Why do children attend school? Part 2

From the responses students give when I ask them their reasons for attending school I have deduced the following: students attend school because they have a realistic vision of where they see themselves when they grow up; students attend school being motivated by an unrealistic vision of where they see themselves when they grow up; students attend school because they enjoy acquiring knowledge for the sake of acquiring knowledge; students attend school because they enjoy socialising with their friends.

Unlike the students who attend school because their parents send them and who have not thought about the possible benefits of schooling, these students have given some thought to their purpose in school.

Some of these students, whom I have categorised as having a realistic vision of where they see themselves when they grow up, will identify career paths as either in the traditional professions – medicine and law – or in engineering, business, the airline industry as pilots. Other students in this group will list teaching, nursing, fashion designers, office work and such professions as their career goal.

Most of the students who have a realistic view of where they see themselves in the future are intrinsically motivated. They know what they want. They attend school regularly. They attend classes. Some will participate more than others in class but all will make an attempt to exert much more than just enough effort. For this group of students, the teacher does not have to do anything special to get them to learn. Presenting a lesson, whatever the methodology used, is enough. They will do well, that is, they will achieve passing grades on internal and external assessments. Some will achieve distinctions, some credits while others will just pass. We may extend Professor Miller’s argument here that

In every group of students born every year, you have about 10% who are developmentally precocious. They do things ahead of the rest. You have about 60% of them developmentally standard, within the normal way, about 20% developmentally lagged. In other words, there is nothing at all wrong with these students. They will achieve everything that everybody achieves but they just need a little more time. And about 10% who have developmental deficits that need to be addressed... And we are missing a lot of children who have developmental deficits that are going undetected, especially those who are socially competent, physically normal

http://www.televisionjamaica.com/Programmes/AllAngles.aspx/Videos/20319

We know what they say about assumptions but we may still go ahead and assume that these students who have voiced realistic expectations of where they see themselves in the future, a view which is supported by good performance, are the students who were born either developmentally precocious or developmentally standard. Of course, we must realise that, for whatever reason/s, some students in this group may be left behind.

There is another group of students who do not yet have a clue as to what career path they will pursue when they finish their schooling. But they perform very well in school. When they are asked why they attend school they will tell you that they like school. These students study for the sake of studying. These students, too, may be assumed to be in the groups of students who are either developmentally precocious or developmentally standard.

Then there are those students who I believe have unrealistic expectations of where they see themselves in the future. They will have the same career expectations as those students who have realistic expectations. Some of these students are reading way below their grade level but others read very well. Teachers have revealed that they have had students who read very well, they are always volunteering to read in class; their handwriting is enviable, but no matter what methodology they have used with them these students just cannot grasp the concepts to which they have been introduced.

Many of these students regularly attend school but they consistently underperform. Many of these students will do well choosing occupations which require the use of practical skills but this society frowns on practical occupations while elevating other non practical ones. Many of these students are not voicing an opinion that reflects their felt needs but are driven by what society holds dear. We may assume that among the students in this group we may find the developmentally lagged and children born with developmental deficits. These students need special interventions to unlock whatever potential they have buried deep inside.

Finally, there are students who run the gamut from the developmentally precocious to the developmentally challenged who attend school because they get the chance to meet friends. These students attend school for the sake of socialising with their peers. At least one primary school has recognised this. Among all the pithy sayings scattered on the available surfaces of the school buildings one reads, “Work before play”.

The lesson to be learnt here is that students have their own reasons for attending school while the school has its own reasons for welcoming them. For example, schools may be guided by the motto, like schools in Jamaica, that “Every child can learn, every child must learn”. The schools’ purpose, therefore, is to instil what their curricula consider relevant knowledge for the students into the students. But, the students are not passive beings, willing to be filled with knowledge as the educator and philosopher Paulo Freire warns us in his Pedagogy of the oppressed. The school and teachers have a duty to meet the students more than half way.

Therefore, teaching, the process which attempts to facilitate learning, should be carried out in such a way to engage the students. The best way of engaging the students is to first understand their motivation for being at school. After the teachers have spoken with the students, a major part of their teaching strategy should be to explain to the students why they are being taught the concepts to which they are exposed. And, part of this explanation should involve some practical illustrations. Most children, like most adults in our society, prefer interactivity over the monotony of one directional talk in settings like that of teaching and learning.

Not all children will learn everything that they ought to by the time they leave school but students will, more likely than not, respond to a teaching strategy which they perceive to be devised after consultations with them. 

Read part 1 of this article.