Bored in school

My ears perk as I hear a 17-year-old girl say, "It was boring. That's why I begged my mom to homeschool me," speaking to her same-aged boyfriend. Having time to kill as my take-and-bake pizza is being made, I slide across the room and sit on the bench next to the couple to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"You're stupid; elementary school was the best time of my life," the boy offers with curious condemnation. "You get recess, the teachers are cool and it is fun," the boy attempts to convince with little success. "Not for me," the girl offers. "The teachers are mean, kids make fun of me and hate it."

I sit wondering if I should interject? As an elementary principal and mental health therapist, the desire to explore thess polar opposite memories of an elementary school experience is intriguing. I wonder about both kids' home-life, socioeconomic background and parenting, amount of nurturing, peer interactions and motivation. I wonder if either kid has siblings and if his or her siblings feel the same as they do?

The pizza-builder calls my name. Wishing to continue my voyeurism on this interesting case study, I hold up my index finger to the girl behind the counter and acknowledge that I need a minute before I can retrieve my dinner. She nods and I continue to listen.

The boy, with piercings on his lip and nose asks, "What do you plan to do when you 'graduate' your computer high school?" The girl, whose face mirrors the boy's with piercings, shrugs and offers, "I don't know, marry a rich dude?"

"Great career aspiration," the boy snickers sarcastically. The girl punches him in the arm and they laugh. "So, why did you hate elementary school?" the boy asks again. The girl simply states, "I was bored."

Now I interject, "So, the job of an elementary school teacher is to entertain you?" The words jump from my mouth before my internal filter stops them. Both boy and girl turn quickly to me surprised at my response.

"No," the boy and girl sputter in unison. After my interjection, the couple becomes mute. Sitting uncomfortably on the same bench, we all look straight ahead until the pizza-builder calls, "Alexis." The couple jumps from the bench as if on-fire, grab their pizza and as the girl behind the counter says, "Thank you," they quickly drive away.

The statement, "So, the job of an elementary school teacher is to entertain you?" haunts me. I asked this question of this young couple before thinking and now wonder; what is a teacher's job? Fun? Sometimes, but fun comes at a price.

How can a teacher create fun in her classroom while still teaching the necessary skills for a child to be prepared for his future? The struggle lies in the definition. When a student says he is bored what he really means is the instruction is too difficult or not engaging.

For the child who describes school as boring because he struggles academically, I suggest searching for the reason for the struggle. Assessing a student for a disability or monitoring the child to discover academic weaknesses might aid the educator in offering prescriptive remediation to overcome the child's academic weakness. When a child feels academic success, the child seldom finds the work boring, replacing the word boring with challenging.

If the instruction is not engaging, I suggest talking with your child's classroom teacher or principal to determine ways to make instruction more engaging. No one likes to be talked to. When a teacher stands in front of the class and teaches, a child seldom learns. A student learns best when he or she is in-charge of his or her learning. When a child engages in his or her learning, explores the subject, talks with peers about the material and understands the material deeply and widely, boredom disappears replaced by excitement and inquiry.

A student told me Friday, the reason he was goofing off in class is because rule No. 7 in his classroom is to have fun and he was just following the rules. Fun works in an engaging classroom where every student is learning to the peak of his or her ability and where each student is being stretched academically. Fun does not work in a classroom where students are being taught didactically with a teacher in front of the class acting as an expressionless moderator. Fun is fun, education is learning.

Quality education does not have to be boring. Fun is the result of an enriched learning environment where students are challenged, differing abilities remediated and students are in charge of their learning. Fun is not the focus of a quality education, great teaching is.

Send comments or other suggestions to Bill Rutherford at bprutherford@hotmail.com.