The Enshittification of Education

The Enshittification of Education: Why We Can’t Pull Our Heads Out of Our ***** and Actually Fix This

Let’s stop pretending.

If you’ve been in education for the last 20–25 years, you already know the truth:
this system didn’t accidentally break.

It was slowly, systematically, predictably enshittified.

Yeah, that word. Use it. Sit with it.

Because it fits.

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Teachers Know. They’ve Always Known.

Walk into any staff room right now and you won’t hear optimism. You’ll hear exhaustion.

Teachers aren’t confused. They’re not “resistant to change.”
They’re not waiting for the next initiative.

They’re done.

They’ve sat through:

• endless PD from people who haven’t taught in decades (if ever)
• “miracle programs” that disappear in two years
• administrators chasing data instead of children
• behavior systems that track problems but never solve them

So what do they do now?

They put their heads down and survive.

Because they know the truth:
nothing being pushed at them is actually designed to fix the problem.

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This Isn’t Failure. It’s Design.

The same way digital platforms get worse over time—
education has followed the exact same playbook.

First, it served students.

Then it served metrics.

Now it serves systems, vendors, and politics.

And just like in tech, the end result is predictable:

• More testing, less learning
• More compliance, less humanity
• More data, less wisdom
• More noise, less truth

We didn’t drift here.

We were engineered here.

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Meanwhile, Kids Are Showing Up… Not Ready for Life

Let’s talk about the part everyone whispers about but avoids saying out loud.

Kids are coming to school:

• without basic social skills
• without emotional regulation
• without language development
• without the ability to focus

And why?

Because we’ve created a society where:

• parents are working 2–3 jobs just to survive
• screens have replaced human interaction
• early childhood is outsourced to tablets

That’s not a parenting failure.

That’s a system failure.

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The U.S. Is Playing a Different Game—and Losing

Here’s the uncomfortable comparison:

Other countries:

• provide free or heavily subsidized preschool
• offer structured early childcare starting as young as 18 months
• invest in play, movement, socialization, and real human development

Some systems look like Montessori.
Some focus on outdoor play.
Some delay academics entirely.

But they all agree on one thing:

Build the human first.

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And the United States?

• No universal preschool
• No guaranteed childcare
• Half-day kindergarten in places like Arizona
• Overcrowded classrooms
• Underprepared students

Then we act shocked when schools struggle.

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And Then We Blame Teachers (Of Course We Do)

When the system cracks, who takes the hit?

Not policymakers.
Not corporations.
Not the people who designed the system.

Teachers.

Always teachers.

Blame them for:

• test scores
• behavior
• gaps
• outcomes

While ignoring:

• poverty
• early childhood neglect
• systemic underfunding
• policy decisions decades in the making

It’s absurd.

And deep down, everyone knows it.

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The AI Irony

Here’s the twist:

The one thing that might actually help—AI—
is about to go through the exact same cycle.

It’ll start:

• helpful
• innovative
• transformative

And then?

It’ll be packaged.
Monetized.
Standardized.
Watered down.

Until it becomes just another tool used on teachers instead of for them.

Because we haven’t fixed the system.
We’ve just plugged in new technology.

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**So Why Can’t We Pull Our Heads Out of Our ***?

Because real change would require:

• investing in early childhood (expensive)
• trusting teachers (threatening to power structures)
• reducing testing (politically risky)
• addressing poverty (systemically difficult)
• rethinking school entirely (radical)

Instead, we choose:

• quick fixes
• buzzwords
• new programs
• recycled ideas

Because those are easier to sell.

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The Truth Nobody Wants to Say

We are not failing to fix education because we don’t know how.

We are failing because:

the current system benefits too many people to change.

And until that’s confronted head-on,
we’ll keep watching the same cycle repeat:

New idea → hype → rollout → failure → blame teachers → repeat

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So What Now?

Teachers already know.

They’re not waiting anymore.

They’re surviving inside a system they no longer believe in.

And unless we’re willing to:

• rebuild early childhood from the ground up
• restore dignity to teaching
• prioritize human development over data
• and actually invest in kids before they hit kindergarten

Nothing changes.

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Not the outcomes.
Not the burnout.
Not the slow, grinding enshittification of the entire system.

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And the worst part?

We’ll keep pretending we don’t see it happening.

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If you want, I can turn this into a designed infographic or a publish-ready Substack/Medium layout—this one has real viral potential in education circles.