My schooling experience (in London, less than 10 years ago) was a waste of time. If they want students to be engaged, make the material engaging.
I found Duolingo was very engaging. I also found it wildly ineffective at actually teaching me more than the absolute basics of any languages… except Arabic where it didn't even manage that.
Oh, I would also like to earn a little bit more, at least the same as a junior or mid-level developer! I have MSc students earning as much as me, with 1/10 of my experience (that's why I'm teaching them). I like to teach, but damn, I would like to be equally compensated! :)
It's a two-way street..
Even the best teachers won't be engaging to some of their students.
Moreover, this system we have is at the detriment of boys' education. Many of those who misbehave or underperform because they don't want to sit at a desk all day are loaded up with ADHD drugs because it's a system that doesn't work for them. I don't have a link but government stats show clear underperformance among boys.
I was actually never loaded with ADHD drugs even though I turned out to have needed them. Nuts that it's given to people who might not need it, while people who do need it are overlooked.
Meanwhile the Western countries are wondering why they are being eclipsed in academic performance.
Don't we all say that though?!? :) It's hard to measure the value if we can never try out the alternative and see where it would lead us.
Although, regardless of how engaging is the material, students will never know if they are already doom scrolling their phone even before the start of the class.
Sure, smartphones can be very distracting, more so than dumbphones, but there have been rules in place for phones in a classroom since the 2000s and kids would still sneak them in, this won't change kids sneaking in anything, nor does it change the fact that you weren't supposed to be on the phone in class in the first place (or that teachers can't police it or try to).
The main issue is underpaid, overworked, and more often than not, teachers who aren't properly qualified to teach (not for lack of an official paper saying they can), who can't reach troubled/lacking students, and quite frankly they don't care to or even attempt to.
Earlier today someone posted this article [1], I'd love to know out of those 72% who participated on the survey, how many are teachers that students can say: "Mrs. X is one of the best teachers I've ever had. She always makes the lessons interesting and goes out of her way to help us understand the material.", "Mr. X really cares about his students. He takes the time to get to know us and makes learning fun."
I'm sure a lot of you from the newer generations have experienced that moment where you turned to the internet to learn something from Youtube because the teacher in class couldn't be bothered to, or simply was inept at explaining it in a way that YOU could understand, but some random Indian guy on Youtube can. Not to say that the older generations didn't have similar experiences.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/06/12/72-percen...
PS: This isn't me saying that we should or shouldn't ban phone, (phones have been banned from classrooms since the start anyway), this is me saying that we have much bigger problems that are overshadowed by scapegoats which no one bothers to bring up.
Why is no one talking about the fact that so many school's infrastructure is so bad that it can potentially even be a risk to your child's health, physical and mental, I.E: extremely hot or cold classrooms, poor ventilation, the bathrooms being unsanitary, etc...
Why are kids 180cm+ sitting down on wooden chairs meant for kids with 40cm less?
Why are kids forced to carry 10kg+ worth of books on their back every morning, (which cost a fortune btw).
Why does no one talk about the food that's served to kids being terrible, not just unhealthy, but just horrible because they will hire the cheapest contract and purchase the cheapest ingredients, and often times quite unsanitary looking (if those kitchen's I grew up seeing were restaurants, I wouldn't eat there.)
What about staff who won't give a flying * about your 14 year old child smoking behind the school's building, or getting bullied right there in-front of everyone and the excuse is that they aren't paid well enough to care.
You can keep listing problems that honestly rank higher and contribute to your child's poor education more.
Sorry for the rant.
<< The main issue is underpaid, overworked, and more often than not, teachers who aren't properly qualified to teach (not for lack of an official paper saying they can), who can't reach troubled/lacking students, and quite frankly they don't care to or even attempt to.
It is easy to paint with broad strokes. For example, in Chicagoland, teachers can be paid fairly well for the amount of work they do ( though based on some of the stories, I would not want to go through that myself; surely, some just check out ).