Then the bell rang
One of the biggest obstacles to teaching is keeping the momentum going. When children are engrossed, engaged and motivated to learn about something, nothing will deter them. It’s awesome to watch the intensity with which they approach the subject and explore anything and everything about it.
“Then the bell rang.
I didn’t have my class for another 3 days. As they came in, again I had the same picture on the wall. The immediate response from most students was “What? Are we still doing that?”. The break had killed their enthusiasm and curiosity.”
This is a great post on how traditional school structure and design kill the motivation, enthusiasm and drive to learn by Jay at What’s got Mr T thinking.
Another blogger, Joe, had this to say from his 8th grade student Ethan on the distractions that bells and the overall school structure cause:
“School bells, the most ridiculous invention on earth. Some people want to spend a certain amount of time on certain subjects, for example; if I prefer math more than social, shouldn’t I have the right to stay as long as I like at math, and as long as I learn something and don’t screw off? No, instead, a inanimate, ringing tin can have the right to tell me what to do, where to go, and make decisions for me. A piece of metal has more authority than a living human being! Truthfully, this thought makes me feel small, and without any say. I think students should have the right to learn what they want, when they want, wherever they want and however they want to do it! If I could take health and science classes all day I would. Why? Because I am facinated about how things work, especially the human body. As for social, i don’t especially want to know what happened all those years ago. I’m also not saying that social is pointless either, many people find the past very interesting, just not me. School’s purpose in my eyes is to prepare you for the future, so why not be able to tune your studies to what you would like to become?”
The full, awesome post can be found here.
black board, white chalk 