Discouraging Students to Learn

Unfortunately, lots of teens hate to read. They're just not interested in language arts or in literature. As an educator, I found this to be especially true in today's society of rapid stimulation and instant feedback found in video games and computerized gadgets.

Yet, we continue to force students to take reading classes year after year in high school. In some Florida schools, if they cannot pass the state's FCAT Reading, they're immediately placed in remedial classes. Many are denied taking courses that they'd enjoy, such as music, carpentry, nursing, agricultural, etc.

They cannot participate in "fun" courses such as career programs or performing arts. And in many cases, they're blocked from joining clubs or sports activities. It doesn't matter what their interests are, if they don't show improvement on their reading scores, they can forget about enjoying school.

This practice labels and categorizes the student as slow, and it adds to the development of student apathy toward schools---school becomes a place that they love to hate. Is it any wonder why they dropout or rebel against the system?

And think of the teacher who has to deal with a student who doesn't want to be there. If we look at a typical high school teacher's load for the day, most have approximately 100 to 120 students. There are the students who are high-performing on one end and low-performing on the other. The vast majority, however, fall in-between.

They're the average students, and these are the ones that I believe we are losing.

By ninth grade many of them get bored or are hit with emotional challenges that go along with adolescent development. This is the prime opportunity to capture their interest and foster it. Certainly we focus on the core academics; it's the basis of education. However, if the kid enjoys playing an instrument in the school band, let him. If another excels in sports, encourage that.

Why must we stifle a student's interest if he/she does not live up to our standards, standards that have been set by education officials who want to create a badge of honor for politicians and legislators?

It sure sounds good when we can boast about great schools and terrific achievement levels. It is presumed that we have succeeded, if we can push a student beyond his potential, and that makes for a good sense of accomplishment. In the process, however, we are ignoring the disheartened kid whose potential is not in advanced placement classes but in the trades, such as building trades or culinary arts.

In addition, there's been a surge in high schools to put students in advanced placement classes, another badge of honor for schools.

These are classes that are college-level courses, taught by specially trained teachers, with the intention to provide students a college credit while in high school. The notion is that it's a money saver for students who can achieve the college credit while in high school, enabling them to start at an advanced level when they actually hit the college campus. Great idea.

The fundamental criticism of this, however, is that since a school's grade is affected by the number of students that are enrolled in advanced placement classes, too often students who are not ready for that kind of academic rigor are simply dumped in these classes anyway.

It becomes a numbers game. The more a high school has students enrolled in advanced placement classes, the better it looks for their Annual Yearly Progress--a measuring stick of school grades.

Another criticism of advanced placement classes comes from the college professors themselves. Many are discovering that these students are not truly ready to begin in a sophomore or intermediate level class. Many of these students have not learned concepts well; they've merely passed an advanced placement test back in high school. They would have been better off entering college as freshmen, adjusting to the rigorous academic environment and learning more at a better pace.

So here we have a system that sets students up for failure. It doesn't matter whether the students pass the end-of-the year advanced placement exam, the exam that determines if the kids achieves the college credit---and many, by the way, do not pass it. It simply matters that they've been enrolled in the class.

At one of my high schools, when students realized that the rigor of the class was more than they could handle, they begged to drop out. What did we do? Deny them that request. We told them to stay put and try harder instead. And that's all that mattered---getting the numbers for the school grade.

Unfortunately, lots of teens hate to read. They're just not interested in language arts or in literature. As an educator, I found this to be especially true in today's society of rapid stimulation and instant feedback found in video games and computerized gadgets.

Yet, we continue to force students to take reading classes year after year in high school. In some Florida schools, if they cannot pass the state's FCAT Reading, they're immediately placed in remedial classes. Many are denied taking courses that they'd enjoy, such as music, carpentry, nursing, agricultural, etc.

They cannot participate in "fun" courses such as career programs or performing arts. And in many cases, they're blocked from joining clubs or sports activities. It doesn't matter what their interests are, if they don't show improvement on their reading scores, they can forget about enjoying school.

This practice labels and categorizes the student as slow, and it adds to the development of student apathy toward schools---school becomes a place that they love to hate. Is it any wonder why they dropout or rebel against the system?

And think of the teacher who has to deal with a student who doesn't want to be there. If we look at a typical high school teacher's load for the day, most have approximately 100 to 120 students. There are the students who are high-performing on one end and low-performing on the other. The vast majority, however, fall in-between.

They're the average students, and these are the ones that I believe we are losing.

By ninth grade many of them get bored or are hit with emotional challenges that go along with adolescent development. This is the prime opportunity to capture their interest and foster it. Certainly we focus on the core academics; it's the basis of education. However, if the kid enjoys playing an instrument in the school band, let him. If another excels in sports, encourage that.

Why must we stifle a student's interest if he/she does not live up to our standards, standards that have been set by education officials who want to create a badge of honor for politicians and legislators?

It sure sounds good when we can boast about great schools and terrific achievement levels. It is presumed that we have succeeded, if we can push a student beyond his potential, and that makes for a good sense of accomplishment. In the process, however, we are ignoring the disheartened kid whose potential is not in advanced placement classes but in the trades, such as building trades or culinary arts.

In addition, there's been a surge in high schools to put students in advanced placement classes, another badge of honor for schools.

These are classes that are college-level courses, taught by specially trained teachers, with the intention to provide students a college credit while in high school. The notion is that it's a money saver for students who can achieve the college credit while in high school, enabling them to start at an advanced level when they actually hit the college campus. Great idea.

The fundamental criticism of this, however, is that since a school's grade is affected by the number of students that are enrolled in advanced placement classes, too often students who are not ready for that kind of academic rigor are simply dumped in these classes anyway.

It becomes a numbers game. The more a high school has students enrolled in advanced placement classes, the better it looks for their Annual Yearly Progress--a measuring stick of school grades.

Another criticism of advanced placement classes comes from the college professors themselves. Many are discovering that these students are not truly ready to begin in a sophomore or intermediate level class. Many of these students have not learned concepts well; they've merely passed an advanced placement test back in high school. They would have been better off entering college as freshmen, adjusting to the rigorous academic environment and learning more at a better pace.

So here we have a system that sets students up for failure. It doesn't matter whether the students pass the end-of-the year advanced placement exam, the exam that determines if the kids achieves the college credit---and many, by the way, do not pass it. It simply matters that they've been enrolled in the class.

At one of my high schools, when students realized that the rigor of the class was more than they could handle, they begged to drop out. What did we do? Deny them that request. We told them to stay put and try harder instead. And that's all that mattered---getting the numbers for the school grade.