5 timeless behaviours of youth that show we're not so different

How times haven't changed

Welcome to How to be a Teacher. Every week, I share the expertise of my colleagues and reveal what I’ve learned recently from their 70+ years of experience.

This week, a few things have come to my attention. Sometimes, they annoy me because they represent my students not doing what they should be. But a little mindset shift and I suddenly see a lot of myself - and all of us of, whatever our generation - in their choices, and I feel hopeful about the future.

Enjoy.

Image generated by me on DeepAI

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Youth is something I never wanna take for granted. I just want to smile and live life. - Tyler the Creator

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Retrospecs.

We all wear them. We all look back on ‘our day’ with them. And we’re especially guilty of doing this with children.

Once you became an adult, you donned your first pair of retrospecs, glared judgingly through them at today’s cherubs and bemoaned the collapse of respectable social norms. I guarantee it.

‘Our day’ was always the best day, whether we’re 25 or 95.

Well, beleaguered adult - don’t give up on the modern little terrors just yet. Not everything has changed.

Here are 5 things we all used to do that I still see and hear amongst the youth of today.

1. Gullible on the ceiling

An absolute classic. You only fall for this once and you feel like a fool when you do.

“Hey, Jack, look - someone’s written gullible on the ceiling!” You cast your eyes up and BAM - the cool kids start laughing. There’s no coming back from that one.

Worse still, to find some social clout, you try it on someone else and find they already know the trick.

Image courtesy of Agnes Callard on X

What I find incredible is that children have tried it with me this year, as if they invented it. Come on guys, how do you think it got to you lot?

2. Obsession with cool words

Sigma. Skibidi. Aura.

If you work around children, you’ve heard these and won’t have a clue what the heck they’re on about. It’s like they’re speaking in some secret code designed to stop you from knowing what’s going on.

But you remember doing the same, right? My generation had words like ‘cool’ and ‘fit’ and ‘insane’. Before that, you had ‘trendy’ and ‘groovy’ (which I personally think should make a comeback).

Say what you want - you were at it as a kid, and they’re doing the same.

Top tip: learn what these words mean and allow them. Some children in other classes in my school practically define me and my immense ‘aura’ by the fact that I engage.

And they remember other teachers who ban them, too - but in a very different light.

They’re not ‘sigma’. They’re not even skibidi. And they have no aura.

3. The yes/no rubber

For the first time this year, we’ve handed rubbers out for children to keep in their pencil cases.

There’s not a week goes by that I don’t see at least one of them being gently lofted a few inches above the table to see whether it lands on one of the words written on its six sides - yes, no or maybe.

Image courtesy of a 90s Nostalgia Blog

Remember that?

I don’t remember seeing a rubber in my youth that didn’t have that written on it.

And, to this day, it children still do it.

4. Boioioioioing

Once you discover this one, it becomes SO addictive.

Line your plastic ruler up so half of it hangs off the table, give the hanging end a twang and gleefully watch it wibble.

Yes, kids still do this.

Image courtesy of Ingrid Science

What I find amazing - and I, too, was guilty of this - is that they completely forget the science of sound. Part of what makes this so addictive is the funny ‘boioioioioing’ you can hear when you do it.

Newsflash - your teacher can hear it too!

5. Knee slides

School discos were one of the highlights of the year in my day.

And, having invented the disco, generations before me revered them with much the same levels of enthusiasm.

You’ll be delighted to hear that they’re still a thing.

And, somehow, the knee slide has survived long into the modern day, too.

GIF courtesty of r/Liverpoolfc on Reddit

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The best part

What can we learn from this?

There’s no escaping the influence phones, tablets and screens are having on day-to-day life in 2025. Whether it’s the children themselves or their adults around them, they’re a constant factor of life when they simply weren’t for previous generations like mine.

But there’s a crumb of comfort. Maybe even a whole slice.

The lesson here is to remember what you were like in school. Remember what you used to get up to. Remember, you were once the same.

Why?

Well, you can chastise and lament and tell off the children in your classrooms for these (I’ll admit, rule-bending) behaviours as they reinforce their determination for them to break away from your influence.

Or you can remind them politely not to lose focus, have a little laugh about how you used to do the same and crack on with the lesson at hand.

If you do that, they’ll see a little of themselves in you (and probably feel shocked and elated to realise the connection) and respect you all the more for it.

And with respect comes the willingness to listen to what you say.

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