For once, blame the student

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A newsbit on Education made the top Yahoo news again today- a probably rightfully frustrated English teacher notes that "foreign" students do better on exams, etc. because they are motivated to do well, why "American" students don't care and get C's.  [This was noted a few weeks ago when a local School Trustee singled out Asian students for their great marks.]

While I don't really like turning the grades debate into a racial one, both the Burnaby school trustee and the English teacher have something right: the motivated students will usually perform a lot better than the ones that don't care.

Students eager to read will read whenever they can, students who are not motivated (or don't find reading interesting) will complain every time they hear the suggestion.

Here's where I differ from the English teacher- while the unmotivated students not living up to their intellectual potential is a large component of the "failure of schools" these days, we can't really go out and blame the students for that.  Out dated textbooks, large class sizes, teacher who don't know what they are doing, and appalling school facilities can still ruin the day, not to mention they are probably part of the reason why the students aren't so motivated in the first place.  If your teacher was struggling to spend some needed individual time with you because there are over 30 other students in the classroom, I think your motivation level and self confidence would take a hughe hit.  If you're not important enough to be able to talk to the teacher, perhaps you're not important enough to become that lofty dream you started school with!  Perhaps your destiny is to stay at Mickey D's for the rest of your life

It is the collective job of parents, teachers, the community and the student themself to get motivated to learn.  Parents and teachers need to instill the importance and excitement of learning into children, and not just expect it to occur.  Many kids have it when they are young, but they can lose it once school work starts to get more "work" like- teachers need to keep assignments and projects fun, varied and interesting... and everything needs to have a real life purpose to it, other than keeping the students busy and quiet.

If students start to get unmotivated, it is the job of the teacher, a good teacher, to notice it and try to keep that motivation from disappearing- once it's gone, it's hard to get back.

Doom and gloom doesn't help anyone- just like blaming the kids for everything- sure they are part of the reason why education is not progressing the way it should, but it's not how it used to be, so stop complaining and trying to pass the buck!

As teachers we have to work with what we have and make it better.  Complaining and blaming doesn't it make it any better.

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