Procrastination

It's three a.m. and you still haven't written that report due in...four hours now? You say you're going to start typing, but wait! After an hour of refreshing the browser you've gotten a notification. "It's probably important" you say to yourself as you waste yet another hour ignoring that deadline with all of your might.

Let's be honest. No one actually wants to write a paper on the migratory patterns of Swallows or analyze every word of a poem twice to squeeze out every last drop of potential meaning from the piece. It's painstaking work that details information that you're most likely never going to need again. I think that this is the primary reason most kids absolutely abhor school. The sole object of most work that we do as students is (at least in High School) just meant to keep us busy. We are assigned passive learning activities that do little to challenge us and only succeed in boring us to tears. It's no wonder that we push off the work for another half hour playing Skyrim or another chapter of a good book. At least then, we reason, we're accomplishing something. We're doing something we care about.

As an avid and unabashed procrastinator, I want to get to the root of the issue. By all accounts, it's my own fault. Nobody's forcing me to put off work until I'm stressed out of my mind trying to get everything done on time. But in all fairness, I do think that our school system is a bit at fault as well. I mean, it's not the teacher's fault that geometry practically put me to sleep and I have to hold back a lengthy sigh whenever I hear words like particle physics. It's a teacher's job to pass down information, whether it is interesting to one particular student or not, and for the most part our teachers are doing an excellent job with that. What bothers me is that teachers have this vast reservoir of untapped potential. Maybe I'll never love chemistry, but the information given doesn't have to be presented in a way that makes me claw my eyes out. With more active and hands on lesson plans, teachers could get more students to participate without threatening a lower grade or call home to parents.

Thankfully, as I'm progressing in my studies, I'm encountering more teachers that strive to present information and promote growth in unconventional and interesting ways. Things like student led learning and multimedia presentations are sparking interest in fields I would never have considered at all worth my time. Unfortunately, the days of hour long lectures and ten page papers are far from over. But hopefully, with some time, students and teachers will be able to work together to create an active and gratifying educational experience for all children.