over time and how those changing expectations transformed the modern education system. By understanding the history of education, we can better understand why reading scores have declined, why today's classrooms look the way they do, and why solving the literacy crisis may require looking beyond the classroom itself. I also share a personal story from my two years serving as a Peace Corps volunteer and English teacher in Ecuador. One experience with a five year old student completely changed how I think about teaching, parenting, child development, and the limits of what schools can realistically accomplish. It taught me that while great teachers and great schools matter, a child's education is shaped by far more than what happens inside a classroom.