I watched the reaction video “Gen Alpha Is Out of Control: Ex-Teacher Reacts to 5 Viral TikToks Exposing the Classroom Crisis” with a knot in my stomach. The clips the creator pulls together are not entertaining curiosities. They are concrete snapshots of a deep problem ripping at the heart of American education, one that few policymakers are willing to address honestly.
Across the country, teachers are whispering the same thing: schools have become battlegrounds, not learning environments. Videos shared by educators show classrooms dominated by shouting, emotional meltdowns, disruptions, and an almost total absence of basic self-control.
It is not that children are inherently bad. The problem is systemic, and until we face that reality, we have no chance of fixing it.
The former teacher in the video recounts an experience familiar to many educators, namely, walking into the profession believing you could teach, only to find yourself spending most of your day calming emotional outbreaks, refereeing fights, or coaxing students back into any semblance of routine. This is not hyperbole. It reflects what teachers see every single day, and it is driving them out of the profession.
This crisis did not start overnight. A perfect storm of factors collided in our school systems. Children enter kindergarten without foundational skills in following directions or regulating their own behavior. Screen time has exploded. Early childhood literacy and socialization have weakened. Alongside all this, parents are often inconsistent in providing structure at home. Kids are no longer free to ride their bikes through the neighborhood for fear of danger, but they are handed an electronic device that is far more dangerous.
Meanwhile, teachers are expected to do more with less. They are now expected to serve as behavior specialists, social workers, and crisis managers on top of teaching math, reading and science. All the while, pay stagnates, class sizes grow, and respect for the profession erodes. It is no wonder educators are leaving in record numbers.
This matters for every parent and taxpayer. Schools cannot take the place of parents, and they are not wellness centers or daycare centers. They are foundational institutions that shape the next generation’s capacity to think, contribute and compete. When classrooms are consumed by chaos, everyone loses. Students fall further behind, teachers burn out, and communities pay the long-term price through weakened civic and economic outcomes.
In the real world, your boss does not care that you need a personal day. They pay you to work and expect you to work. You show up, get the job done, and handle personal challenges at home. The world is hard. You cannot walk around all day feeling your feelings and expect reality to bend to them. Feelings change constantly. Building your entire sense of reality around them is not healthy thinking. Because of this, kids need boundaries, high expectations, and discipline at home and in the classroom. We need our children to be prepared to function in the real world.
If we ignore teachers when they raise the alarm, we will pay the cost for decades. It is time to listen, act and rebuild classrooms where learning, not crisis management, is the priority.
Rebecca Watson is the founder of Fairhope Faith Collective, a grassroots community dedicated to encouraging transparency, accountability, and family values in our schools and local government, while supporting leaders who honor the trust of Fairhope families. Send her an email at [email protected] if you would like to get involved with causes across our state.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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