Why does school suck? We teach it to suck.
Why is school such a drag? Why are students so relieved when school is out? How, as educators, did we screw this one up so badly? I mean, what could be more fun than spending time with your friends and being exposed to a wide range of useful information through activities instead of working for a living. If kids werent forced to go to school, they certainly never would.
Another satisfied customer.
Yet, learning is the most natural thing for a child to do, and we are scratching our heads wondering how we are going to get them to do it. How could an organization be so badly managed?
Joel Kline, the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education recently said: “If they ran Google the way we run public schools they would shut it down tomorrow”. Google doesnt seem to have any problems attracting participants. They are wildly successful, well managed and have a staff of motivated, creative people. Why are they so successful? One reason is that they are nothing like the education system.
Throughout school, students are told that if they buckle down, do as they’re told and study the material, they will be successful in life. Those who do not comply will get the bad jobs, those who do will get the good jobs. But when they enter the real world they quickly realize that their academic credentials are almost worthless. If they are lucky, they someday realize that real success comes from doing something you enjoy with motivation and creativity. Three things that were never covered in school.
Anyone who has watched the game-show “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader” can see how little of the content knowledge covered in school actually gets learned in any meaningful way. So what were we learning that whole time? What were we doing squandering our youth in stuffy classrooms, when we could have been enjoying our short and precious youth?
Einstein once said: “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.” So what is school for? That is for each person to answer for themselves. At worst it has taught us to be dependent on schools to learn. It has placed an invisible monopoly on learning. Without school there is no meaningful learning. Academia is sacred, anything else is marginal. It has driven this notion so deep that it is difficult for most people to learn without a proper context.
What would we do without an education monopoly? Catastrophe.
This doctrine is so important, that it must be forced upon its pupils through standardized curriculum. It can only be applied through rigorous behavioural training. Most of all it requires the implementation of a set of values that will sustain it over generations.
Sadly, it teaches us that hard work and discipline are virtues. And we end up believing it without question. Fun is frivolous. Seriousness is serious. Fun and learning dont mix. It cant all be fun and games, out there the world is tough. Bla Bla Bla . Bullshit. We were taught to think that, and we can be taught not to think it.
The good news is that as a result everyone gets a pretty good education. Who could argue with that? People need educations. There is so much stuff to learn. The other result is that over time we forget how to learn by ourselves. We become dependent on schools to give us the knowledge we need. And as adults, when the time comes to seek new knowledge, we invariably turn to schools for help. Or we simply stop learning altogether.
If Einstein was right, then school leaves us with the lesson that learning is strictly dependent on toil through institutionalization. But its not true. If Google were running the show, learning would be fun. Students would be motivated to come to school and eager to learn. Schools would be run efficiently, cost effectively, maybe even profitably.
I have taught ESL to both children and adults. The instructional strategies in both classrooms are the same with one important difference. Adults need to be convinced that they are learning, kids need to be convinced that they are not. The more schooling an individual has had, the more serious the learning has to appear. The more schooling they have had, the harder it is to teach them. That doesnt sound right to me.
If students are not learning anything in class then why not? They would learn if they cared, or if they were motivated. If you are a teacher, ask yourself this: What is keeping students from enjoying their learning experience? Whatever it is, whether it is the materials, the fact that it is happening in a classroom, too much work, not relevant, too many students, not interesting, seats too uncomfortable, too much material to be covered, whatever it is, its wrong.
Where the learning is really going on
Dont worry about other teachers, just look at what you do. Whether its the teachers fault, or the school boards fault, or the fault of education itself, whatever. If learning is really the point here, then the thing that doesnt work has to go. That is something that you can control. There is a better way to do it, there is always a better way. Its not enough to say there is nothing to be done. If this were a business in that “real world” we are supposed to be preparing students for, then we would have to solve this problem. If we dont, then maybe Google should be running it instead.
Dude,
What a great platform you`ve created! So much in line with your institutionally enhanced mind ; ).
Well done!
Milan
Its true, my enhanced view of institutional education is due to my years spent in enhanced educational institutions.
school sucks i dont blame any kid if they blow up a school when no ones in it
Hmmm. I work in an elementary school where the kids are so young they still really LOVE learning! They LOVE coming to school! They hate to leave at the end of the day. What could be the difference here? We have our share of traditional learning as well as a good bit of hands-on, non-traditional learning. My teachers and I believe in “whatever it takes” to get them engaged and learning. I agree that much can be done to change schools as they are to bring them “into the 21st Century” (whatever that means!), but I can’t join you in thinking that education sucks. We love it at my school!
Clarification: Education doesnt suck. The school system sucks. Im glad to hear that you are starting your kids off with an enjoyable learning experience. Hopefully their enjoyment will last through their teenage years.
You know, school sucks for the same reason prison sucks…it kills liberty.
This is why no remedy exists for it other than to abolish it.
The institution of slavery was abolished. Why not public school?
Right on dude!
Learning can and should be more fun! Except that, let’s face it, not all of what you learn can be turned into fun and we should also be careful that we’re not going too far with “edutainment” either. I hope you don’t think teaching people that “hard work and discipline are virtues” is wrong and necessarily clashes with fun?
Some people realize that sometimes you have to suck it up and memorize your times tables or whatever the modern equivalent is today. What makes them do it, is that they are motivated to, as you mention.
But what makes them motivated? Here we are at the bedrock. Tons of possibilities there from family and socio-economic background, contemporary cultural trends, as well as educational practices and institutions. Some think that telling them “do this so you can get a good job after” works. Maybe on some. But this is also saying: “what you’re learning has no value in itself. It’s just so you can get a good job”. I tell my kids, what they’re learning will NOT get them jobs and it is USELESS, just to make clear that there’s something more to education, more permanent and of lasting value than what’s useful to get a job. Later I show (I hope) that there may be something of value to such “useless things” after all!
Maybe if I could do a better job of transmitting _this_ idea, I’d find one key to motivating them, even if it involves a not so fun slog sometimes!
Thanks for the thoughts – but what does all this have to do with “seasteading“?
Thanks for your Twitter reply with the link to this post, which I have already answered.
I guess I have been doing a lot of thinking since reading a blog post asking us all as ESL teachers to remember what it was like to be a language learner, the message being that we were certainly bored to tears by a grammar-driven curriculum.
A lot of people answered “au contraire,” and it was a very interesting debate.
As a teacher, I may feel teaching grammar is not the most exciting aspect of language teaching, and maybe my students are bored if I teach it too much — which means I avoid it, or limit it.
But the truth is “as a language learner” grammar was necessary to me as I mastered French. I live in France now and I think I apply things I learned in college grammar classes on a daily basis, and I can feel the difference between myself and other colleagues who just picked French up on site.
Is that an important difference? Certainly not always, but in some cases it is. It has certainly facilitated my social, personal and professional integration here to be able to use the language at a near-native speaker level.
My reflection moved on to studying…of course I’d like to think that my classes are motivating, pedagogical and just generally brilliant enough that students can learn the material without tedious studying, but is that really the case for most of them?
I go back to the “when I was a language learner” analysis and there is no way, absolutely no way, I could have progressed in French the way I did without studying.
I’m not saying there aren’t other ways to learn — I encourage my students to engage in all sorts of non-studying language activities outside of class — but sometimes, as a previous commenter suggested, I feel like “they have to get down to it.”
Life is not a Disney ride, and neither is learning. But that doesn’t mean that life is not a motivating adventure…and I feel learning should be the same. Isn’t there a combination of hard work and exhilirating moments of freedom in both?
I also learned French while living in France (and Geneva), so I feel for you. To make a sweeping generalization from experience, there is little tolerance for imperfect French in France. Culturally, they value precise language usage over basic communication skills. This doctrine is emphasized in their very rigid and standardized Napoleonic school system. To meet these expectations, there is a fair bit of buckling down needed to get it right. I dont feel the same applies with English. We are much more accustomed to a wide variety of language applications. Not only are there countless native accents, but so many ESL users that we have become very open to irregularities. I had no idea that English even had grammar until I learned French.
Currently, the vast majority of my students at HEC Montreal have come out of the school system in France. They often approach me with technical grammar questions, but I always respond with examples and usages (frankly I dont know the proper grammatical terms). On a meta-cognitive level it may be confusing at first, but in the long run it makes more sense. They seem to find it a refreshing change from the austere methods in France. After all, if I can speak English without knowing grammar rules, so can they.
Also check out http://wp.me/ptcfd-p for more on ESL training.
Interesting — I definitely agree with you on the tolerance point. It’s hard for non-native French speakers to get professional-level jobs unless their French is nearly perfect. I suppose this is less true in Great Britain, the US or Canada with their history of immigration/integration.
I’m not so sure, though, that French presents specific grammar hurdles for a non-native speaker that English doesn’t. But it’s hard to make that judgment since I’m not a non-native English speaker.
It is interesting to note that I am finding I have a certain number of students now who make fewer mistakes in their written English than in their written French…but that’s another story!
“Adults need to be convinced that they are learning, kids need to be convinced that they are not.” Nailed that one!
As I understand it, the French are doing poorly against other European nations in language education. Is that the case, and if so, do you think their particular style of education is ill-suited to language education?
The abolition of the school is an exhilarating notion… but I think teachers often make the mistake of believing that mainstream education is about learning. Of course, it isn’t. It’s about keeping people in the appropriate social position, and money.
(Maybe ;-P)
You are correct, the French are doing poorly against the rest of Europe in language education. A number of factors are at work, to my mind huge class sizes, a “text”-oriented approach in high school that often drops oral work altogether, and a generally top-down system that favors mastery of specific content over skills…just to name a few.
My students from France have been giving me the same reports; lots of reading and dictations, but almost no speaking. Those who have good English skills have mostly benefited from foreign exchange programs or special tutoring. Sadly, many here in Quebec also suffer from poor English skills, but often that is due to an overall culturally-imposed xenophobic rejection of anything non-French.
Ambitious students and ones from elitist families are very conscious of the realities of the world. They waste no time depending on public school to bring them up to speed and have taking English learning into their own hands.
I was both inspired and disgusted with this article as it reminded me of the reason I decided to become an educator and the continuing challenges I face to change the pedantic pedagogical model described here.
By far the best mentor I have had was Brent Cameron of the “Wondertree Learning Foundation”. His book about his process in created the Wondertree Learning Centers titled, “Self Design” addresses these points and provides some practical solutions.
Check it out at http://www.wondertree.org
Wondertree is right up my alley. Thanks for the link.
This should be required reading for every leadership team in every school. Thanks!
Thanks for the kind words. While I could never wholeheartedly get behind such a notion as “required reading”, I’d be delighted if you “strongly recommended” it to your colleagues. 🙂
I love this article. I can agree with it so much. I had a teacher in seventh grade who always complained (Read: lectured) when a student received a C. According to him, you’d be homeless and you would never make anything of your life because of the low grade you received when you were twelve. And some parents are just as bad. You get a D? No fun for you, instead of actually talking it out.
Its a tragedy that a student’s inability to live up to the stringent expectations of a competitive learning environment is blamed squarely on the student. A child is, by nature, intrinsically motivated to learn. Any learning environment that cannot keep up with the needs of a child or stifles their development is robbing them of what is rightfully theirs.
I agree with every sentence
So if your a Google employee, you only have to work if you feel that what your doing is entertaining? They must have some pretty dirty toilets. I love teaching, but I don’t enjoy grading. In your world that mean I don’t need to grade.
As a teacher it is understood that the content I’m teaching is not the most valuable part of my lesson. It is through my content that I educate my students on the life skills that they will need to survive in the 21st century. Students leave my classroom having learned skills such as persistence, organization, and cooperation, just to name a few. I am well aware that 10 years from now many of my students will no longer have any idea how to find all the roots of a cubic polynomial, but I do hope they have retained the life skills that I work hard to instill in them.
Nobody should have to clean a toilet. Our goal as a society should be to eradicate all such jobs. The sooner we produce a generation that can invent and produce a toilet that does not need to be cleaned, the better. Our generation it seems is still stuck on the idea that such drudgery plays a healthy role in our society. Yet none of us would think of going back to the living standards endured even a century ago. While persistence, organization and cooperation are important values to instill and model, we overlook moral values such as free-association and self-determination. We tend to hold on to aging notions of settling for our lot in life, accepting our limitations and grooming ourselves to work within a system, when we could be teaching our students how to cultivate their audacity and how to command their own learning process. Those, I believe, are 21st century skills.
I mean, what could be more fun than spending time with your friends and being exposed to a wide range of useful information through activities instead of working for a living. If kids werent forced to go to school, they certainly never would.
I HAVNT LEARNED SHIT WORTH KNOWING SINCE FIFTH GRADE.
hey i go toa public high school in south dakota it is very sad, i am a junoir about to be a senior and over the past years i have fully realized theat almost everything i am learning here is pointless and they way they are teaching the student is so fake, fake in the sense that no one really cares what we do for our future or what classes they give use. not only that but every year they are increasing how many credits the student need i need 24 next years classes need 26 next years freshmen need more. this is the most insane way of teaching i can possibly think of. drop out rates are going to be past the roof. the school i am in is only about 120 ish students includeing the alternetive school which i am considering to go to becuase this place is getting under my skin. of course there is acouple of teachers that are not fake but the school bord and goverment budgets make them be fake, o yea we are also broke our old superentendent spent way to much money on a useless gym why can we vote on what our budget will do. i just think that needs to be a rapid change or our youth will be lost in a fake would which will disrupt our future no kid should hate school as much as i have seen poeple hate it. i also hate when the teachers say i know this sucks but every has to do it WHAT if you understand why it sucks why is no one changeing it why do i wake up every morning to be here by 7:30 tell 3:00 fivw days a week wasting my life which believe it or not teens have lifes, but any way come here to be a student to teachers who know io will not remember 50% of the stuff they are forceing me to memorize will there is my two cents comeing from a fellow youth
PS this is my school computer and i hope this is recorded somewere
I hope it comforts you to know that your hatred and confusion towards your school system is a healthy one. You clearly dislike wasting your time in an institution while you could be doing something more genuine with your time. The fact that you think this way means that you are sane and that your spirit is not yet broken.
The saddest part of it all is that there are good teachers out there, there are amazing thinks to learn, and there are ways to teach them in an interesting way. But teachers usually become teachers because of how well they complied with the system. The public school system is designed to only create and attract bad teachers.
Your experience in school is miserable because it is designed to be. In the real world learning is a beautiful thing, work is something we are passionate about and success is something that you judge for yourself. School will try to tell you otherwise, but they are trying to break you.
My advice to you, finish your prison sentence as quietly as you can. In the meantime, find something that you like, whatever it is, no matter how ridiculous it may seem, and throw yourself into it completely. That is where the real school is.
I am a student myself, 5th grade actually. I agree with we need more fun in our education, but the school sucks part? I disagree. It isn’t school, it isn’t the school board, it isn’t the idea of the public school system! It’s really, the teachers. Adults, I want you to look back and think if you’ve ever had a teacher who had just gotten out of college, you know a FRESH MOTIVATED teacher. Was that your favorite? Or maybe the one who was very encouraging, maybe funny, nice, and disciplined you the way maybe your parent did. You know a kid loves you ( this goes for the girl teachers ), when she accidently calls you ‘Mom’ when she’s raising her hand.
My best teacher, was to me perfect. The best compliment she EVER gave me was, “You remind me of myself, when I was younger.” I even counted every time she said that. 3 times in the whole year, and it was still enough to motivate me to love the work I did, check it, TWICE ( which I never did because I always thought it was stupid ), and be the best student and leader I could be.
I have an idea for all the teachers out there…. why don’t you ask your students individualy how THEY think you should treat them, what THEY think is wrong with school, what THEY think would motivate them to work better. And if they say things like “Give me a cookie every time I do a good thing!” don’t believe them. That means you need to do what most teachers fail to do. GET TO KNOW YOUR STUDENTS. Don’t treat them as your enemy, don’t treat every student VERY differently, because other students might think that , that particular student get’s the most attention.
To summarize, follow the rules you CONSTANTLY tell your students to follow. Don’t look at a student as just another kid, because that’s offended. But then again, don’t treat them as your peer. Treat them somewhere in-between. This may not work for all, but I think it would work for us.
( Also, depending on the age, ask a student what’s the main thing they look for in a friend, and try and act like that. Because I know one thing, if a kid LIKES you they respect you WAY more. )
Its always great to hear from actual students. Thank you for your insightful comments. I admire kids from your generation who think about school as something they are involved in and they should have a say in. Unfortunately even teachers with the best intentions are eventually broken by the system they are in. When I was a student, the idea of having a say in my education was considered ridiculous and even dangerous. By demanding shared responsibility in your education, you are a rare voice of reason and progress in education.
I am a seventh grade student, and I have to say that school SHOULD be fun. And its not so much the learning content or the teachers. Think about this for a minute, everyone remembers stuff from our second grade classes. We remember how to add, how many states there are, and the names of the states. But school back then was less strenuous, and more FUN. What I think people don’t realise is that without the FUN in school kids won’t be able to learn. For example, last year’s school experience was the worst. We only read the facts out of the books, and wrote reports and stuff like that. You know what I remembered from last year? I sure as heck didn’t remember any of the content, and don’t say it was because I was stupid, I had an A average in every class minus one. What I remembered was the pain in my hand, the horrible school lunches, and the strict rules of school. I also remembered telling my friend that my motto was, “I want to go home!” Because I had said it almost every other day.
But you know what’s funny? This year we have more freedom and creativity and I can tell you that I remember that the order of operations is parenthesis, exponents, multiplication or division, and then addition or subtraction or that volume is measured by liters in the metric system. AND I recognize the USEFUL stuff, like that cooperation and organization is IMPORTANT in the real world.
Just imagine if everyone got that out of school. And yes that means both the teachers, the school board, and the students should put in the effort to make school more enjoyable for everyone. And to the government, if you want to have the BEST education, don’t way the kids down with stressful work, because all they will remember is the stress itself. If you make it more fun, though I do realise you can’t make everything fun, I think that kids will try harder and learn more, without even noticing it themselves.
Isn’t that how a youth’s life should be, include fun and vital information?
No one likes learning in a cold classroom with a old teacher who doesnt know how to shut up. NO ONE LIKES READING!!!!
I agree with all of you. I’m going into fifth grade this year, and I’ll just say that my fourth grade year SUCKED. At my school you start switching classes and that makes no sense to me. And we had science twice a week for a half hour!!! We had math for 2 hours and 5 minutes. Then it turned into 2 hours and 15 minutes. Then 2 hours and a half. WE HAD TOO MUCH MATH. >:[
I’m in 5th grade and my math teacher is SO NICE!!!!:D We only have 15-20 min of homework!!! The problem is my homeroom teacher. Try 1 hour or 2
The only thing I think is good about school is that I meet most of my friends there. I mean, you can’t just walk up to someones door and say “Do you wanna be my friend?” I make mostly all of my friends in school because they were in my class. Otherwise, this is the greatest work of art I’ve ever seen.
We need to learn to follow rules and learn things for no reason because our work ethic demands it. Our world demands that work ethic for no other reason than because it can. The bullshit of the real world IS bullshit, but it is also REAL.