Is school too boring?

Today when hubby and I went on our walk we saw some boys at the skate park in their high school uniforms.  I knew a couple of them and realised they were in year seven.  David commented that they had only been at school a whole two weeks.

I made the comment that those boys represented our current education system.  A system that is so outdated and boring that they would rather hang out riding their scooters than sit in a class room that doesn't hold a lot of relevance to them.

Samuel has been home for the last week and a bit recovering from his operation, and much to his disgust I rang the school and got them to send some work home for him.  His English teach sent home a heap of work sheets all about verbs.  Something that I remember doing in primary school not in year 8.  During David and my conversation these sheets came up.  And we had the question, if you become a doctor, lawyer, scientist, police officer or fire person, when would you need to know what a verb is? When will that come up in your job? I mean I know if you are teacher it would.  But any other profession?

Don't get me wrong, I do think that we should teach our kids with what makes up the English language, but what I don't understand is how this is relevant in high school.  High school is a time where young people are starting to think more clearly about the career paths they want to take.  They have more of a grasp on their talents, their strengths and what they enjoy. 

So why are we forcing our children to do classes that wont have any relevance on those careers whatsoever?

I completely agree that kids should be doing English and Mathematics classes, but in that we can change it around to keep it a bit more relevant.  For example, algebra!!  I know I never understood it, well not until I went back to school as a much older person, and the teacher explained algebra to me in a way I understood, she described it in grocery shopping terms.  So if I buy x amount of apples for 4.59 per kilo how many apples would I need to make a kilo.  I understood it this way, because this was relevant to me.  So how do we make mathematics relevant to kids?  How do we explain it in a way that kids will understand?

It goes the same for English.  I hated being forced to read certain novels to do book reports on.  For example the Great Gatsby.... Oh my god I found this soooo boring!!  And so do most kids.  Can we find books that are more relevant to kids.  Many kids identify with some sort of subculture so why not bring these books in.

At my school the Great Gatsby meant nothing to us, but when I had to read a book called Tom, which was about a street kid, it pulled on my empathy, Tom was a teenage boy, my age, I could identify with him and his feelings.  And my report, I got an A+.  Why? because it was relevant to me.

I know that the teachers aren't to blame for this because they are just teaching what they are told to teach.  But is the department of Education so out of touch that they don't know what is relevant to a young person?

No wonder wagging is at an all time high.  One of my favourite movies is "Freedom Writers", it's set in America and based on a true story about a teacher, who came from a very wealthy family and starts working at a school.  She is forced to teach a class of kids that society and the school consider as no hopers.  She buys out of her own money the Anne Frank Diaries, she takes them to the Holocaust muesuem.  They suddenly become interested in the story, because they can identify with the struggles that Anne Frank went through, the daily face of death that she was presented with, the constant need to look over her shoulder.  They could relate to her. 

This showed me that young people need to be educated in a way that is relevant to them.  And as long as we ignore this fact we will see more and more kids drop out of school and end up doing nothing with their lives.  We need to start realising that not all kids fit in the mould of becomming doctors and lawyers, that's it's ok to be a tradie, and that some kids are better suited in this area of career.  The more that schools embrace this feel and become relevant to the kids, the more interest will perk up and the less phone calls parents will be getting that their child has been wagging.

Love you all

Sam
xxx