The bonkers generation

Screaming, boisterous children are the new norm in schools and teachers have grave fears for our future.

- The writer's name has been withheld.

Consider me, a primary school teacher, your canary in the coalmine: kids have officially become bonkers. I teach in a fairly middle-of-the-road primary with a cross section of cultures, but since returning to teaching in 2018, and especially in the past few years, it seems our tamariki are direct casualties of our increasingly mad world.

Our playground teems with kids constantly screaming. They scream whenever the bell goes. When they're chasing each other. At the merest hint of rain. When sitting side-by-side scoffing sandwiches.

They're screaming and running pell-mell, full-tilt, willy-nilly; tearing up the mobility ramps, howling along narrow pathways, bowling around corners with nary a care, toppling Year Zeros like skittles in their wake. Roving adults are merely mobile cones around which to weave, never mind if they're cradling a hot cuppa.