Why schools are not places of joy

A PERSISTENT criticism about school is that it is boring. The criticism is not without merit. A big number of students find school boring as indicated by low percentages in attendance and high drop-out rates.

Come to think of it, if the experience of “doing school” fails to stimulate children’s spirit to learn, their sense of wonder and their curiosity about the world, then we are not succeeding as educators. I guess we need to seek immediate answers to the question: “Why our schools are not places of joy?” Don’t we suppose we need to think again about the culture of teaching to include modification of pedagogical strategies to employ methods of putting more joy back into teaching, not more misery?

With the growing number of parents who are concerned about their children’s happiness in the school environment, it is imperative teachers do something about it. Boredom is a disease of epidemic proportions and no child, or young adult should feel that he or she is not learning-or achieving anything of substance or value –because of a boring teacher.

A lot of teachers claim they are doing their best to teach. We don’t argue about that. They stick to their tried pedagogical methods and strive to help children learn. We applaud every efforts by teachers to impart knowledge among children, no doubt about that.

Learning is a discovery process. It leads to a better knowledge of the world around us and should help us to better cope with it. The teacher should be a facilitator of this discovery process. He should be a resource of knowledge and knowhow; he should be a role model. Unfortunately, most teachers have stopped their discovery process when they discovered the curriculum. They became executors of it and boring routine replaces the joy of discovery.