Juveniles feel frustrated in school - can you blame them?
When my kids were small, I taught them basic life lessons like learning to tie their shoes. I noted that one primary aspect of the human spirit emerges early on… people like to try ‘doing’ the very thing that they are learning. For instance, when my daughter was shown how to tie the loops in her laces, the next thing she said was “Let me do it!”
This fact provides insight as to why many juveniles feel frustrated in school. From the age of six (or earlier) they are provided instruction in skills like Math, English and History… but there is little or no opportunity to put the learned concepts into practice. This causes many youths to exclaim, “What do I need to know this for?” a question that never seems to get answered with anything more than, “You may need it after you graduate.” Even practical opportunities for hands on experiences in subjects like wood shop, metal working, and home economics are not offered any longer in the standard school classrooms. Thus, achievement becomes a nebulous concept, and the human spirit suffers loss.
When youth are not expected to achieve or accomplish tangible results, they tend to rise to the level of expectations that are placed on them… Kids don’t do much… and idle time produces poor behavior choices. Throughout human history, citizens of nations have been recognized as adults by the age of thirteen… Teenaged kings have ruled empires with authority at such an age… They were not different in nature than today’s youth – but the expectations put on them were very different. Our youth today will rise to better expectations if they are asked to do so… But they learn through doing, as they always have… In fact we all do. When was the last time you read a complete instruction manual for your cell phone or cd player before trying it out? A popular commercial chants the phrase “Doing things is what I like to do.” Why not our teens? We will all benefit from the experience.