It’s weird to think about, but Gen Zers are not just entering the workforce— they’re being tasked with leading the next generation. Recent education grads in their early 20s are now standing in front of high school classrooms filled with teens just barely younger than themselves.
It’s always been this way, of course. Teaching has typically attracted young professionals who aim to carve out long careers in education. But there’s just something about adults these days. It’s hard to put your finger on, but they just look…younger. Sometimes, they even look indistinguishable from their own students.
“Spot the teacher” trend with young teacher is shockingly hard
Schools all over the world are having fun with the viral “spot the teacher” trend.
These videos feature lineups of students from the school, with one teacher lurking incognito among them, dressed similarly for disguise. In many cases, it’s almost impossible to figure out which person is the adult and which ones are teenagers.
One Instagram video from The Jackson Preparatory School in Mississippi was so tough, it racked up over 30 million views. Can you solve it?
If you picked the young social studies teacher in the blue baseball hoodie, congratulations!
Some viewers were able to crack the code, but many fell for the red herrings: number one in glasses and number five in the “teachery” quarter-zip.
The school was kind enough to post the reveal and end everyone’s agony over the correct choice.
Here’s another head-scratcher with nearly 3 million views
This one comes from the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, an all-boys preparatory boarding school.
There are tons of red herrings in this one. We’ve got a wedding band, a bow tie, an academic-style jacket, and suspects who are barely containing their laughter. Frankly, they all look guilty.
The school never posted an official reveal, but sleuths in the comments figured out that the culprit was none other than Mr. Eiselstein, the math teacher. He’s number five in the lineup.
Shockingly, he’s not a first-year teacher, but has been teaching full time at the school since 2020, per his LinkedIn profile.
Here’s one more super challenging one
Just kidding. It was only a matter of time before people started having a little bit of fun with the trend.
Why do adults look so much younger now?
It’s a much-discussed phenomenon that adults—even 30-, 40-, or 50-year-olds—seem to look a lot younger than they did decades ago.
There are a lot of factors that play into this. For starters, cigarette usage has dropped dramatically, and skincare and sunscreen use have increased. Simply put, we take a bit better care of ourselves now than previous generations did, and it often shows.
More crucially, though, is the way adults dress. Men used to wear suits and women wore dresses almost every day without fail. When you take a 23-year-old guy and put him in a hoodie and jeans, he won’t look much different from your average high schooler.
The concept that people looked older at a younger age in the past is called retrospective aging. A lot of it is based on our own perception—black-and-white photos, grainy video footage, out-of-date fashion—but there is some science behind it. Ivy League research suggests humans are aging more slowly now than ever before.
However, as commenters point out, there are always tells that someone is a teacher, no matter how young their face looks. It’s the subtle things, like the deep exhaustion behind their eyes or a gentle, knowing wisdom painted on their face. Or it could be the lack of the signature high-schooler broccoli haircut.
It’s hard not to wonder what teachers will look like in another 20 or 30 years and whether “spot the teacher” challenges in a few decades will be completely unsolvable.
