Headteachers in England tell of worsening behaviour of pupils – and parents

> They want to come for the social, but they don’t want to go into their lessons.

Good diagnosis. Now they just need to select the right remedy.

Perhaps if you can come up with a compelling argument for the students and parents why what's being taught is certain to lead to success in life, you'll find their attitudes change.

You might find that tricky though, given you're teaching them all geography, history, calculus, and the like. In which case you'll know who has to change.

I wonder if this is how student behavior has always been. The retrospective view makes the past look better. Ah the good old days when everything was better. See rosy retrospection [1] for more examples.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosy_retrospection

Unpopular theory: largely the cause is that kids in 2023 can see right through the bullshit:

* course content has no relationship to success in life

* the vast majority of teachers are losers given a modicum of authority: the unpopular kid who grew up and wanted to rule the classroom and now does

* course content is either too slow or too fast or too boring. Kids today are used to controlling information flow, not accepting bland lessons geared toward the lowest common denominator

But mainly it’s the teachers: kids can tell their teachers are faking it. The jig is up.