A High School Teacher’s Thoughts About Kids Today - Jonathan Shaw

Summary

Jonathan Shaw, a Maryland high-school health teacher and tennis coach, reflects on changes he has seen among young people over nearly a decade in education. He argues that children are growing up amid unusually rapid social change and shares his concerns as a teacher. Many of his explanations and statistics are presented as personal observations or opinions.

Technology, isolation, and mental health

• Shaw sees smartphones, social media, and engagement-driven algorithms as major influences on young people’s physical, intellectual, social, and emotional well-being.
• He worries that constant access to entertainment leaves children with little practice being alone with their thoughts, spending time outdoors, or connecting face to face. He and interviewer Mark Laita recall seeing fewer children outside and less interaction among neighbors.
• Shaw says he encounters substantial anxiety, depression, social difficulties, and eating disorders among students. He believes social media can intensify appearance-related pressure and fear of judgment.
• He describes students avoiding sports or other unfamiliar activities because they worry someone will record an awkward moment and share it online. In his view, this discourages taking risks, learning from mistakes, and gradually becoming more confident.
• Shaw and Laita also discuss pornography and the difficulty parents face in managing children’s access to phones and online content. Shaw favors stronger limits, including restricting social media for younger teens. He suggests government involvement may be necessary if parents and platforms do not act.

Communication and education

Shaw says some students struggle to sustain even a basic conversation, which he sees as an obstacle to forming friendships, close relationships, and future partnerships. He believes the pandemic compounded existing difficulties for some young people, leaving them behind in social and communication skills.

He proposes that schools give greater attention to practical preparation for adult life. Ideas discussed include:

• Required communication or public-speaking instruction, with more presentations and classroom discussion across subjects.
• Financial literacy, including budgeting and understanding credit, debt, and the potential long-term cost of student loans.
• Practical life skills, such as cooking and changing a tire.
• More opportunities to practice relationships and social skills in real-world settings.

Shaw acknowledges that adding requirements raises difficult questions about what schools should prioritize or remove from existing curricula. He also says teachers may hesitate to speak publicly about problems in schools because they fear professional repercussions. He believes more open discussion could speed up change.

Family, parenting, and students’ circumstances

Shaw says students often identify their mothers as their heroes and may speak movingly about absent or uninvolved parents. He praises single mothers who work hard to support their children, while arguing that a stable, supportive home environment is especially important for children’s readiness and development.

Based on his experience, he believes stability and attentive support can matter more than a family’s income alone. He describes students with limited resources who nevertheless thrive because they have strong family support.

Shaw and Laita discuss the high cost of living and the pressures on working and single parents. Shaw recognizes that exhausted parents may use tablets or other screens to occupy children, but cautions against devices becoming a substitute for parental attention.

His recurring advice to students is to put their phones down and go outside. He sometimes asks them to share meaningful weekend experiences when they return to class.

A teacher’s impact

Shaw recounts noticing that a tennis player had stopped attending school and practice. He checked on her, spoke with her as she dealt with serious difficulties at home, and helped reconnect her with school and tennis.

The student later wrote that she had been looking for someone to help and that Shaw’s intervention felt like an answer to her prayers. He keeps her letter in his classroom and says it helps him through difficult days. She later returned to school, attended college, and was doing well.

Shaw encourages people to tell teachers who helped them how much their support mattered. He says such appreciation can be deeply meaningful to educators, many of whom are carrying a heavy emotional burden.

Well-being, spirituality, and purpose

Shaw describes a classroom activity in which students assess their well-being across eight dimensions:

1. Physical
2. Emotional
3. Social
4. Intellectual
5. Professional
6. Financial
7. Spiritual
8. Environmental

Students rate themselves in each area, identify the area where they feel weakest, and consider a goal for improvement. Shaw says social and emotional well-being scored poorly, while spiritual well-being was the lowest on average in the class work he reviewed.

He defines spiritual well-being broadly as having values, beliefs, or a sense of meaning beyond oneself; religion may be one expression of it. He believes community, shared values, and concern for others can help students develop purpose and social connection. He emphasizes that he is not arguing for one religion over another, and says that students from a range of religious backgrounds have impressed him with their communication, preparedness, and helpfulness. He also notes that he has begun attending church occasionally and finds its sense of community meaningful.

Speakers and sources

• Jonathan Shaw — Interview guest; high-school health teacher and tennis coach. The main observations, recommendations, and classroom stories are his.
• Mark Laita — Interviewer and host of Soft White Underbelly; contributes questions and personal observations.
• BetterHelp — Sponsor mentioned in an inserted promotional segment.
• Sadhguru — Referenced by Shaw through a paraphrase of a statement from an earlier interview; not a speaker in this interview.
• Igor, described as a nurse — Referenced by Laita and Shaw in connection with a prior interview; not a speaker in this interview.
• Plato — Attributed a quote about teachers teaching children about life; the attribution is presented tentatively in the subtitles.