Why Is School So Boring?
I’m convinced that the UK’s children have lost their love for school and I offer some thoughts on what teachers can do about it.
Has engagement declined?
In the UK, teachers are increasingly reporting poor behaviour in schools. The reports are in the news, and the DfE has spent £10m on tackling it, but I don’t feel as though things are getting any better. In my own school, behaviour has been worse since COVID and shows no signs of improving.
Defining the problem
According to the BBC, their 2024 survey of 9000 teachers shows nearly 1 in 5 teachers report being hit by a pupil. Metro reports that teachers in Wales have had to lock doors to escape aggressive children. This is crazy - these are schools we’re talking about, not prisons! Why on earth are children attacking their teachers in such numbers?
In my school, children appear bored and disinterested and talk amongst themselves endlessly instead of focusing on their learning. It’s as if they have an attention span of around 30 sec, and I can see the moment in their minds when they ‘scroll down’. I find myself racing through my explanations, naming children who aren’t concentrating every 10 sec, and rushing through to the bit where they can ‘get on with it’. It’s almost as if I’m apologetic for teaching them.
Perhaps I’m just boring, but I really don’t think I am. I can hold court pretty well with a decent combination of knowledge, wit, and charisma - modesty isn’t my strong point though 😆.
I feel that pre-COVID I could hold the attention of the children all lesson but now they’re gone in seconds! This is depressing because I don’t know what to do moving forward.
Is it too much screen time?
It’s easy to blame screens but I don’t think they’re the problem. In the same way that teachers in the late 90s probably saw Google as the end of education - “what’s the point if they can just look it up”, I hear adults blaming screens on their children’s short attention spans. But what if it’s not the screens that are at fault?
100 years ago we had no TV. Adults read books in the evenings, played music, played cards, had conversations, built models, shared stories, and sang songs. What do the majority of adults spend their evenings doing now? In 2023, the average UK resident watched 2.5 hr of TV per day. That’s a lot. Our children watch less TV but spend more time on YouTube and other streaming services.
And YouTube can be a heck of a lot more engaging than TV! It’s human-nature to be fascinated by niche content. We all have different passions and interests, and YouTube - and other media channels like it, can serve us this niche content on demand, entertaining us and fascinating us in equal measure, whenever we like.
So screens are to blame! No, the screens are not to blame.
If screens aren’t failing our children then what is?
The school system is to blame because it’s boring and downright scary. Sitting in silence, empty-handed, shirts tucked in, ties on, not moving or looking around, not talking, questions fired at you randomly and with only seconds to think of an answer, entirely dependent on your teacher for entertainment.
Would you like it?
How can technology help?
Once teachers accept that the system needs to keep up with technology, we may stand a chance of improving our children’s school experience. Let’s get this straight, it’s not the children’s fault that they find school boring and stressful. It’s not YouTube’s fault either. Children have changed, society has changed and schools have not kept up with that change.
Teachers need to learn from YouTubers about how to grab and hold attention.
How can technology help? The good news is that I think the basic tools like presentation software, spreadsheets, and word processors are all we need to make our lessons more entertaining and engaging. Let’s be honest, most of us don’t use half of the features of these tools and most of us make terrible PowerPoint presentations. Be honest 😜!
Cognitive Overload
There are tasks that our brains find tiring and completing too many of these tasks wears us down and puts us into a state of exhaustion. When we’re exhausted, we get grumpy and occasionally find ourselves in fight-or-flight mode when things go wrong. This is happening to our students a lot.
Teachers must consider the cognitive load we’re placing on our students and not over-stress their minds. Dan Willingham has written a great book that explains all of this, ‘Why Don’t Students Like School?’. I won’t waste your time attempting to summarise it here. It’s an easy read, go and read it!
Children want to be loved
Our kids want us to care about them, but there is little time allocated to this in the school day. Get them through the door in silence, tell them off for being scruffy, fry their brains, rinse and repeat. As teachers, it is within our duty of care to spend time chatting, laughing, and showing some love. If school leaders don’t like this and think that you’re time-wasting, get a job in a different school because the one you’re in isn’t serving its children’s most basic needs.
Let me be clear, I’m not advocating spending all of your lesson time on idle chit-chat, that’s not it. But noticing when kids need a metaphorical hug and providing it will make both you and your students a lot happier.
Do this now
1. Go to YouTube, watch videos that your kids watch, and think “What can I learn about presentation and the art of holding attention?”.
2. Read ‘Why Don’t Students Like School?’ by Daniel T. Willingham.
3. Smile more, be more human, and notice your student’s emotional needs.