Why Are Kids Struggling With General Problem Solving These Days? A Teacher’s Observation
Last Wednesday, I stood at the back of my 7th grade science class watching kids do their annual baking soda volcano projects. I’d passed out all the supplies: paper cups, baking soda, vinegar, plastic trays, and a stack of paper towels for spills. By the end of the period, half the tables had sticky vinegar pooled across their surfaces, crumpled paper towels tossed in the pencil sharpener bin instead of the trash can by the door, and one 12-year-old raised her hand to ask, “How do I fold this to soak up the mess?”
I grabbed a lukewarm coffee from the teacher’s lounge pot after class and commiserated with Mia, the 6th grade math teacher down the hall. She’d just run her monthly class store, where kids buy small stickers and candy with classroom cash, and three out of five kids couldn’t calculate the correct change for a $1.75 purchase when they paid with a $5 bill. We’d both seen the headlines recently, the studies claiming average general intelligence scores have dropped steadily over the last 30 years, the thinkpieces panicking about widespread loss of reasoning ability. It’s hard not to look at moments like the volcano spill and think, is that what we’re seeing?
I have a 10-year-old son of my own, so I see this play out at home too. Last month, we were running late to soccer practice, and I realized I’d left my water bottle on the kitchen counter. I pulled into the gas station, handed him a $10 bill, and asked him to run in and grab me a bottle. Five minutes later he came back out, red-faced, and said he couldn’t tell the cashier how much change he should get. The cashier just handed it to him and moved on, but my son said he stood there frozen because he’d never had to do that before. All our groceries are ordered for pickup, all our purchases are tap to pay, he’s never stood at a counter and worked out change in his head.
It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that general intelligence is just fading, that kids these days are less capable than previous generations. But the more I watch, the more I think it’s not that the ability is gone—it’s that we never give them a chance to use it. General intelligence, that term that measures problem solving, common sense, and adapting to new situations, is just a muscle. If you never use it, it gets weak. We all outsource small daily problem solving now: our phones give directions, remember our grocery lists, calculate our tips, and tell us exactly what step comes next in any activity. As parents and teachers, we’ve gotten used to removing every obstacle before kids even hit it. We pack their backpacks for them, remind them of every assignment, bring forgotten lunchboxes to school, plan every minute of their day. There’s no space left for them to mess up and figure it out on their own.
I started making small changes in my classroom two years ago, after that first chaotic volcano project. I used to write step-by-step instructions for every lab and project, posted on the board and walked through every step out loud. Now, I just give them the goal and the supplies. For the volcano project, I say “Your job is to build something that holds baking soda and won’t leak when you add vinegar. Here are the supplies. Go.” At first, it’s chaos. Kids complain, they raise their hand every two minutes asking what to do next. But I just say “What do you think you could try?” instead of giving them the answer.
At home, I’ve stuck to the same small, low-effort shifts. When my son says he’s hungry, I don’t hand him a pre-cut snack. I tell him where the apples are, where the kid-safe knife is kept, and let him cut it himself. I don’t remind him three times to pack his soccer bag. If he forgets his cleats, he sits on the bench for practice. When we go out to eat, I let him calculate the tip before I pull out my phone to check. When we walk to the library, I let him lead the way using street signs instead of pulling out Google Maps immediately.
None of these are big, life-altering changes. They don’t require extra time, money, or special training. They just require me to step back and stop doing the small work he can do for himself. I’ve noticed a difference already. Last semester, a group’s volcano leaked all over their tray halfway through the demonstration. Instead of immediately yelling for me to fix it, one of the girls grabbed an extra cup from the supply bin, nested it inside the leaking one, and they kept going. That’s exactly the reasoning skill people talk about when they discuss general intelligence, and she figured it out because I didn’t tell her what to do first.
I still see the gaps, of course. Most kids still can’t tell you how much change you get from $10 for a $3.75 purchase without pulling out a calculator. We still get sticky tables after lab day more often than not. I don’t know if the broad trend of dropping intelligence scores is going to reverse, or if it’s just a sign that we’re measuring the wrong things for how modern life works now. What I do know is that the panic about widespread loss of general intelligence doesn’t help anyone. The solution isn’t yelling at kids for being less capable, it’s just giving them the small, daily chances to practice. It’s not flashy, and it doesn’t fix everything overnight, but it’s working, little by little. We’ll see how it goes from here.
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