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Monday, November 29, 2010

To be boring, or not to be boring? That is the question

My principal was telling us about a blog he wrote talking about his son asking why school was so boring. In elementary school, everything was repetition. Practice your multiplication tables 5 times a week and repeat, learn how to spell big words and repeat. Yes they added games to make it fun, but once middle school came into my life, things started to change. Middle school is like the awkward middle child in a family. It is trying to get students ready for high school and college. In middle school, you no longer get to play the little fun games that helped you learn things. This is a reason I think that school was so boring. In middle school, we were so focused on just learning the necessary subjects for high school, we didn't have time to have fun. Also, as sad as it is to say, math and english are seen as more important than art and music. The free time we used to have in elementary school to express ourselves through art, music, or any activity really, was taken away. In middle school we barely had recess! Our time to stretch our legs and let our minds be focused on games rather than learning was getting pulled away. Truthfully, I learn more when I'm playing a game rather than sitting in a seat listening to a teacher go on and on. I could probably sing you the planets song or the alphabet song, but not recall what I learned in my seventh grade math class. I learned these songs in kindergarten and still remember them. The fun things in elementary school are easily remembered compared to middle school things. Yes, singing to a song might be a little immature, but I will never mess up the planet order and I can even sing the alphabet backwards because of a silly song. I guess what I'm getting at is that we need to incorporate fun things into learning. I'm not saying you need to sing to high school juniors to get your point across, but relating things to their everyday life would be a start. I know I keep going on about these singing stories, but last year in chemistry, my teacher taught us chemistry songs about famous chemisists, and I actually still remember. Ask me what my first subject we learned about in math last year and I would have no clue. If schools don't want to be boring, we should be less worried about cramming everything into one year, and just focus on one thing at a time. Kids remember fun things, not boring educational lectures. Just a thought.

The blog from my principal is Boring School

1 comment:

  1. Jillian, I agree that time was significantly cut from mind relief throughout the day in middle school. However, I thought we did nothing more than just games and team competitions in middle school.

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