Most Common Cause of Boredom Among High School Students in Academic Subjects

Gatto starts his paper by addressing the problem of boredom in public schools; something anyone who has ever attended a public school can attest to. Because the majority of his audience would already agree with this statement, Gatto can then effectively make a claim about why he thinks students and teachers are so bored without having to explain the context of that claim. He believes that we are all to blame for school boredom, and supports this with a personal story about his grandfather. While it can be difficult to use personal narrative to support an argument, here it works efficiently because it is the common trope of a wise old man giving life advice, making this stranger seem more reliable. However, Gatto then seems to leave this argument of being bored behind, not referring it for the rest of his essay. It functions as a good hook to get the attention of his audience, but children and teachers being bored alone is not a sufficient argument for

Gatto informs us that he himself was a teacher for about 30 years. In those 3 decades, he “became an expert in boredom.” He believes boredom is everywhere in the classroom. When asking his students, “Why they

Gradually, lectures and discussions that were once interesting start to seem boring and irrelevant, and the temptation to skip classes become greater and greater. (Benton)

Before my child study, I had a feeling that advanced students were not being adequately challenged at my school; however, I completely underestimated the degree of boredom these students experience. It was very eye-opening to observe how quickly Kayson completed his classwork and then the amount of time he spent engaged in non-academic activities. Kayson often spent as much of 20 minutes engaged in non-academic conversations and “free drawing” because he completed his work so much quicker than the other students in the classroom. Any behavioral issues that Kayson had were attributed to his lack of boredom in the classroom. When he was scolded for talking with other students during work time, it was usually due to the fact that he finished early and did not have anything else to do.

In “Against School”, Gatto told the readers about the boredom in the schools through the teachers because the students were as bored as they, the teacher, were. In school, boredom strikes amongst both teachers and students. Gatto said it best when he stated, “Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as often as I did, why they felt so bored, they always gave the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were as every bit of bored as they were.” (Gatto, page 608). Most students do not want to be at school anyways so therefore, boring school work, unprepared teachers, and pure lecture class time would not help the matter. This next quote can still relate to today’s society, “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteacher, and anyone who has spent time in a teachers’ lounge can vouch for the low energy, the whining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found there.” (Gatto, page 608). When the teacher comes unprepared with a mindset of boredom then nothing will ever change. Although a teacher may have a routine for teaching , because they have taught the same material for years, they should never just recite it. The students have not heard this, because it is new information for

John Taylor Gatto wrote about the topic of boredom in his story “Against School.” He was an award-winning educator, so most believed his statements about education to be true because he was such a credible source. Gatto discusses his belief of having children learn more of what they will need to live on their own in the real world. He wants students to take their education with them out into the world instead of learning pointless material in public school that will never be applied to the real world. Gatto references this to boredom and uses it as an example of why some children do not enjoy school. Material that is required to be taught bores students easily, and does not expand their minds to subjects they are interested in. He asks, “Do we really need school? I don’t mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years” (Gatto, page 148-149). Students are trained to become addicts of everyday school and it strips them of responsibility and independence. Eventually, once we can understand the tricks and traps of public schooling, we can avoid them.

\item The teachers always want their lessons to be interesting and they introduce the real life problem before they can go deep into the content of the subject.

In Harper’s Magazine, John Taylor Gatto wrote an article titled, “Against Schools” where he expresses why teachers and students think that the public education system is boring and childish to them. He starts by giving a definition to the word boredom and why they feel this way. He says, “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteachers, and anyone who has spent time in a teacher’s lounge can vouch for the low energy, the whining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found there. When asked why they feel bored, the teachers tend to blame their kids,” According to Gatto, by his definition, boredom is a part of being a school teacher because of their kids who are rude and don’t care for their education. He then continues to explain an encounter he had with his grandfather, where he was hit on the back of his head for saying he was bored. In contrast to Gatto, his grandfather claims that if someone is bored, it is their own fault. “The obligation to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn’t know that were childish people.” In other words, people who blame others for their own boredom, are childish. This is why Gatto thinks that school is boring and childish. He explains through this article that teachers blame their weariness on the children they teach, and the children are blaming their boredom on their teachers along with their method of teaching. Everyone is blaming everyone for their own boredom, they forget they avoid the fact that they are in control of being amused. Gatto also implies that school is “boring and childish” by the way children are being taught, which is to only focus on their grades. Gatto also states, “Divide children by subject, by age-grading, by constant ranking on tests, and by many other more subtle means, and it was unlikely that the ignorant mass of mankind, separated in childhood, would ever reintegrate into a dangerous whole.” If a child is constantly being ranked based on their education, they will do what they can to remain in the ranked position they were put in. They will stay in the mentality of their ranked, taking away the potential that they have but never show therefore controlling children not just in school, but also in communities they identify

“ Students do become behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively involved in the learning activities their teachers provide (e.g., write an essay, solve a math problem), and their extent of effort, enjoyment, and strategic thinking does predict important outcomes, such as achievement. But students also do more than this. Students also, more or less, proactively contribute into the flow of instruction they receive as they attempt not only to learn but also to create a more motivationally supportive learning environment for themselves ( Bandura,

Wilcock (2006) agures that boredom comes from occupational deprivation or imbalance. It is well know boredom is often experienced by this age group. To overcome this Martin, Sadlo & Strew (2012) suggest people need to be active in their occupations completing them in a mindful way. This resource will provide an opportunity for mindfulness through self exploration into desired occupations and future planning for broadening occupational

For twelve years’ students do the same thing over and over again Monday through Friday for nine months out of the year, which is wake up early to go to school, take five to six classes a day, do homework, and take tests. John Gatto has taught for thirty years in many school some good and some bad, and with so many years of experience he’s learned that boredom is everywhere. Many kids where asked why they felt bored and they all pretty much answered the same way saying that the work was dumb and it made no sense or that they already knew about it. According to Gatto,” They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subject, and clearly weren’t interested in learning

Students in today's classroom are not focused in class as they should be. Some reasons involve technology, but a big factor is what they are learning is simply boring. If the school system focused more on subjects teens could relate to, school participation would greatly increase.

Boredom is good for our lives and we need to embrace it. It's a natural part of life and we shouldn't try to avoid it. It helps strengthen our brain's network system's that allows us to do the things we want. People need to realize that boredom is important and we shouldn't get rid of it. Isaac Newton discovered gravity when he was just sitting under an apple tree, watching apples fall. Great things can come from boredom. Boredom is a very important aspect in

Curiosity drives away boredom. It makes people wonder about impossible ideas. With any kind of curiosity it’s hard to be bored. In the same way without curiosity, boredom will come easy. The thing that makes curiosity so impulsive is that it isn’t easily diminished. It can sometimes be directed towards something trivial or seemingly irrelevant but nevertheless it is in someway there.

The crisis of boredom is a topic explored by Douglas Todd, the religion and ethics writer for the Vancouver Sun, in “Beware the Boredom Boom” he states that chronic boredom is a matter to be concerned about as it raises” “complex questions about the human condition.” He supports this matter by giving examples of published authors and their works about boredom. He points out that despite having many things to fill our time with, we are still looking for more novel things to do to keep our attention. He explains that almost three out of four North Americans say they crave more novelty in their lives and there are sixty nine percent of people that agree with this. He notices that it isn’t just students and seniors