The four letter word

So a friend of mine--a teacher--was sitting in a meeting when he let it slip that he has noticed that many students are getting more and more lazy. Cue gasp! No, no, no, he was assured. No student is lazy. We have to discover the underlying reason why they are not performing.

In the world of education where we don't let anyone fall behind, we fire off interventions like heat-seeking missiles whose aim is to seek and destroy, and save the day (and also our schools). Implied in several interventions is the idea that the student really wants to do well, but can't due to circumstances beyond his/her control. I buy into that for some students, but that shouldn't be true for the majority of a school population.

So when do interventions help, and when do they enable? When do they legitimately aid a student, and when do they encourage, well, laziness.

If being lazy is becoming an epidemic, how do you cure it? And why has it become a four-letter-word in education?

I recently read an article about Tiger Moms. While there is a LOT to disagree with in the article, one point that really stuck out to me is the research-based idea that is important for students to grapple with a challenging task. That is how students develop self-esteem and the belief that they can do something. Without developing that, we are basically facilitating a bunch of quitters. So many students look at a challenging task, decide it is too hard for them, and don't even attempt. They quit. However, in education, we can't let someone quit (our pay could even depend on it!).

In most everything in life, one must have a dedicated and focused work ethic. One must encounter a challenge, perhaps fail, try again, devote time, learn from mistakes, learn from others, and keep trying until one reaches success.

Sometimes, however, we are too lazy to go through that process. The path of least resistance is easier. The human body is designed to become more efficient in order to output the least amount of energy required. Laziness is tempting. And if we reward laziness, then it is not just a temptation, it is a cycle that will continue. And I think we need to realize that laziness is real; it's not a four-letter-word. It's something we can't afford putting off to deal with later. Especially in education.