TIME NOTICE: This article was written by a student in the Journalism Fundamentals class in the 2024-2025 school year and may not reflect the most current information of the date of publication.
“Young Gen Z teachers are talking about the poor behavior of Gen Alpha students… when it comes to how much we’ve missed the mark on raising these kids right,” says Teresa Kaye Newman (@teresakayenewman) in her popular TikTok video. Newman has taught millennials (1981-1996), Gen Z (1997-2012) and now Gen Alpha (2013-2025) throughout her career. Another teacher (@attemptedsoc) showcases a digital “folder of crying teachers,” who are “confused and frightened by the behavior of Gen Alpha.” Another (@saaaaaaaii1) calls teaching Gen Alpha “the most traumatic experience of my life.” A seventh-grade teacher (@qbthedon) notes that his kids are “still performing on the fourth-grade level.”
“I need to ask millennials,” teacher Alanna Dinh (@alannadinh) says during the video, “why are your kids so awful?”
Craig Shaw has been teaching pre-K through fifth grade in the Maryland public school system for 17 years. “There’s a huge difference… [with] not being able to follow routines.” Looking back, “when I was in the regular [education] setting,” he said, “there was a decorum that was maintained;” a sense of “sacredness” hung about the space. “There’s no decorum,” he said.
Some might ask: Why has our society suddenly begun churning out classroom monsters?
COVID is the usual excuse. But statistics show that the teacher shortage began before COVID. Data from the National Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that job openings in public education outpaced hires prior to the pandemic, not beginning with it. In fact, the disparity begins a little after 2010: the beginning of Gen Alpha.
“Gen Alpha’s behavior is a result of being raised with a lack of parental guidance and discipline,” Newman said. According to Shaw, the meaning of discipline has shifted. “There’s no set expectations,” he says. This permissive style of teaching, modeled after the permissive parenting of millennial parents, has “destroyed the level of discipline in the room,” Shaw said. To the teachers of today, he says, “You’re a parent without authority.”
Enter: Lighthouse Parenting. Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg, MD, MSEd, founder of the Center for Parent and Teen Communications and creator of Lighthouse Parenting, describes it as the only “balanced” method of parenting – the only style of parenting staunchly backed by both “long-standing cultural practices” and science.
Children of 1950’s authoritarian parents “rejected their parents,” Ginsburg said, and reactively kicked the parenting dial too far away from boundaries and monitoring, which resulted in permissive parenting. “That created neurotic kids… because when parents become friends, you are bringing a conditionality into the relationship,” he said. In terms of gentle parenting, today’s rehashing of permissive parenting, Ginsburg mentions that while a gentle parent would sit with their child and process his or her feelings in the grocery store, “there gets to be a point where you also have to pick up your child and get them out of the store.”
“The science is clear that authoritative parenting is what works best, which is ‘I love you so much, but I’m not your friend,’” Ginsburg said, citing studies showing that authoritative parenting has “the best academic… social and emotional… behavioral… and the best relationship outcomes.” Ginsburg created Lighthouse Parenting in order to push authoritative parenting into action.
“Parents, you should be like a lighthouse on the shore,” Ginsburg said. “You should look down at the rocks and make sure your child doesn’t crash against them… you should become a stable force, so that when your child strays, they always know that they can return to you.” Lighthouse parents do not float in the tides with their child; they stand firm in their expectations with open arms.
Merion Mercy Academy, an all-girls private school near Philadelphia, mirrors Lighthouse Parenting in its approach to education. The school website lists the key principles of Ginsburg’s Lighthouse Parenting (as outlined in Parents Magazine), and emphasizes the “profound importance” of raising children in this style. “We believe that learning thrives when it happens in a supportive community, much like the foundation of open communication and trust between a Lighthouse Parent and their child,” the article states. “At Merion Mercy, students build strong, meaningful connections… that provide a safe and nurturing environment for their growth.”
Merion Mercy graduates have made it into schools like Princeton, Drexel, Notre Dame and University of South Carolina, according to US News. If one measured the success of this parenting and education method by academic competence, things would look good for the Lighthouse method. Of course, Merion Mercy is a private, religious school. It could be argued that this solution might play out differently in the public schools commonly known for Gen Alpha havoc.
But as Ginsburg puts it, “we know what makes kids thrive. And it’s loving, caring adults who offer an unwavering presence in their lives.” Lighthouse Parenting could be the steady force the apparently chaotic new generation and their desperate, burnt-out teachers need.