Written by Naomi Nye, Family Coach
Naomi specializes in helping teens tackle negative behavioral patterns, addictions, anxiety and depression. Her passion for youth and family well-being led her to establish Teen Rockstar Entrepreneur, offering vital life skills for success. Alongside this initiative, she organizes community events & hosts the Teen Rockstar Entrepreneur podcast.
Parents may not realize the extent to which their children have fallen behind academically. Research shows that, over four years since the pandemic began, eighth graders are now a full year behind in math and reading. Economist and social philosopher Thomas Sowell, in Inside American Education, highlights that some middle school students lag by as much as three years in essential skills.
Falling behind — The academic crisis
The impact of this academic lag extends beyond intellectual performance. Children are increasingly acting out and disengaging from their studies—not due to a lack of intelligence or potential but because they are not being equipped with essential life skills. We keep lowering academic standards while showing more leniency toward disruptive behavior. A concerning fact is that the books 12th graders are reading today were once 8th-grade material. More than 20 years ago, middle schoolers were engaging with texts now taught to high school students. Sowell points out that these slipping standards leave high school graduates less prepared for college and beyond.
A broken system — Where are the priorities?
Without opportunities to experience frustration and learn perseverance, crucial neural pathways fail to develop, leaving children struggling in academics and emotional regulation. Instead of increasing academic performance and teaching perseverance, we are expending energy on programs focused on gender, race, sex, and politics. The skill of self-regulation, essential for coping with the school system's rigid standards, is being neglected.
Most adults struggle in uncreative environments, yet we expect children to display self-regulation in a rigid school setting for seven hours. Alarmingly, 40% of students face significant challenges, regardless of socio-economic background. The traditional “sit and get” instructional model, demanding prolonged periods of inactivity, exacerbates the problem.
Students often receive punishment for their natural restlessness, leading to misdiagnoses of conditions like ADHD and an over-reliance on medication.
The issue is further compounded by the poor quality of food in school cafeterias. Research has uncovered alarming levels of harmful substances, such as cadmium, lead, and glyphosate, in school lunches—often far exceeding the limits set for drinking water. These toxins are commonly found in many of the packaged foods, like Lunchables and Burger King lunches that schools receive from their distributors and donators. This jeopardizes children’s physical health and affects cognitive development and behavior.
As academic standards decline and misleading information about student proficiency persists, the rigid expectations and poor diets in schools become increasingly problematic. The focus on gender and critical theory programs, costing millions, compounds the issue. It’s clear that our education system needs a “Reset”—‘The Stakes are too High to Ignore.’
Breaking down the state of the current education system
We must focus on three critical changes needed to transform our education system. These changes aim to restore the pursuit of high achievement, prepare youth for life, and nourish their physical, mental, and personal well-being.
Challenge 1 — Youth mental health crisis
The youth mental health crisis affects 40% of students across economically disadvantaged and affluent communities. A significant contributor is the traditional "sit and get" educational model, requiring students to remain seated and attentive for extended periods. This rigid approach often leads to behavioral issues, frequently misdiagnosed as ADHD, leading to inappropriate therapy and medication referrals.
Every year, 6.4 million children aged 6-17 are diagnosed with ADHD, often due to typical childhood behaviors like inattention and hyperactivity. The lack of physical activity in schools exacerbates these issues. With limited access to physical education or recess, students struggle with poor spatial awareness, difficulty focusing, and disorganized thinking. Research shows that half of all students don’t get sufficient exercise, missing out on the cognitive benefits of physical activity, such as improved memory, attention, and mood regulation.
Prolonged sitting in school links to numerous psychological and physical health risks, including depression, heart disease, and obesity. While prestigious universities like UCLA rethink their environments to mitigate the dangers of extended sitting, many K-12 schools persist in enforcing outdated, rigid policies that harm children’s well-being.
The restlessness and behavioral issues in students are clear signals that the current system is failing them. To support our youth, we must prioritize their health and mental well-being by adopting more flexible, supportive practices in all schools.
What you, the parent, can do
Encourage exercise
If your child’s school lacks a physical education program, consider enrolling them in local sports or extracurricular activities. Regular physical activity combats depression, anxiety, obesity, and high blood pressure—issues increasingly common in children due to poor lifestyle habits. Ensure your child has access to good nutrition and regular exercise to maintain their health.
Not every child is naturally athletic or inclined toward sports. Encourage your child to explore various activities until they find one they enjoy. Extracurriculars provide physical benefits and help develop critical social skills like leadership, cooperation, and peer interaction. Research shows that children engaged in these activities, especially between ages nine and thirteen, experience a stronger sense of belonging and enhanced self-esteem.
Build resilience
Help your child develop tools to manage frustration and conflict. Resilience and self-regulation are learned skills, not innate traits, and without them, children struggle to overcome challenges. Disciplines like martial arts can teach resilience, discipline, and responsibility, leading to better academic and personal outcomes.
These experiences cultivate a growth mindset, enhance self-esteem, and lay the groundwork for lifelong success. A truly well-rounded education must prioritize these essential skills, equipping children to navigate future challenges with confidence.
Encourage your children to become lifelong learners by reading books that foster self- discovery. While knowledge is power, self-knowledge is empowerment. Tools like workbooks and planners can help your child reset their patterns and develop productive habits that significantly improve their quality of life.
Challenge 2 — School lunches and nutrition
Another significant issue affecting children’s mental health is the quality of food in school cafeterias. Since 1994, fast food companies have increasingly infiltrated school cafeterias, with some restaurants, like Burger King, even donating lunches. However, recent studies reveal alarming levels of heavy metals in these meals. Food samples from 21 restaurants were tested, showing levels of cadmium, lead, and glyphosate—chemicals linked to serious health issues—up to 1,074 times higher than allowed in drinking water. These toxins disrupt children’s brain development, harm the nervous system, and contribute to liver and kidney disease.
Despite these findings, schools have largely focused on equity rather than addressing food quality. The Nutrition and Policy Institute created the Universal School Meals program to reduce the stigma of students receiving free or reduced-price meals by including all students. While this may seem beneficial, it does little to address concerns about nutritional value.
Students in California have voiced concerns about both the quality and quantity of cafeteria food, yet little has been done to improve its nutritional content.
Many parents remain unaware of how poor school food quality contributes to their children’s physical and mental decline. They may appreciate the convenience and financial relief of universal free school meals but fail to recognize these meals could be a significant factor in their children's academic struggles and behavioral issues.
Improving public school meal nutrition is a critical policy concern, especially with rising childhood obesity rates. Extensive research shows a clear link between diet, cognitive development, and cognitive function and behavior. Studies in California public schools over five years demonstrate that students at schools contracting with healthy lunch vendors perform better on state achievement tests, highlighting the essential role nutrition plays in academic performance.
Wouldn’t it be wiser to allow families who can afford school lunches to pay, so resources can be better allocated to improving the quality of food provided to all students? This approach could ensure all children receive meals that support their physical and mental well-being.
What can parents do?
Making nutritional lifestyle changes is simple but not always easy. The goal is to eliminate sodas, fast food, processed food, color dyes, juices (unless organic), seed oils, and white sugar from your child’s diet. Instead of removing everything at once, gradually eliminate one item at a time and find a healthy replacement. This gradual approach makes the process more manageable and sustainable.
A mother from our first group shared her experience with us: she was initially hesitant to change her 11-year-old's diet because he would have meltdowns, often screaming, "I hate you," when she refused to give him his favorite gummy bears and snacks. Despite the emotional challenges, she persevered. The results were remarkable. "My son is unrecognizable. The difference in his mood, anxiety, focus, sleep quality, and energy is tremendous."
The average child in America consumes 17 teaspoons of sugar daily—over 70 grams. No wonder 20% of children are diagnosed as pre-diabetic, with fat in their arteries and other conditions that were rare in children just 20 years ago.
Parents can start making changes at home by introducing healthier foods and advocating for better nutrition in schools. Petition your school to move away from packaged foods and invest in a kitchen with sufficient space for food preparation and storage to improve meal operations. By focusing on purchasing fresh, high-quality ingredients, schools can significantly enhance the nutritional value of the meals they serve.
It’s crucial to stay informed about what your child is being fed at school. Contact the “Food and Nutrition Service” to ensure your children receive meals that are nutritious and appealing. Empowering parents to demand better food quality can lead to meaningful changes that benefit all the students.
Challenge 3 — Kids not receiving proper education & learning essential skills
Over the past decade, student achievement has not only plateaued but has started to decline. This disturbing trend can be traced back to significant shifts in education policy, particularly the transition from the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the adoption of the Common Core State Standards. NCLB, with its emphasis on results-based accountability, aimed to raise achievement levels, especially for marginalized groups. However, it led to unintended consequences: schools lowered academic standards, overly focused on "teaching to the test," and provided misleading information about student proficiency.
Parents were often reassured that their children were “proficient” in reading and math, even when these students were years behind and unprepared for college or well-paying jobs. This misrepresentation of student readiness has had long-term effects on the ability of young people to succeed in the real world. Despite spending around 80,000 hours in school, students graduate without expertise in any field. After 12 years of education, one might expect graduates to possess knowledge equivalent to a degree in areas like entrepreneurship, accounting, or trade. Instead, many leave school unprepared, uncertain of their identity, their career path, or how to navigate the adult world.
Historically, students as young as 13 entered college with a strong command of multiple languages and a deep understanding of various academic disciplines. Today, many 18-year- olds struggle with mastering even their native English. This delay in adulthood, experience, and knowledge acquisition has left our youth unprepared for the demands of life. Most high school graduates lack essential life skills such as money management, budgeting, understanding taxes, self-awareness, self-regulation, leadership, and self-advocacy. Their fear of the future is not surprising—it's the direct result of an education system that has failed to prepare them.
Rather than addressing these systemic failures, government resources are being diverted to initiatives that do little to equip students for the real world. A staggering $110 million is being allocated to sexual education and the creation of LGBTQ+ inclusive curricula, where even in some states like Colorado teaching first graders sexual education and LGBTQ+ material in their social studies classes.
Recent policies, such as the one signed by Vice President Kamala Harris, mandate the stocking of period products in boys' bathrooms from grades 4 through 12 in the name of "menstrual dignity for all students." This measure, part of a broader education finance bill, increased education spending by 10.2% over two years, totaling about $23.2 billion—with $2 million allocated specifically for gender-neutral bathrooms. It is perplexing and troubling that members of Congress are spending millions of taxpayer dollars to promote ideologies that confuse children, such as the notion that men can menstruate while ignoring the urgent need to prepare our youth for the future.
The gradual decline in educational standards has been a slow erosion, leaving our children unprepared for the complexities of adult life. Decades ago, students were graduating at 13, ready to tackle college-level work with confidence. Today, many high school graduates struggle with basic academic skills, a glaring indicator of how far we've allowed our education system to deteriorate.
As parents, we must demand more—more from our schools, more from our teachers, and more from our government. Public education is not a lower-cost alternative to private schooling; it's a system funded by our tax dollars, and we have every right to expect it to meet the highest standards. By getting involved, asking tough questions, and advocating for rigorous academics and essential life skills, we can ensure that our children receive the education they deserve.
“It’s time to ‘Raise The Bar’ and ensure that our schools are truly preparing students for the future, not just passing them through the system.”
Are you happy with your child’s school education? What changes or improvements would you like to see? We’d love to hear your thought here.
Let’s continue these conversations on Instagram where I post daily news on education, parent and teen strategies & tips as well as ‘How To’ videos. See you there!
Read more from Naomi Nye
Naomi Nye, Family Coach
Naomi Nye is a leading authority in personal development, specializing as a family coach for mothers and youth seeking guidance when their teens are grappling with life pressures, addiction, or impulsive behavior. Inspired by her own challenging upbringing and subsequent journey of healing, Naomi recognized the crucial importance of coping skills in navigating life's adversities. Motivated by this insight, she founded the Teen Rockstar Entrepreneur Organization and Foundation, where she serves as CEO, alongside hosting the Teen Rockstar Entrepreneur Podcast.
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