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When Education is Unchallenging

© Terrie Lynn Bittner

Schools today are often unchallenging, especially at the middle school level. Many schools have not yet figured out what to do with middle school students other than to keep them busy until they get to high school. Programs for gifted students generally offer more work, but seldom offer work that really challenges the intellectual abilities of the students. If a parent is not in a position to homeschool or to move a child to a better school, he is left with the responsibility of figuring out how to make a child’s education meaningful and interesting.

Do you know what classes your teen or preteen is taking? Do you know what he does in his classes, how they are taught and what they are covering? Have you read some of the textbook-if there are textbooks? Have you met the teacher? Do you know the focus of the class? Does the teacher care more about facts or ideas? If you can’t answer these questions, you need to do so before continuing. You can’t fix what you don’t know about. Meet with the teacher, read the textbook and talk to your child. When you ask what he learned today, don’t accept the standard, “Nothing.” Ask more questions. Keep asking until you find out what you want to know.

Next, figure out why your child is not being challenged. Good grades with minimal effort is one sign of an unchallenging curriculum, but poor grades with minimal effort might also be a warning sign. Many gifted children simply won’t do dull work. (This does not mean you should let him get away with this. It is just something to think about.) If the work is too simple, you can make it harder. If it simply involves rote memorization without thought, you may have to provide the thought content yourself.

Once you are familiar with the material being covered, you will need to give your child some skills to use. He is ultimately responsible for making his classes interesting. When a teacher is dull, he might consider shaking things up a little. If he has an interesting question, and the teacher allows questions, he should ask it. Sometimes a teacher thrown out of his comfort zone will become more interesting, especially if the student asks something the teacher cares about.

Teach your teen to ask questions as he reads. He should keep a notebook handy to write these questions down. Teach him to ask himself why something happened. Teach him to look for conflicting information, or incomplete information. For instance, if he reads that Dutch women in colonial America had far more freedom and equality than did other colonial women, he should automatically wonder why that is. If he reads that Martin Frobisher took an Eskimo family to Europe in the days of exploration to show them off, he should wonder what happened to them…if they went freely….were they returned or were they kept as zoo inhabitants. If he reads that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, he should wonder how he could write that all men are created equal…how he treated his slaves…how he felt about slavery. He needs to read with a questioning mind.

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