Gen Z Teacher Quits, Reveals Why She Thinks High School Students Are Doomed
By Marni Rose McFall
AGen-Z teacher has shared why she left the profession in a social media video that has been viewed millions of times. Hannah Maria, who taught tenth-grade English, sounded the alarm on the impact of technology on kids in a nine-minute video.
Why It Matters
As of 2024, 21 percent of adults in the U.S. were found to be illiterate, with 54 percent of adults having a literacy rate below a sixth-grade level, according to the National Literacy Institute. Low literacy costs the country up to $2.2 trillion a year, according to the NLI.
A report released in January 2025 from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) found that the reading and math skills of fourth and eighth grade students have declined in multiple states to below the national average.
School
In this stock image, a student raises their hand during a lesson at Whitchurch High School in Cardiff, Wales, on September 14, 2021. Matthew Horwood/Getty Images
What To Know
At the time of reporting, the video has been reshared to X where it has been viewed 4.3 million times. The TikTok account where the original video was posted has been set to private.
Filming in a classroom shortly ahead of her last day teaching, Hannah Maria said that "technology is ruining education."
"School boards and superintendents and people who actually can make this true difference in their school districts aren't listening," she says in the video.
She shared that she teaches in a district where each student is given an iPad from sixth to twelfth grade.
Hannah Maria, who said that she is an "older Gen-Z," said that "technology is directly contributing to the literary decrease we are seeing."
"A lot of these kids don't know how to read, because they have had things read to them or they can click a button and have things read out loud to them," she said.
She also said that children's "attention spans are waning because everything is high stimulation, they can just scroll," adding that kids "can't sit still for very long."
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She adds that when trying to get children she teaches to handwrite, they don't corporate, rolling their eyes or throwing tantrums.
What People Are Saying
Hannah Maria, speaking in her viral TikTok video: "I don't think these kids even care. They don't care about making a difference in the world... I think that we need to cut off technology from these kids, probably until they go to college."
Peggy Carr, the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, said in a statement after the January National Assessment of Educational Progress report was released: "These 2024 results clearly show that students are not where they need to be or where we want them to be."
What's Next
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education that former President Jimmy Carter founded 45 years ago, which could change the face of education in America.
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