1 obvious reason school makes kids hate learning
Ever wonder why school makes kids hate learning when the opposite should be the case? You don’t need to look too deeply to find the problem.
When am I gonna use this? That’s the universal question so many kids going through traditional public or even mainstream private schooling ask.
Teachers can talk to kids until they’re blue in the face, but if you’re reading this, you can relate. Are you using anything you learned from science or history class? Maybe if you’re in a niche career that focuses on one or the other.
But I’ll assume that’s not the case. Hell, my full-time job as a remote sports writer has nothing to do with my wellness and fitness degree. And better yet, I wasn’t even allowed to pursue sports writing during the school day.
I remember logging onto ESPN.com at the library, only for that witch of a librarian to shout “sports aren’t academic” in front of everyone. Fast forward 20 years and guess what? Maybe I should’ve been learning sports statistics and how to use them while in school.
Instead, they made me try and solve math equations, functions, and a bunch of other fucking nonsense that my brain’s hard drive filtered out. It wasn’t important, so guess what? I never retained it.
School makes kids hate learning because it’s a coercion-based system
Know why most people don’t want to learn a damn thing related to academia after they graduate high school or college, except when there’s a financial incentive? Because they associate learning with this: Sit down, shut up, face the front, and recite and repeat what I tell you to recite and repeat.
Who the hell wants to go through that? If you’re an independent thinker, you’d grow to resent this style. So, after 12-14 years of teachers slamming that mindset down your throat, learning becomes a chore.
And if you’re thinking of challenging me on this, hearken back to your old school days; that’s the only source I need. It’s why I had a vendetta against learning for years, why my friends hated going to school, and why so many of them couldn’t wait to get out of the damn place.
I remember the day I walked out of high school for the last time. The girl next to me said she wanted to streak while raising her arms to the sky. Honestly, she should’ve streaked because she was pretty hot and it would’ve been quite the show.
And we weren’t the only two celebrating. We were free. No longer prisoners to the State in an institution we never consented to attend. Free to pursue what we wanted. Only, after 14 years of complete nonsense, we lost our natural curiosity and love of learning.
When I recaptured the natural desire to learn and create
It happened when I got curious about what I wanted to get curious about. After flaming out as a personal trainer from a lack of desire, I started working in warehouses when I barely had enough to make ends meet. But rekindling the love of creativity and learning came in the months before that.
I’d sit in libraries all day, doing all I could to learn SEO and how to get eyeballs in front of my work, what enticed readers to click, and what made them stick around. Things didn’t turn around immediately for me, but it was a process I took it upon myself to learn because I wanted to.
It was a high I hadn’t felt in ages, literally since my earliest days of grade school. It brought back that curiosity. Curiosity that, when you watch young kids interact with the world, makes you understand learning is organic.
Nobody’s telling kids to explore and learn their surroundings
It’s human nature to learn them. Unfortunately, schools use the opposite approach with an artificial environment and a bell system that forces kids to focus on another subject after 45 or so minutes.
It’s a dated factory worker model. Schools consistently train kids to adopt the drone mindset. If they truly cared about a kid’s well-being, schools would train them to be craftsmen. The craftsman mindset is organic, and you only need to watch a three-year-old kid explore and create to understand that.
School makes kids hate learning because it leads them to believe they have to learn. It’s coercion. School may look benign on its surface and teachers may think they’re doing a public good. But at the end of the day, they’re contributing to why so many students associate learning with an artificial environment they wouldn’t have anything to do with if they had it their way.
Luckily, other options exist
Homeschooling and unschooling are two options. Though with the former, deconditioning a kid who associates learning with force is a prerequisite. Microschooling and learning pods are other good options, too, especially those catering to a kid’s unique needs. Podcasts like LiberatED are great listens when seeking different options.
Ideally, market-based education, like you’ll see in my young adult fantasy, The Arcane Prophecy, would be the way and the aim. My protagonist, Yote Diamondback, attends Arcane Elemental Academy, a campus with 32 schools competing for students.
Each school offers something unique to one’s learning style and personality. If they don’t do their job or if a kid doesn’t have a great experience, they can always switch schools. It’s a different environment but one that’s, when you look at it, not much of a deviation from grocery stores, auto parts stores, or restaurant choices.
How does Yote end up at Arcane? The first three chapters of The Arcane Prophecy clue you in. Check them out now and prepare to enter a world inspired by Harry Potter and Bob Murphy’s Chaos Theory and watch how Arcane helps its students achieve mastery. All without asking for permission.
