As of late, students are carrying negative attitudes about education. Books aren’t being read, homework isn’t being done and attendance is growing thin. Students’ replies to why school isn’t working for them is usually a statement concerning boredom. However, boredom isn’t a sufficient excuse. People need to dig deeper to find why exactly a student isn’t performing to their full potential and counteract that particular reason. Below are listed common reasons why subtends aren’t taking education seriously.

• Tools to succeed aren’t being given. Students at either end of the bell-shaped curve have needs that aren’t being met. A school tends to run with only one type of student in mind and leaves the other types out of the equation. By not allowing for different types of learners and adapting educational material, atypical students become frustrated in school and grow to dislike school.
• A love for learning isn’t created. Children aren’t developing a love for learning and this thought is being carried throughout their educational career. Parents are simply giving their children an iPad or a TV show to watch with screaming cartoon characters rather than experiencing the world and creating a sense of wonder. Books, hands on materials and playing outside are no longer a priority to parents, therefore children aren’t encouraged to travel deeper into thought.
• Education isn’t engaging. Since when did policing ideas become a part of the educational agenda? With an increased emphasis on test scores, most teachers are directed to tell students what to think rather than asking them what they think. Discussion and questions have become taboo in classrooms and a lecture-based approach has ensued. By adding discussion to a daily lesson, students are able to interact with their peers and learn social skills that a PowerPoint can’t provide. To students, their ideas are being stifled, instead of being built upon and growing with each new piece of information. Students should be allowed to be wrong. People learn by failure or their mistakes. Currently lesson plans aren’t allowing for students to speak out or state their opinions. Instead they’re given a PowerPoint and asked to regurgitate cold facts versus adapting to multiple cognitive styles.
• There is a lack of challenge or stimulation. This idea usually applies to the outstanding students whose knowledge goes beyond the average. Students who are deemed gifted in school aren’t given the same attention as the average or below-average student. Instead, they are shuffled off to the library to further research a topic or write twice as many essays as their peers. These students need to be challenged just as much as the next student, and not giving them that opportunity is robbing them of a love for learning and a proper education.
• Cognitive styles aren’t being met. People learn in different ways, not just one, so why is only one or two learning styles met in a classroom? Cognitive styles are ways in which students retain information. The categories include; visual, physical, logical, aural and verbal. Usually, only the verbal cognitive style is being met, AKA reading and taking notes, or a teacher directing a lesson and the student taking notes. To get the ultimate education, a student needs to be exposed to several cognitive styles in order to retain information successfully.
• Maybe parents are to blame. Children foremost learn behavior from their parents. Parents have an enormous hand in their child’s development. When a parent didn’t enjoy school as a kid or has a negative attitude to education, their kin follow suit. Parents should make it a priority to give their child every opportunity they can, so keep any educational prejudices to yourself moms and dads.
• Healthy student-teacher relationships aren’t made. Teachers aren’t encouraged to create meaningful relationships with their students, therefore, students typically learn to mistrust their teachers. Test scores, test scores, test scores. Teachers are pushed to produce students who have high test scores. This causes a rift between teacher and student because the lessons they’re learning aren’t meaningful anymore. The educational material then becomes dull and both teacher and student become frustrated. What happened to the passion behind teaching? There aren’t healthy bonds forming in the classroom, which makes the environment difficult to learn in because it seems so harsh and cold.

Education matters. It creates bright, intelligent and caring citizens of our world. Without a love for learning, proper care in lesson planning and healthy student-teacher relationships, there is a lack of passionate learners in the world. Now that we’ve identified reasons why you may not be an enthusiastic student, it is your job to do something about it. An enthusiastic student seeks out all the opportunities education can hold, so break the rut. Discontinue the vicious cycle of a “bored student.” Create a love for life-long learning within yourself.