Going on TikTok would lead one to believe that Generation Alpha listens to nothing but highly-caffeinated remixes of popular songs. Not so, says one middle school teacher.


In a video shared on X/Twitter, this teacher says that her students requested that she play a song. No, it wasn’t the one where Lil Nas X stamps his ticket to hell — instead, it was John Denver’s classic track “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”


Initially, one may think that this was just a suggestion from that weird kid who keeps saying he was “born in the wrong generation.” However, as the song plays, it quickly becomes clear that everyone, middle schoolers included, can’t get enough of the Denver.



“I’m so confused,” the teacher says. As the video continues and the childrens’ singing gets louder, her shock increases. Even after she turns the volume down, the kids keep singing, belting their hearts out for a country road they’ve likely never seen.



While the children likely don’t know this, what makes the situation better is just how cool of a dude John Denver was. He was a conservationist, famously testified alongside Frank Zappa and Dee Snider in favor of protecting the freedom of speech rights of musicians, and when he died in 1997, he did so in a plane he built himself that the FAA had previously banned him from flying.


Like I said, cool dude.



We can’t be sure why the kids of today have such an appreciation for Denver’s famous track, but it’s safe to say we like it — at least until TikTok ruins it by making a sped-up version.