DWP June 8 2015
NO FUN AT SCHOOL
by Mary Weberg
“No Fun at School!
No Fun at School!
No Fun at School!”
It’s a chant.
There is a joke in my Kindergarten class. It goes something like this:
I say,
“Oh my gosh, this is going to be fun”. It’s the cue.
The cue for them to say, “NO FUN AT SCHOOL!”
They break into laughter and smiles and repeat the phrase until said teacher has had enough.
NO FUN AT SCHOOL.
NO FUN AT SCHOOL.
What does it mean, to them? To me?
Like older students and teachers grappling with the testing situations, there are two viewpoints to our phrase.
From the children’s point of view, the chant is downright silly and ridiculous. In their world, at present, school is FUN. For the teacher to imply that there will be fun is simply
a lead in….a lead in….
a lead in to laughter and the immediate response,
NO FUN AT SCHOOL.
It’s a ritual.
Ritual.
Scheduled and performed.
As if in church, where the anticipation of the response is timed… so we can proceed to the next event.
It gives the kids a sense of security. This is our process.
OUR RITUAL.
Of course there is FUN at school! How silly to think that it would be any other way.
School is fun! We enjoy outdoor time, we learn with messy projects, and we have individual learning at “Centers”. We travel on an enormous, yellow school bus to go on trips to places that are new and exciting.
And, that is their perspective. Their reality. For now.
My point of view as the teacher is bittersweet.
Bittersweet. Bad and good?
Is bittersweet the right term, word, description for what I am knowing, thinking? I have a sense of sadness in the not-so-far-away reaches of my brain that comes with the “knowing”. The knowledge.
The secret that I have to withhold from these 5-6 year olds is that school at PRESENT is fun.
BUT, it’s going to change.
I own the understanding, the concept and the knowledge that the future holds
testing, testing,
testing, less outdoor time, harsh friendships and teachers caught in a cesspool of administrative overpowering that may make school less FUN.
Will it REALLY be NO fun?
NO FUN AT SCHOOL?
NO FUN AT SCHOOL
by Mary Weberg
“No Fun at School!
No Fun at School!
No Fun at School!”
It’s a chant.
There is a joke in my Kindergarten class. It goes something like this:
I say,
“Oh my gosh, this is going to be fun”. It’s the cue.
The cue for them to say, “NO FUN AT SCHOOL!”
They break into laughter and smiles and repeat the phrase until said teacher has had enough.
NO FUN AT SCHOOL.
NO FUN AT SCHOOL.
What does it mean, to them? To me?
Like older students and teachers grappling with the testing situations, there are two viewpoints to our phrase.
From the children’s point of view, the chant is downright silly and ridiculous. In their world, at present, school is FUN. For the teacher to imply that there will be fun is simply
a lead in….a lead in….
a lead in to laughter and the immediate response,
NO FUN AT SCHOOL.
It’s a ritual.
Ritual.
Scheduled and performed.
As if in church, where the anticipation of the response is timed… so we can proceed to the next event.
It gives the kids a sense of security. This is our process.
OUR RITUAL.
Of course there is FUN at school! How silly to think that it would be any other way.
School is fun! We enjoy outdoor time, we learn with messy projects, and we have individual learning at “Centers”. We travel on an enormous, yellow school bus to go on trips to places that are new and exciting.
And, that is their perspective. Their reality. For now.
My point of view as the teacher is bittersweet.
Bittersweet. Bad and good?
Is bittersweet the right term, word, description for what I am knowing, thinking? I have a sense of sadness in the not-so-far-away reaches of my brain that comes with the “knowing”. The knowledge.
The secret that I have to withhold from these 5-6 year olds is that school at PRESENT is fun.
BUT, it’s going to change.
I own the understanding, the concept and the knowledge that the future holds
testing, testing,
testing, less outdoor time, harsh friendships and teachers caught in a cesspool of administrative overpowering that may make school less FUN.
Will it REALLY be NO fun?
NO FUN AT SCHOOL?