"The Students Are Unteachable" — Teachers Warn That Horrible Parenting Has Rendered Gen Alpha Hopeless

Gen Alpha is struggling, according to a litany of teachers who have pretty much deemed the group of students as "un-teachable" with some even going so far as to call this specific subset of human beings "hopeless" when it comes to mass contributions to our species.

Music teacher and TikToker Teresa Kaye Newman (@teresakayenewman) published a 6-minute video that is less of a rant and more a warning to the parents of Gen Alpha children, stating that folks need to admit there is a problem with these young kids who are exhibiting behavioral issues that are so severe it's impossible to teach them anything.

Teresa begins her video asserting that there is indeed a massive issue with the way Gen Alpha (people born between 2010-2025) approaches classroom learning. She goes on to pre-empt any ageist sentiments towards her from viewers of her clip, stating that some TikTok users may better heed the commentary of someone younger than she is.

Her video then cuts to another TikToker who remarked how teachers have categorized Gen Alpha as "defiant, disrespectful, and rude."

Teresa's video then smash cuts to another woman, presumably an educator herself, who has called working with Gen Alpha "the most traumatic experience of [her] life."

This woman goes on to say of this generation of students: "they don't respect authority, you ask them can you stand in your designated spot, they're telling you no and shut up. They're throwing things at each other. They're throwing things at other people, other classmates."

Teresa highlights a complaint from a third teacher she's included in her video who says that despite the fact he teaches "seventh grade" that his students "are performing at a fourth grade level."

After he says his peace, a snippet of a 22-year-old middle school teacher criticizing Gen Alpha is next: "by far, we are doomed. Like these kids do not care. Like I have kids all they wanna do, all day long, is get high."

Teresa then cuts to another woman who goes on to blast Millennials for the way they're raising their children, calling them "ill-mannered" and that their awful personalities and carelessness towards work are no laughing matter, referencing that Gen Alpha kids (speculatively, the ones she teaches) are unable to read and write.

At this point in the clip, Teresa comes back on camera with some choice words for folks who tried to write off her warnings about Gen Alpha's overall awfulness to her being "old and jaded," or that kids have always been misbehaved and that if she doesn't like being a teacher then she could simply find a new profession.

Teresa says that Gen Alpha is basically the Anton Chigurh of students: they are a new, existential threat with worrisome attitudes towards authority who embody a lackadaisical approach to work and cave at the slightest application of pressure.

The music instructor said that this issue is an "over-arching problem" that applies to even high-achieving and general population students without IEPs (special needs).

She says that both teachers who only have two or three years in the profession along with "veterans" in the field such as herself are in agreement: trying to get Gen Alpha to learn anything is a Herculean task.

Teresa boiled the problem down to a few key areas and she urges parents of Gen Alpha kids to take note.

"Your children are missing the mark on discipline, they're missing the mark on education standards, they're missing the mark on literacy, they're missing the mark on socialization." Teresa also dismissed some folks readiness to blame Gen Alpha's god-awful attitudes towards education on COVID, or iPads, or the fact that the US economy has turned to crap ever since 2021.

She said that regardless of where the blame is being placed that it doesn't change the fact Gen Alpha is a "real problem" and "making excuses" isn't conducive to actually fixing the issues at hand.

Teresa went on to reject criticism from folks who tried to write off her warnings as her just "being mean" and that she was blaming children for their poor behavior.

The educator said that this couldn't be further from the truth, reiterating that parents need to learn how to raise their children to not be monsters: "The problem is, is that we have this generation of parents that doesn't want to take accountability for not doing what they need to do to raise kids that are self-sufficient, that are socialized or kind."

Teresa said that in addition to being generally entitled, lazy, erratic, and disrespectful to teachers and folks who are older than them, the worst thing that Gen Alpha's parents have done is "conditioned [them] to believe that they are immune to consequences."

According to Teresa, the most vocal critics of Gen Alpha are educators, and they aren't simply spouting hate against the social subset of students for fun — it's because her and many others are genuinely "frightened for these kids."

"This is not just an old people complaining about young people problem anymore," she claims and said it's up to Millennial parents to take a look in the mirror and face facts.

Instead of shifting the blame to educators and "older people" who are "demonizing" children, which does nothing to help what she says is a glaring behavioral issue with this particular student body, she suggests folks instead take a second to ask themselves why there are so many people who work with these children for hours a day, week after week, month after month who believe that they are "doomed" unless parents step up.

So what's the solution? Teresa says that even beginning to discuss potential fixes for this issue is out of the question as there seems to be so many people who refuse to admit that Gen Alpha is pretty much the worst.

Because they are so "tuned out" and "rude" and "violent" to those around them, and even children who are younger than them, Teresa says it's fundamentally impossible to even begin to teach these children anything.

Many viewers who responded to Teresa's video, unfortunately, said that they not only agreed with the sentiment, but have seen instances of Gen Alpha's attitude towards teaching negatively affecting those around them. Like this one TikToker who penned: "my mom was a teacher for 20 years, across 2 states, teaching elementary, middle & high school ages, and gen alpha was the reason she quit"

Someone else said that the issue stems from constructive criticism being all but banned as a viable response to kids who are being nasty and generally unpleasant: "Nowadays teachers can only reward good behavior while straight up ignoring 'poor' behavior because they can’t address/punish poor behavior."

One parent said that their own Gen Alpha kid is having a hard time focusing in class because of the other students who don't seem to respect authority or have any interest in actually learning.