{"id":121296,"date":"2026-07-03T01:30:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T01:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/121296\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T01:30:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T01:30:32","slug":"gen-z-is-the-first-generation-less-cognitively-capable-than-their-parents-but-denmark-has-a-solution-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/121296\/","title":{"rendered":"Gen Z is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents but Denmark has a solution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly every parent hopes their child will be better off than they are: smarter, more secure, and more well-adjusted. Many parents see this as a stamp of successful parenting, but something has changed for children growing up today.<\/a> While younger generations are known for their empathy<\/a>, their cognitive capabilities seem to be lagging behind those of previous generations<\/a> for the first time in history.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath<\/a>, a teacher turned cognitive neuroscientist who focuses on human learning, appeared before Congress to discuss concerns about cognitive development in children<\/a>. In his address to the members of Congress, he says, \u201cA sad fact that our generation has to face is this: our kids are less cognitively capable than we were at their age<\/a>. Since we\u2019ve been standardizing and measuring cognitive development since the late 1800s, every generation has outperformed their parents, and that\u2019s exactly what we want. We want sharper kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"kids,Student smiling in a classroom, working on a laptop. Photo credit: Canva<\/a><\/p>\n

So what\u2019s actually causing the decline?<\/p>\n

Horvath explains that the reason this happens is that each generation has gone to school longer than the previous generation. Gen Z is no exception to the longer duration of time spent in school, but they\u2019re the first ones who aren\u2019t meeting this normal increase in cognitive development. According to the cognitive neuroscientist, the decline is due to the introduction of screens in the classroom<\/a>, which started around 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross 80 countries, if you look at the data, once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly<\/a>. To the point where kids who use computers about five hours per day in school for learning purposes will score over two-thirds of a standard deviation less than kids who rarely or never touch tech at school,\u201d Horvath reveals.<\/p>\n

In most cases, the decline in performance doesn\u2019t result in better strategies. The neuroscientist shares that the standardized testing has been adjusted to accommodate lower expectations and shorter attention spans<\/a>. This is an approach that educators, scientists, and researchers went to Capitol Hill<\/a> to express wasn\u2019t working. But not every country is taking the approach of lowering standards to meet lowered cognitive ability. Denmark went in the opposite direction when it realized their students were slipping behind.<\/p>\n

Denmark decided to do something about it<\/p>\n

France24 recently interviewed educators in Denmark following their seemingly novel approach to students struggling with cognitive development. Since the beginning of the 2025\/2026 school year, Denmark has not only been having students turn in their cellphones<\/a>, but they\u2019ve also taken tablets, laptops, and computers out of the classroom. No more digital learning for the majority of the school day. Danes went old school by bringing back physical textbooks<\/a>, workbooks, and writing assignments. The results have been undeniable. Even the students can\u2019t seem to deny the success of the countrywide shift in educational approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest issue has been that, because we kind of got rid of the books and started using screens instead, that we\u2019ve noticed that a lot of the kids have trouble concentrating, so it\u2019s pretty easy to swipe with three fingers over to a different screen and have a video game going, for example, in class,\u201d Copenhagen English teacher, Islam Dijab tells France24.<\/p>\n

Now, instead of computers being part of every lesson, Denmark uses computers very sparingly and with strict supervision. One student says that it has been nice not having screen time at school because she loves to read and write. But it wasn\u2019t just the lack of attention span children were developing, they were also developing low self-esteem and poor mental health due to the amount of time spent on devices.<\/p>\n

And the effort goes beyond the classroom<\/p>\n

The data showing the negative impact of screens on teens\u2019 brains has prompted a nationwide change in Denmark that extends outside of the classroom. Afterschool activities are eliminating or extremely limiting electronic use. There is also a national No Phone Day that encourages everyone to put away their devices for the day, and Imran Rashid, a physician and digital health expert, is petitioning parliament to ban social media<\/a> use for children under the age of 15. The no phone movement in Denmark is a nationwide effort that hopes to right the ship before another generation feels the effects.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly every parent hopes their child will be better off than they are: smarter, more secure, and more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[59344,59911,59912,27,26,59913,59914,440,59915,16129,59916,59917,59918,59919,59920,59921,59922,59923,59924,59925,32472,239,59926],"class_list":["post-121296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denmark","tag-cognitive-development","tag-cognitive-development-concerns","tag-cognitive-neuroscientist-address","tag-danmark","tag-denmark","tag-denmark-educational-solution","tag-digital-technology-performance","tag-education","tag-educational-approach-shift","tag-gen-z","tag-generation-cognitive-decline","tag-generation-cognitive-improvement","tag-lowered-expectations-standardized-testing","tag-mental-health-devices-use","tag-nationwide-electronic-limiting","tag-no-phone-movement","tag-parenting-success-stamp","tag-physical-textbooks-approach","tag-screen-classroom-introduction","tag-screen-time-impact","tag-social-media-ban","tag-technology","tag-teens-social-media"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}