TimmyH
Why Do Kids Hate School?
August 7th 2008 07:22
Two University of Texas sociologists, Ben Agger and Beth Shelton will soon have a new book on the shelves entitled “I Hate School: Why American Kids Are Turned Off Learning.” Despite the fact that the book uses a specifically American subject matter, it could easily be applied to any westernised group.
I’m reminded of a “YES, MINISTER” exchange between Hacker and Sir Humphrey.
Hacker : School’s are supposed to prepare children for a working life, half the time they’re bored stiff.
Sir Humphrey : Well I should think being bored stiff is a perfect preparation for working life.
Agger and Shelton believe that school these days is too much like work. They say that children are being poisoned against the joy of learning by a culture which does not stimulate them.
“By the time…students are in junior high and high school, they hate school and cannot wait to finish an acceptable terminal level of education and establish careers and families, mimicking the suburban lifestyles of their parents.”
But despite much criticism for popular culture and television, Shelton and Agger, who are married with children, don’t believe that these new technologies are to blame for a lack of youth interest in learning.
“Schools are failing because they are warehouses and work houses,” Ms. Shelton says in the release. “They verge on penal colonies, where teachers are wardens and children are inmates. Children constitute a pre-labour force, tasked with producing homework instead of goods and services.”
The two suggest that in an ideal situation, “grading and testing would be minimized and teachers would not be cops or dictators. Schools would have fewer desks and more open space. … Homework would be minimized, as real teaching and dialogue fill the day. Formulaic writing would be replaced by essaying, journaling and thought pieces. Standardized tests would be replaced with portfolios of best work and art.”
The question is, with the vastly changing nature of education, are individual teachers going to have the same influence they once did?
As a fellow blogger asked
Are schools today too regimented and deadening, producing a legion of proto-jugglers instead of encouraging kids to follow their bliss? Or is following one’s bliss overrated in what’s a very serious and competitive world?
Really Long Link
I’m reminded of a “YES, MINISTER” exchange between Hacker and Sir Humphrey.
Hacker : School’s are supposed to prepare children for a working life, half the time they’re bored stiff.
Sir Humphrey : Well I should think being bored stiff is a perfect preparation for working life.
Agger and Shelton believe that school these days is too much like work. They say that children are being poisoned against the joy of learning by a culture which does not stimulate them.
“By the time…students are in junior high and high school, they hate school and cannot wait to finish an acceptable terminal level of education and establish careers and families, mimicking the suburban lifestyles of their parents.”
But despite much criticism for popular culture and television, Shelton and Agger, who are married with children, don’t believe that these new technologies are to blame for a lack of youth interest in learning.
“Schools are failing because they are warehouses and work houses,” Ms. Shelton says in the release. “They verge on penal colonies, where teachers are wardens and children are inmates. Children constitute a pre-labour force, tasked with producing homework instead of goods and services.”
The two suggest that in an ideal situation, “grading and testing would be minimized and teachers would not be cops or dictators. Schools would have fewer desks and more open space. … Homework would be minimized, as real teaching and dialogue fill the day. Formulaic writing would be replaced by essaying, journaling and thought pieces. Standardized tests would be replaced with portfolios of best work and art.”
The question is, with the vastly changing nature of education, are individual teachers going to have the same influence they once did?
As a fellow blogger asked
Are schools today too regimented and deadening, producing a legion of proto-jugglers instead of encouraging kids to follow their bliss? Or is following one’s bliss overrated in what’s a very serious and competitive world?
Really Long Link
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