When the Playing Ends

I find myself struggling in my eighth grade classroom to connect with my students oftimes, pleading, straining, stretching for any angle I can to get them to pay attention to the material I am presenting, to take notes, to at least give me the outward appearance that they are attempting to learn. Many do not even put on those minimal trappings. Why bother? I'm not interested in this stuff, they think.

When I ask what would make it more interesting for them, the answer is predictable: You need to make it more FUN! Of course, that also means you need to take away any accountability, let them goof off if they want, allow them to back out when they think it is too much effort. They want to play.

They betray themselves when the class is scheduled for time on the schools limited computer resources. Are we playing on the computers today?! they ask in breathless anticipation.

Teacher education has pushed the "play as education" for years. What is simpler, make hard learning into play, and the students will learn it easily and willingly! Except they don't. When the learning gets hard, and the student must work, the student doesn't. They would rather do some work that is like play somewhere else. The student never does the tough things that must occur to be built on later, like the multiplication tables, or spelling. The study work ethic is never developed.

We are such a sports-infused culture, and there are few young people that would not understand the exhortation of a coach who, in the workup for a season, shouts out sacrifice, hard work, sweat, all to attain the final goal of a championship. Why do these very same children not understand the very same principles for their own personal victories? Instead they use athletics as a reason not to participate in academics at all, not seeming to know that it is the all-rounded individual that will win the lucrative scholarships to top universities.

The cougar cubs play at 'got-cha,' as do the coyote pups, and the bear cubs. But comes the day when the playing ends and gives way to the deadly serious business of providing food for self and a potential mate. The things you don't want to do are as important as the things you do, more so at times, because those things that do not come naturally are the things you have to work harder at to attain mastery over.