Why Don't Your Kids Like School?

Kids

oi-Staff

By Staff

Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 13:58

Some Monday mornings are cranky ones for little Nandita. She doesn't want to go school. But her parents insist that she has to be a good girl and reach school at a prompt time.

This is a situation that worries most of the parents and teachers. They often ask-Why don''t students like school?" Here's the answer for this dilemma.

The truth is that most of the students love to learn things. However, when they have to go to school for that, they detest the institution of school. The reasons why students don't like school is that they are forced to think, to accept new challenges, to learn new things, and therefore do the thing their mind most wants to avoid - thinking.

The mind is actually designed to avoid thinking. Thinking is a slow process; it's effortful and even uncertain. People naturally want to avoid that process, and instead rely on memory, the things we already know how to do and are successful at.

On the other hand people love to think at some other instances. For instance people actually enjoy thinking - when it is at a level that is not too simple, and not excessively difficult. People like to be challenged. That's why we play games, it's why we read books, why we do many of the things we do. So there's a sweet spot, a level where learning is neither too simplistic to be interesting, nor too difficult to be enjoyable. This is the spot that teachers are always trying to find for their students in the classroom.

Creative teaching comes in using a combination of storytelling that evokes emotion and thought, and exercises that put lessons into context and that build upon previous learning, comes at aid at this time. There are different abilities, but really, we all learn the same way. It's not left brain versus right brain, or visual or auditory or kinesthetic. We learn using a combination of skills, and we are all more similar in our learning styles than different.