Learning is Boring!

During today's 5th grade art class we discussed the topic of 6th grade, and how when kids leave elementary school they seem to really start hating school. I asked them why they thought that was.

The top two answers?

School is boring! 

and

Learning isn't fun!

To which I responded...

"Learning IS fun!!! Don't you have fun learning in this class?"

There was a resounding "Yes!" followed by, "But this is art class."

I shot right back at them "You should be having fun learning in all your classes!"

An response came from the back of my class that made me stop mid step...

"Then my other teachers are doing something wrong."

So I asked them. "What would make learning more fun?"

The students had so many ideas that I stopped what we were doing and headed straight for the board. I said let's write your ideas up here and see what we come up with.  What should we call this? They came with a blend of fun and learning and created a new word...

Furning: How to make learning fun.

A few minutes later it was the end of class but students were still at the board. 

And below you can see some of the ideas they came up with.

more field trips, fun games, more experiments...

dance, recess everyday, iPods and iPhones...

better motivations and more freedom...

Great thoughts! And honest. And the teachers at our school are wonderful! And they are fun. But I think with all the demands and changes and new standards and new tests and new teaching methods and new students and new zoning and on and on...I think with all that we as teachers are facing, that the fun has been taken out of teaching.  And the natural result of that happening is that the fun in turn has been taken out of learning.

"Having fun would make school AWESOME!"