A Texas high school teacher tries to make a lesson more exciting by passing out “magic wands” to each group of students. However, she says she feels defeated after her Gen Alpha students broke the school supplies with no remorse.
In a video with over 2million views, TikToker Waste of Humanity (@wasteofhumanity) sits at her desk in her classroom. She holds a jar of multicolored plastic wands with a star at the end of each one.
She explains that she purchased the wands from a teacher store that was going out of business over the summer with her own money.
“This year has been different from any year before,” she says. “We’re reaching a point where something’s got to give.”
What did students do to the magic wands?
She explains that her lesson required students to get into groups and select a leader. Each leader receives a magic wand, and the students take turns being the leader.
“I gave every leader at their table this plastic wand, and I made a whole big to-do about it,” she says. “Today, I watched a child look at me and break it. Broke it right in half.”
The teacher clarifies that the wands weren’t expensive. However, the students still disrespected her by breaking the school supplies she purchased with her own money.
“We could have done this whole activity without the magic wand, but I was trying to make it exciting and fun,” she says. “They don’t care, and they’re not sorry. When I was upset about it, he laughed at me.”
The teacher laments that student behavior is driving more teachers to quit. According to a 2025 report by Devlin Peck, more than half of teachers say they plan to leave the profession sooner than they originally planned to, citing burnout and low compensation.
How did other teachers react?
In the comments, other teachers say they’ve had similar experiences with disrespectful students.
“I work in PRESCHOOL. These kids cuss, throw chairs. They do not care,” one says.
“I am out of pencils. 500 pencils in 9 weeks. They snap them right in front of me then complain when I don’t have one to give,” another writes.
Many chalk it up to poor parenting and a lack of consequences.
“They no longer have the fear of failing classes or grades because they know they will just get pushed on to the next grade… no consequences,” a commenter writes.
“Not all millennials, but a good majority are not raising their kids but instead treating them like friends. it’s baffling to me to hear kids who don’t have a bedtime or get pulled out constantly to go to Disneyland,” another shares.
“And they, admin, and their parents seem to not understand that it is the PRINCIPLE of the thing. idgaf about a cheap, plastic thing, but imagine just breaking something of theirs purposefully. It’s so exhausting,” a third suggests.
@wasteofhumanity For context, I teach high school 9th-12th graders. FOLLOW UP VIDEO: @Waste of Humanity #teachersoftiktok #highschoolteacher #wasteofhumanity #foryoupage #creatorsearchinsights ♬ original sound – Waste of Humanity
The Mary Sue reached out to Waste of Humanity via email for further comment.
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