Can We All Please Stop Assuming Kids Hate School?
September 12, 2009
So my son’s second-grade teacher has a reward system involving a marble jar. According to my son, if the class behaves satisfactorily, a handful of marbles are placed into the jar. When the jar is full, they get a reward.
Upon hearing this, I sighed. More knee-jerk behaviorism in the classroom. Despite my better judgment, I asked the logical follow-up question.
“So, what’s the class reward when the jar is full?”
My son’s response made me cringe even more: “We don’t have to have any homework for a week.”
Lovely. So we’re basically conceding the notion that homework is unpleasant and is to be avoided whenever possible.
President Obama wasn’t much better in last Tuesday’s speech. Again, there’s a somewhat negative connotation toward attending school: “I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.”
Really? Are we seriously OK with that — with school being a place that everyone dreads?
I’m not OK with that view. I believe that if school — or homework, or assignments, or topics of study — are drudgery, we’re doing something dramatically wrong. School should be a place of joy, discovery, and excitement. Students should say, as some of my former students have commented, “I wish you could hold me back and I could stay in third grade forever!”
Please, to every teacher that reads this, stop doing things that presume that your students dislike school, learning, or studying.
Entry Filed under: Education, Elementary Education, Learning, Secondary Education, Students, Teaching, Third Grade, school. .
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1.
Mathew | September 13, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Yes. I do not use school work as punishment or reward. I do sometimes at the beginning of the year use table points as it works with primary students to get ready quicker. The reward for having the most table points is winning. There’s no other prize that goes with it. (What do the Dodgers get when they win a game? They win the game.) I also get rid of the table points by about winter break.
I think we have to avoid passing our own negative feelings about school on to students.
2.
Rebecca | September 16, 2009 at 7:12 am
You are so right! One school in our state was giving students who did well on the standardized tests up to 5 days off from school. The message that sends is unmistakable.
3.
Debbie | September 29, 2009 at 6:37 pm
I absolutely agree with this article. In my classroom, the students are never allowed to say that they are bored or that a subject is boring. I tell them that learning new things will make them smarter and help them be successful as they continue in their studies and on through adulthood. Since the main goal of most of my students is “to make a lot of money” when they grow up, they are realizing the importance of making the most of their education.
4.
Vince | November 29, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Are you serious? I bet if you ask any high school student, 9 of 10 will say they absolutely despise school. The system is so twisted, school is hardly about learning new things. It’s primarily to study useless information to do well on tests. Kids want to learn what they want, by the time of high school they should be choosing their own subjects (just like college). The main reason why almost every student hates school is because they’re forced to learn about subjects they’re disinterested in.