Boredom is the enemy of education. Students who are bored in class learn only one thing: that they are at the mercy of their instructor. Part of what makes a great teacher is that he or she is engaging. Just think about it: did you ever have a teacher who was boring who you also thought was great? Of course not.
I remember being bored through most of fifth grade. It was, without a doubt, our teacher's fault. He was humorless, spoke in a monotone, and gave us daily spelling quizzes of words we'd learned in second grade: "of," "off," "here," "there." I loved school before and after, but those nine months of fifth grade were torture.
So what makes a teacher engaging? A passion for his or her subject, surely. But a great teacher must also have insight into human nature. In my experience, the best instructors inevitably possess a wry sense of humor, a knowingness that comes from having thought about their own foibles as much as they have thought about the topic they are teaching.
One man who stands out for having taught a generation of Americans to know themselves better is Eric Berne, the founder of "transactional analysis." The purpose of transactional analysis, Berne said, was to illuminate, predict and change human behavior by answering what he called "the fundamental question of social psychology: "why do people talk to each other?"
Berne noticed that most problems arise from miscommunication and that miscommunication is almost always a result of unclear or unstated expectations. People want things but pretend they don't. They may want praise or agreement or confirmation that they are right. Instead of asking for what they want, however, they play complex, transactional games. In his best-selling book Games People Play, Berne outlined some of these games (and gave them deliciously provocative titles), such as, "Now I've Got You, You Son of a Bitch," in which one person exploits the mistake of another to unleash his or her pent up fury on that person (the fury coming from childhood grievances that have nothing to do with the person or the mistake in question).
Berne called these games "rackets." A racketeer pretends to want one thing (e.g. the solution to some problem) but is really after another. Usually, it is the pleasure that comes from proving that one is right about something.
We can, Berne believed, learn to recognize the games we are playing. We can teach ourselves to see -- and be upfront about -- our own motives. Instead of trying to be right, we can actually communicate in a way that would solve our problems.
Now, back to the subject of good teaching and the problem of student boredom. The other day I sat in a classroom as a visitor and watched as a teacher bored her students. The longer I watched, the more deliberate it seemed. With all the yawning and the scribbling and the eye-rolling, the students' collective tedium couldn't have been any clearer. All she had to do to wake them up was to stop and say something like, "I'm boring you, aren't I?" But she didn't. Instead, she kept on going with her prepared lesson. Berne would have said she was playing a game with her students. He would have named it something like, "I'm No Good at This, See!"
Passionate, engaging, intellectually stimulating classroom discussion should be one of our country's highest concerns. I searched through the Columbia Teacher's College course catalogue and couldn't find a single course on how to recognize, prevent, or deal with, student boredom. (On the whole, TC's approach is highly theoretical.) We all know from our own experience, however, that students are bored every day in school (I don't think I'm the only one who's spent nine months in classroom hell). Meanwhile, as much as we hear politicians and policy makers talk about test scores, where's the concern with the student experience? Focusing on test scores is like trying to save the patient by pounding on the EKG machine. Test scores are the symptom, not the problem. We need to remember that students are people, who hate and resent being bored as much we do. In other words, we need policies to prevent boredom and promote engagement. Then test scores would rise. I think Berne would smell a giant, collective, national racket.
One piece of good news: the Gates Foundation is investing $300 million in reforming teacher education. Wouldn't it be great if some of this money went to teaching teachers about the unconscious games they often play in front of the classroom?
Boredom is a multifaceted problem. The bare material facts of the school setup--that young human beings gather into one single city block all day, five days a week, with a relative few adults so that they can be supervised while their parents participate in their capitalist requirements--is the first place I would look if I wanted to explain boredom. Teachers are, in large part, stuck in this impossible muck just like students are.
I've been in the game over 10 years now and I LOVE my job. I don't see it as being something I have to "survive". Once you cop that attitude, you're toast and you aren't going to be the best teacher you can be for your kids. If teaching is something you think you have to survive, please, by all means, find another career. No matter what new policies come down the pike, what new curriculum I have teach, I'm all in. I'm in because my kids deserve it. They don't give a crap about the bureaucracy of our education system. They want to learn from inspired teachers. The excuse making and the whining does not serve our kids well. I'm tired of hearing it.
Great article,
Mike Byster
http://www.mikebyster.com
Educator, Mathematician, Inventor of Brainetics, Author of Genius
Teachers make learning fun when possible but the there are many times when learning is work but certain things must be done/taught, fun or not.
Students (young people) pay close attention to social changes and talk alot amoung themselves about those changes. They hear common denominators.
1 American dream is dead
Why there are no jobs and there wont be any jobs even if you go to college. Most jobs are outsourced or offshored to slave countries.
2 Wallstreet, Banks & Big Oil own and are the US Government and they don't care about academia they care about profit margins
3 Prosports, reality TV, Murderers and Rappers make more money by 10:1 than the average manager.
4 America is not about Freedom, Justice, Teamwork and Leadership its about Money, torture, power and deception.
The new generation may be idiots or criminals or just useless but they do comprehend what they talk about.
It's damn hard to sell an interesting story about Thomas Jefferson to a kid who knows their freedom today is based solely on their fame or money. You'd be better off teaching them about Snoop Dogg.
.... ok.
Very few classes today exist except in upper white suburbia where the students are not gouging each other's eyes out, texting, sleeping, playing games and just flat out ignoring any academic participation.
Most teachers fear for their lives from the physical threats posed by students who seem to possess all the power. The same person who has to exercise discipline makes it difficult to be the same person who engages a students interest.
Times have changed.
There are four types of students now:
1 Smart engaging and industrious
2 Just getting by and having fun
3 Doesn't care doesn't value education
4 Criminals in prestages of production
Some creatures never change spots, all the brilliant teaching in the world may not have a dimes impact.
It's become politically incorrect to blame the parents. God forbid any "parents" today would accept responsiblity for the life form they created.
I believe we have too many so-so teachers focusing too narrowly on engagement. The result is a class that is still not that engaging (because it takes an excellent teacher to be truly engaging) with not enough learning going on.
The so-so teacher should focus first on learning - you don't have to be excellent to establish routines and get students to learn. Of course engagement and learning are intertwined and I am not arguing for giving teachers a free pass to be really boring. But, too many teachers are ineffetive because they are trying to be excellent, and view excellent teaching as being engaging. These teachers really should focus more on what it means to be an adequate teacher - your students do some work and learn some things.
http://anglesofreflection.blogspot.com/2012/06/we-dont-need-more-great-teachers.html
my responsibly to stimulate my mind and contribute to society.
Point #2--Going to school is not the same thing as going to a birthday party. Maybe if some kids were taught by their parents that the teacher is not a clown, s/he is not there to entertain you, and you should expect to do work, not play Pin the Tail on the Donkey, the not-so-bright-and-bored kid might learn something.
I do not think it is possible for me to disagree more. The "drill & kill" method of teaching will bore even a gifted and very intelligent person to tears! Of course a large number of the "smart" kids come in below proficient because they are "smart" enough to know that failing a low stake test will not affect them very much, if at all. It was "easy" because it is not very hard to make patterns on the Scantron form and then move on to the next test. You might be right that "Boredom is the realm of the not-as-bright, as the truly bright find learning and interest just about everywhere" but most teachers will punish a student is for not being on "task" so I am not sure what you point is.