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Seen on FFB, copied here with permission. Link and attribution at the end.
FOMO is killing our students' future, one shortcut at a time.
But what if the shortcuts they chase are the biggest lie?
Last night, I stumbled upon a reel about how to ace the 10th and 12th exams.
The video explained how students should attempt questions and how to get perfect marks—fair enough.
But then my feed transformed into a rabbit hole of board exams and quick fixes for prep.
I scrolled past mindless short tricks, claims of guaranteed success, and people begging for followers, promising free videos and notes once they hit 50,000 followers.
Some X-Sirs or Y-Mams were selling below-the-basics products masked as revolutionary tips.
The pinnacle of advice came from a renowned person: Solve the SOLVED QUESTIONS of the top 3 books and read NCERT like a Bible.
Solved Questions. Not Unsolved. Really?
Have you ever noticed the likes on such meaningless videos? None less than 100K.
The comment sections were filled with—fear, doubt, and misery.
1/n
(cont'd)
Where was the joy of learning?
How did learning get shrunk down to meaningless pressure for marks?
What do these marks even signify? Learning?
What has this system truly done to us?
The pressure to conform to these quick hacks—these promises of effortless marks—is killing any real hunger for knowledge.
They're chasing virality and volume, not value.
What we're seeing is a system focused on marks, not mastery.
Concepts are lost.
Critical thinking? Forgotten.
Instead of building a foundation that lasts a lifetime, students are obsessed with patching up with shortcuts.
It's like trying to build a house on sand.
2/n
(cont'd)
And let's not forget the parents.
They, too, are sucked into this game, running after crash courses and rapid results, because FOMO isn't just the students' problem—it's a societal one.
This FOMO-fueled learning mindset has steep consequences.
We're raising a generation of students who equate learning with rote memorization and instant gratification.
They are never given the time or space to struggle with a problem or to think deeply.
In a world that demands innovation, creativity, and resilience, we rob them of the tools they need to succeed long-term.
If this trend continues, what kind of adults will they become?
Quick-fix seekers?
Problem avoiders?
And for what?
A school mark sheet?
3/n
Except it is *all* about the parents. Sure, kids have agency, but their world view at that point is ill formed and the product of their upbringing. Parents to value the 'score' over the 'understanding' damage their children into feeling the same way.
I've always told my kids I don't care what your grade is in a class, I care that you understand the material. Showing me an 'A' does nothing for me, explaining how civil liberties came to be in the US makes me proud.
@ChuckMcManis I agree with much of what you're saying, but I think you are underplaying the outside influences on kids. I work with a lot of kids, and I'm pretty sure that they're getting a lot of pressure from sources other than their parents.
But no matter where the influences come from, it's clear that overall kids are pressured to get good grades, and not pressured to understand.
Therein lies the problem.
PS: I also note that you most likely have a much better relationship with your kids than average.
@ColinTheMathmo I largely agree with this. I do have a better relationship than average which I attribute to being able to spend time with them.
My very narrow experience with the kids in this particular neighborhood was that the 'outside influence' on children appeared to be largely a search for identity and a sense of self. The desire to be 'included' and 'cool' coupled with observation of people who were considered the same drove a set of desires to achieve that.
1/
@ColinTheMathmo One big difference between my kids and their peers going into high school was that they had been home schooled up to that point (because our choice of public schools was poor, not because we didn't approve the curriculum) And that gave them a very different set of inputs during their 'middle school' years than their peers got. Was it significant? I cannot say, it seemed to be consistent with both my kids and the other kids in their cohort who had 'skipped' middle school.
2/
@ColinTheMathmo From a sample set we had ours and some other kids who were part of the same group that skipped middle school in the same high school. All of the kids in that group appear to have learned more and had fewer problems. All of them went on to college. Now from a selection bias there was this huge bias of 'parents that could participate in an alternate school structure' which tended to self select to college educated, gainfully employed.
3/
@ColinTheMathmo But you could section kids in my cohort to 'public school', 'home schooled/public high school', 'private school/public high school', and 'private school'. Pretty consistent lean toward 'scores' vs 'understanding' based on the parents background.
While difficult to control for all biases, my conclusion was that parent input was the strongest factor affecting the focus on grades/scores. Which also stressed ethics (cheating gives a bigger reward).
fin/