In 2018, middle school English teacher David Turner listened in on a conversation between students when something he heard resonated with him. The students wished for a class that taught ‘real life stuff’ like how to get a job, cook a meal or manage money. This simple yet impactful comment left Turner thinking of a possible solution to pitch a class idea: Life Skills. Seven years later, Turner is still teaching it, and he notices a shift in students’ ability to be resourceful and independent.
Turner continues to enjoy teaching his Life Skills class, where his students learn useful tools like how to write a resume or plan a vacation. Turner noticed that after the quarantine, his students seemed to be less resourceful. He believes this is because students were always with and dependent on their parents during COVID.
“Doing school on Zoom really set a lot of kids back, especially because they were with their parents all day,” Turner said. “They could ask for help constantly, and I think we’re still seeing the effects of that. Even in terms of [general] maturity, some kids seem less eager to try things on their own—they know that safety and support are always there. And I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault. A lot of parents were just trying to do everything they could to help during that time, but since COVID, and especially since 2020, there’s definitely been more reluctance [among students] to try doing things independently.”
Similarly to Turner, high school history teacher and debate coach Douglas Miller believes COVID-19 has affected his students’ growth and learning abilities. He believes that Gen Z is open to many learning possibilities, but has unique challenges due to access of technology and differences in lifestyle compared to teachers.
“I do think there is some concern that the school has over-reliance on Internet-connected devices at your fingertips,” Miller said. “I think it has had some substantive changes, combined with some of the experiences through COVID. I see my students’ learning process being different than what it was before and it has just gone down [as in slower], and anxiety has gone up.”
Turner believes that the fear of failure among students has also reshaped their abilities to problem solve. In his classes, he has observed that students approach basic tasks with less confidence due to academic perfectionism. He recognizes that being a student at Campbell Hall perpetuates this feeling of not being able to make mistakes due to the high level of achievement surrounding the students.
“I see more and more kids constantly checking in, asking, ‘did I do this right?’ Because they don’t want to risk doing something wrong,” Turner said. “I think it comes from how competitive everything feels now with college and classes, it’s all marketed as high-stakes. That pressure limits their ability to try, fail and learn that they can be resilient; I think that’s something we’ve lost.”
Different parenting styles affect Gen Z resourcefulness as well. Jeffery L. ‘26 believes that many of his peers are not working as hard as he is. He grew up to be independent and notes his parents allowed him to grow on his own. Similarly to Turner, he feels that newer generations tend to grow up with too much hand holding.
“Because of the way I grew up, I feel like the people [today] grow up too babied,” Jeffery said. “Kids now, their parents are super protective over them, and they’re very soft, creating people to be soft, to be lazy [and] think that everything’s just gonna come easy when it’s not. We have to work very hard for what we want.”
However, with these many resources, Audrey C. ‘26 notices that this gives them more opportunities to excel. She thinks her generation is able to thrive and maximize the new technologies they have compared to previous generations.
“There’s always a negative connotation to Gen Z that we have all these [technological] resources and we might not be as creative or have room to grow in terms of advancements,” Audrey said. “But my reaction is I don’t really think that that’s true because obviously there’s always room to improve. Even though we are in a definitely more modernized society, that doesn’t mean that we can’t continue to look for new technologies and improve our resources.”
Also, Miller believes that Gen Z has unique qualities that previous generations do not have much of. Growing up in a small bubble in Kansas, Miller finds that social media and technology has broadened people’s horizons. He remembers that when he grew up, people could not imagine life beyond Kansas, but he finds this generation can see more than their hometown.
“This generation is more creative,” Miller said. “[It] has much more sense of opportunity, potential and aspiration than previous generations. I think that is because of seeing more of the world on a daily basis.”