Why Kids Hate School
Here’s a big question: Why do you think so many students, all over the place, hate going to school?
Is it because algebra is pointless and those symbols and formulas will never be used in the real world?
Is it because history is boring and no one could possibly enjoy learning about something that happened a long time ago?
Is it because poetry is lame, writing is too difficult, and grammar too tedious.
Maybe because knowing how photosynthesis works is stupid, and you don’t need to know science for the world to keep spinning.
Is the content taught in schools worthless, and that is why so many kids loathe being there?
I don’t think so, ask the programmer who wrote the code for this video to be online if algebra is pointless,
Or read the book Night, by Elie Weisel and see if history is still boring when it’s learned as a story that rips your heart out and makes you vow to prevent the evils of the Holocaust from ever happening again.
Or try watching a kid write a poem about their life, their struggles, their journey, and see if poetry is still lame
What about when writing isn’t for a grade or even an assignment, but to actually create something that is used in public. And heck, that might make proper grammar take on a whole new meaning
And do you think penicillin would have been discovered, or the iPhone invented, or the Grey Wolf saved from extinction, or Facebook invented- if no one ever learned a little about science.
The content taught in schools is not boring, and I think most students know that. It’s how this subject matter is often taught that makes kids bored and disengaged. When we remove the inspiration and purpose from these subjects, and boil them down to information to be absorbed from lectures and textbooks, while sitting quietly in rows, school kind of loses its appeal.
So while some say we need to completely rethink school and what is taught there, I think we just need to put some thought into what it looks like.
So here’s a challenge: How can you make learning more meaningful for your students this coming year? How can you make writing authentic, science come alive, or math have purpose?
Chew on that this summer. And go to the beach and drink margaritas and don’t think about school too.
It might take some creativity to answer that question.
But that’s okay, because teaching is a creative profession.
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