Classroom disengagement signals Gen‑Z anxiety

Anecdotal but systematic teacher reports — students avoiding eye contact, refusing to speak, declining to sit with friends, needing phone pouches, and re‑learning forgotten material — indicate a durable behavioral shift tied to rising youth anxiety. Taken together, these patterns suggest that mental‑health declines are not only clinical (diagnoses, ER visits) but are reshaping everyday civic skills like debate, memory, and social competence in schools. — If classroom social and participatory norms are eroding across cohorts, the result would affect civic formation, pedagogy, and policy choices about school supports and tech regulation.