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Class Struggle
By Jay Mathews

Why it's okay to be bored in school

Coach Brown, the witty blogger and social studies teacher at Ukiah High School in northern California, shares some of my concerns about, but none of my enthusiasm for, the L.A. Times series assessing teachers and schools with value-added test score analysis. The Times, he says, has "taken it upon itself to promote the idea that a test that assesses bad information and that kids don't care about somehow shows a clear indication of a bad teacher."

We shall return to the Times controversy eventually, but as school starts across the country and teachers worry about how to engage the reluctant returnees to their classrooms, I want to share part of another recent essay from Coach Brown's blog, "A Passion for Teaching and Opinions." He reflects on the master teacher that helped train him, and other influences. I think he has put the engagement issue, and our frequent complaints about boring schools, in just the right light:

Being bored at school is nothing new, and the amount of energy spent on whether it really is a big deal is amazing. I don’t mean that good teaching involves boring the hell out all of your students. But let’s be perfectly honest, a vast majority of high school students want to be somewhere else, and many new teachers are being led to believe that classrooms have to be dens of constant engagement. Engagement is good, but the term "engagement” is often misinterpreted as “edutainment”, the process of entertaining students while trying to impart them with knowledge. New teachers then get wrapped up in complex lessons that can lead to classroom management issues and forget that students need some direct instruction that provides actual information.”

I totally admired my Master Teacher. But the one thing we disagree on is the idea that you can’t lecture. His idea was that lectures led to bored students, no engagement, and then the subject matter doesn’t get moved because students are doodling, texting, or snoozing. I don’t agree. I’ve seen students totally engaged in lessons where the teacher is imparting knowledge through lectures, whether it is personal anecdotes, story-telling, or use of visuals and power points. Students can be riveted to a good speaker, and can be convinced that the term “lecture” isn’t necessarily bad. I use power points all the time, but you need to make the presentations to-the-point, easy to understand, and mix in a little media. Video clip, song clip, a cartoon, a picture. And don’t call it a “lecture”. Call it a seminar or a presentation, and constantly keep kids involved. And remember that you are public speaking and there are good tips for that too. Move around, keep differed eye contact, use different tones in your voice, act out certain parts of presentation……just be the show.

In the end, it is about being “on”. My old principal once made a comment that good teaching was like good theater; you got into character and at the end of the production, you should be damn tired because you were “on” the whole time. There should also be an understanding that teachers will not be able to engage everyone all the time. Students are occasionally bored in class, that is just going to happen. Hell, when Homecoming Week is upon us, everything is more boring than being out in the Tri throwing water balloons. It is ok to be bored sometimes. Those of us that work for a living know that boredom happens and part of character building is dealing with it.