I remember my drawing lessons in elementary school. But not in art classes, but in music education classes.
And all that, with the blessing of the professor.
Namely, that was our task. The professor plays a piece of classical music, and we express the emotions that the music creates for us through a drawing :-)
It was a long time ago. So long ago that I could easily be classified in the generation of those you write about here:

Sometimes it feels like that is the real trend now, this constant judging and putting down everything modern and praising everything old

However, I've spent my whole life in the company of younger people (younger than me) and I'm not one of those who will say that only "before" was better.
Every time brings new changes and every generation lives them as its own reality.
I believe that today's twenty-year-olds will remember their youth with nostalgia in thirty years, when they will claim that that time was the best...
Of course, everything was better when we were young, but this time is now, for some it is the time of youth and as such, it is the best, with everything it brings.