I had a brief conversation with a 12 year old boy this month that went as follows:
TEACHER: “WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE SUBJECT?”
STUDENT: “ART”
TEACHER: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN ART?”
STUDENT: “MAKING CLAY ANIMALS”
TEACHER: “WHY ARE YOU MAKING CLAY ANIMALS?”
STUDENT: “I DON’T KNOW, IT’S LIKE A MATH TEST. THE TEACHERS GIVE YOU THIS STUFF AND YOU DO IT!”
Source: Does your classroom make learning visible? – EDUWELLS
There is a variation of this I saw in my elementary music classroom. Whenever I would bring another subject into a lesson, such as social studies or math, I would have students ask “Why are we doing learning this, we’re not in social studies (or math)”.
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