I Do Not Like School

This week, in one of my classes, I asked a group of Primary 5s (between 10-11 years old) if they would like to stay in an economically-challenged country with no hygiene standards to speak of and no education system in place for their citizens.  Not surprisingly, a good number of the students put up their hands and said “Yes”.  When asked to explain their choice, they said they like that that country does not force their children to go to school.

To a large extend, I feel that my students, still at a young age, do not yet appreciate what it means to not have an economically vibrant country with top-class hygiene standards.  Maybe an exchange programme with another country will get them to re-think their decision.  I remembered asking the same question, albeit in a much simpler language, to a group of Kindergarten students (between 5-6 years old).  All of them said they like school.  Although these are two different groups of students, in just a matter of 4 years, the enthusiasm and excitement that I witnessed from the younger group has been extinguished as they moved on to Primary education.

Ask a child if she would like to go to an amusement park, play computer games, or simply just cycling in the park, and you get an immediate and resonating “YES”!  Why then do we not get such response when we asked them to go to school?  As educators, we often like to assume that children do not know what is good for them and the only reason why they do not like to go to school is because they are “lazy”.  No doubt there may be some truth in that, it is also very convenient for us to just push the blame onto the children and not reflect upon our own actions.

A school will not and should not function like an amusement park.  A school has a much greater responsibility to fulfill. However, is there something we can learn from an amusement park?  How can we make school a much more pleasant place that children want to go?  A school allows our children to try out something new everyday.  It allows our children to make friends and to socialise.  Does this not sound like what an amusement park is doing to attract our children?  Maybe it’s time for us to ask ourselves if we would like to exchange places with our students.  Can we blame our children if even we ourselves do not want to be where they are right now?  How then can we make it better?