Should School Be FUN?

Have you ever looked up the word education in the dictionary? Education is the action or process of educating or of being educated; the knowledge and development resulting from an educational process.

If we ever hope to improve our American system of education, we need to recognize the existence of a set of basic premises under which educational establishment operates.

I recently read a magazine article written by a California teacher, Euling Doastal, "Should School Be Fun?" I've decided to share some of his thoughts.

Doastal stated: "The notion, school should be fun has been enormously destructive of real education and deserves special attention."

He also pointed out that from kindergarten on, students are led to expect that school will be an enjoyable, "fun" experience.

"Fun," as it is generally understood today, has very little to do with this deeper student satisfaction, or with real learning, but is much more closely related to entertainment. The resulting negative influences on curriculum, the teachers, and our students have been tragic.

 Here are some of Mr. Doastol's thoughts on the impact of this fun theory. Doastal mentioned how teachers feel pressured to make their subject interesting, enjoyable, and "fun". Some teachers will play games with the students to help them learn their math skills. Some teachers wanting their students to know their history or English may show a lot of movies or go on numerous field trips. They do "fun" things to make class more interesting. Doastal said, "The pressures on the teachers to change their stick-in-the mud attitude are real and so is the inevitable watering-down of the curriculum."

Doastol stated that the impact on teachers was that, "One of the most serious consequences of our preoccupation with "fun" is that the truly conscientious, caring teachers are being driven to discouragement."

"The good teacher, upon being evaluated, frequently finds that the person doing the evaluating knows little or nothing about the subject being taught."

The impaction students was brought out by Mr. Doastol saying that, "Perhaps the most tragic outgrowth of our "fun" emphasis is that it makes the deeper, more meaningful academic satisfactions almost impossible for students to experience. We are, in reality, teaching our young people that the difficult can't possibly be satisfying, thus robbing them of real fun in education, the thrill of discovering that they now understand and can do what they previously couldn't, the deep satisfaction that can only come after some effort, the feeling of a job well done."

Hopefully in sharing Euling Doastal's thoughts about, "Should School Be Fun?" it will give all of us something to think about. We should evaluate ourselves, making sure we are striving for the best curriculum, teaching, and learning that is so essential for our future.

-Shelly Steele