“I Hate School?”

“I hate school!” How often have you heard these words uttered, mumbled, or outright yelled by a student? Early in my teaching career, (my “thinner skin years”) a statement like this would bother me. As time passed, I began to hear those statements as background noise. It was just something that all teens and “tweens say. It is a right of passage. You are not supposed to like school, right? I have seen The Breakfast Club, so I get it.

As time passed, I began to see students embrace, not learning in school, but learning everything around the “bubble of school.” Athletics, dance, songs, school clubs, how-to repairs, building, job skills, farming, animal husbandry, video games, music, learning was happening everywhere! But, when it came to the classroom? I felt as if they were just existing. They learned because they were “playing school.” Many students had become very adept at playing school. Inherently, they were curious about the world around them, but had become detached from the idea that school is preparing them for “the world.” They hand me a paper- one that I crafted to best engage, excite, measure their learning- and immediately ask “What is my grade now?” There is no bigger slap in the face to actually learning than letting the world know that you only care about the almighty grade. This should have been disheartening.  Instead, it began to gnaw at the edges of my pedagogy.  I began searching for the disconnect. Was their school delivering this message? Was I delivering this message? More importantly, it became my mission to find out what the missing piece might be for my students. How can I alter their experience to give them ownership? How to stem the tide of always “hating school?”

Little did I know that this question would change my professional career. Time for a 180-degree turn into student centered learning.