Abigail teaches middle-school history and Latin at a classical school in Alexandria, Virginia. She holds degrees from Hillsdale College (B.A.) and St. John’s College (M.A.).
A new book correctly diagnoses what’s much wrong with America’s progressive education model, but fails to grasp that the solution lies in a proven, classical approach to pedagogy.
“This book is so boring!”
As a middle school teacher, I hear the “b word” used flippantly, and nothing fills me with greater angst. I typically retort back with “only boring people are bored” and then launch into a passionate rant on how boredom is simply the sin of laziness, a failure to express gratitude and wonder towards the world around us.
My student who uttered this sentiment was simply struggling with a challenging book. His literature class is nowhere close to boring. The class engages in energetic discussions and works on creative projects to deepen their understanding of story and character. They all love literature, and as a signal of their enjoyment, frequent laughter can be heard floating down the hallways of our little school.
Still, the general attitude towards school as “boring” is pretty much accepted as the way of life for middle and high school students in America. At some point in their academic career, most kids will nurture low levels of quiet loathing towards schooling. In fact, most of us have been there ourselves.
At some point in their academic career, most kids will nurture low levels of quiet loathing towards schooling. In fact, most of us have been there ourselves.
Next to boredom, the other dominant attitude towards school is profound anxiety. High achieving students, especially in wealthy urban areas, may not admit that “school is boring,” but they are not driven by love for learning, either. What motivates high-achieving students is a deep fear of failure, the need to succeed, and the tyranny of the perfect high school resume.
Even supposedly good schools create numbing boredom and gnawing anxiety in their pupils. Kids are told to achieve. Achieve—to what end? Believe—in what? They sigh and churn on, ever more entrenched as cogs in the educational machine, their mind numbed by years of pointless information ingestion. Schools today are slowly killing the spirit of American youth. The average teenager is bored, apathetic, anxious, depressed, and disillusioned.
If we don’t change how schools educate our kids, American culture will wither away into lifeless dependence. We will be removed even farther from the ideal of a free, self-governing people who fully employ their minds, love life in all its complexity, and work creatively with gusto.
Schools on Trial
Fresh out of high school himself, twenty-year-old Nikhil Goyal explains the causes of boredom and stress in the freshly minted Schools on Trial: How Freedom and Creativity Can Fix Our Educational Malpractice. The book is well-researched and engaging. It will challenge anyone who accepts the status quo of the educational establishment or the mainstream education reform movement.
