Young People Ask . . .

Why Don’t Others Want to Learn?

JOAN had always done well in school. She was interested in learning and was thoroughly involved in her classes. But when her family moved to another area, Joan made new friends who were not into reading and schoolwork.

“They were proud of the fact that they could scrape by academically and never have to pick up a book,” Joan says. “They made fun of the kids who studied and got good grades.” Feeling pressure to conform, Joan allowed her schoolwork to suffer. “I didn’t want any of them to think I was trying to be better than they were,” she admits. “At the time, deep down inside, I knew that I was only hurting myself, but I was too afraid of losing their friendship.”

This incident, related in the August 1983 issue of ’Teen magazine, is by no means unique. A European girl named Ana Paula recalls that she too was discouraged from learning, but not quite so subtly. Says she: “At times those who do not want to learn gang up on one who answers the teacher’s questions in class, threatening or actually striking the good student for doing the right thing!” The hostility, though, is not always directed at students. Continues Ana Paula: “Once a girl actually hit the teacher with her fist in front of the entire class.”

Schools Where It Is Tough to Learn

In Today’s Education, Kenneth A. Erickson laments the alarming number of “students who refuse to do work, use obscene or abusive language, threaten peers with physical harm, initiate false fire alarms, carry concealed weapons, phone in bomb threats, and assault both fellow students and teachers.” Concludes Erickson: “The disruptive student denies the majority of students their right to an educational climate conducive to learning. . . . The educational effectiveness of schools today is being sabotaged.”

Writer Vance Packard similarly reports: “A general rise in pandemonium is the most conspicuous change that has occurred in our public schools, especially urban schools, in the past two decades. Many teachers report that violence, mass disobedience, or resistance in the classroom are problems. . . . Along with vandalism there are on many large school grounds fellow students peddling drugs to classmates.” Many believe that illegal drugs, such as marijuana, make a large contribution to student apathy.

You, though, may be interested in getting as much as you can out of school and yet find yourself surrounded by peers who poke fun at your good grades and do everything they can to disrupt class discussions. ‘Why don’t they want to learn?’ you wonder? Yes, why the indifference​—even hostility—​toward learning? Is there anything you can do about it?

Behind the Classroom Chaos

Adolescent rebellion against school is just another manifestation of the spirit, or mental attitude, pervading the whole world. (Ephesians 2:2) Widespread disrespect for all types of authority thus prevails. During early adolescence, youths are particularly vulnerable to infection by this rebellious spirit. Educator James Marshall says that “this period becomes a flash point of hostility.” Because school tends to get in the way of their growing desire for independence, some youngsters feel “deprived of power over their own lives. They counterattack. It is not surprising that this group has the highest rate of school crime such as vandalism.”​—The Devil in the Classroom.

A longtime public-school counselor in New York City told Awake!: “From ages 11 to 13, many youngsters just seem to go crazy. They may act and react very irrationally because they are still trying to get a grip on the thoughts and feelings generated by their rapidly changing bodies.”

Why, then, do not schools simply discipline unruly youngsters? Often this is much easier said than done. In the United States, for example, the courts have taken an increasingly dim view of interfering with the “rights” of students. Schools thus administer discipline at their own risk. As a result, classroom chaos often goes unchecked.

Current Social Trends

The declining interest in learning is also a product of the changing ‘scene of the world.’ (1 Corinthians 7:31) Because of rising divorce and illegitimacy rates, record numbers of youths are raised in one-parent homes. Furthermore, record numbers of mothers have secular jobs. The result of these global trends? A breakdown of family life and home discipline, say many experts.

As another school counselor told Awake!: “There are more and more matriarchies [families ruled by mothers], and children are seeing and experiencing increased violence in the home. It can only be expected that these things will have their effects in the classroom.” The authors of To Save Our Schools, To Save Our Children say: “Schools are asked to introduce authority and disciplining to children who have no authority and discipline.” It is thus understandable why many of your classmates may rebel at the idea of quietly sitting through class.

Perhaps, though, the seeming indifference of your fellow students results from their simply being too tired for school! An article in the journal Educational Leadership speaks of “the enormous increase in the number of adolescents who have jobs. . . . Not only do more adolescents work, but they now work more hours.” The article then refers to a research study that “found that working leads to a decline in school performance and diminishes adolescent involvement in school.”

Why do so many teenagers wear themselves out with after-school jobs? At times it might be economic necessity. However, the article further says: “Most adolescents feel that they must acquire as many possessions as their peers, forcing them into the workplace.” But when failing grades result, it well illustrates the truthfulness of the words at 1 Timothy 6:10: “The love of money is a root of all sorts of injurious things.”

Bored Students, Boring Teachers

Could it be, however, that students are bored because their teachers are boring? Said one educator: “The ineffective teacher is immediately punished by the children in the room. They are restless and inattentive, willfully disobedient, often noisy and unruly.” On the other hand, a survey of 160,000 teenagers in the United States confirms that “an interesting instructor rarely has discipline problems.”

Admittedly, competent and interesting teachers are often in short supply. But in all fairness to teachers, many must work under the most difficult of conditions. Some are frustrated by bureaucratic procedures that interfere with teaching. “There’s just so much paperwork,” complained one haggard New York City teacher to an Awake! reporter. And though “the workman is worthy of his wages,” many teachers feel that they are not adequately paid for their services. (1 Timothy 5:18) Besides, teachers are only human. Is not a classroom full of yawning​—or menacing—​students enough to squelch anyone’s enthusiasm?

At any rate, for a variety of reasons, school turns many youths off. So if you are one who really enjoys learning, others might view you as odd or weird. Since “the man of thinking abilities is hated,” you may even feel hostility from peers who are underachievers. (Proverbs 14:17) They may mock you for studying or try to undermine your efforts to concentrate in class.

What should you do? Obviously you can do little to change their attitudes toward learning. And to let your grades slip just to please your peers would defeat the whole reason you are in school​—to learn! You should value this opportunity. How, then, can you learn when others do not want to? That will be the subject of a future article.

[Blurb on page 15]

“A general rise in pandemonium is the most conspicuous change that has occurred in our public schools, especially urban schools, in the past two decades. Many teachers report that violence, mass disobedience, or resistance in the classroom are problems.”​—Our Endangered Children, by Vance Packard.