Poor Student Performance–What’s Really Wrong? By: Anthony Pellegrino

One of the major reasons that children are not learning better is most students do not know how to stuy. As a result, most teaching and motivation techniques fall on deaf ears. Until a student acquires the skill and art of studying, he will remain frustrated and exasperated in his efforts to learn. As result the student becomes indifferent, lazy, and accepts low standards.

For too long we have blamed the system, the teachers, insuff icient funding, lack of a series of national standardized exams, and other reasons. But rarely do we discuss the attitude of our students. We are more concerned they have high “selfesteem” at the expense of learning.

Recently I wrote a series of articles discussing alternative ways in which a child can obtain a good education. These proposals are well intended. Most, however, will do little to raise the quality of education. The irony will be that surroundings may change however if the student’s attitude doesn’t change, we haven’t improved the situation. Until students are taught how to study and assume responsibility for their academic achievement, change will never occur.

After much research, I am convinced that even if we doubled the number of teachers in the classroom tomorrow and lowered the ratio of students to a teacher, added more school days, poured millions of dollars more into the system, the impact on education and academic performance would be negligible. The reason is that no one has made the effort to teach students the most important academic skill: how to study!

Reality is that until students learn how to study and understand the value of education, it makes little difference how much money is poured into a school system. Until students’ attitude towards learning improves, nothing will change. We must do away with the notion that knowledge and understanding is bestowed by the teacher.
The teacher can only guide the student through the wonders of knowledge. True learning is generated by the student.

Why do tens of thousands of students in the public school system manage to learn a great deal and excel no matter how bad the school is? Are these “smart students” smarter than other students who are not doing well in school yet are in the same classrooms with the same teachers and use the same textbooks? “Smart students’ aren’t any smarter than other students. They just realize that it’s their responsibility to learn. Smart students somewhere along the road discovered a fundamental truth: Nobody can teach you as well as you can teach yourself.

Unfortunately most students see themselves as passive passengers in the learning process. They think it’s the teacher’s job to teach and their job to listen and learn. (How many parents feel the same?) So they sit back and wait for learning to happen. They insist on being spoon-fed. But learning doesn’t just happen–the student must make it happen! He must develop self-reliance to succeed.

All the solutions proposed assume that students are incapable of learning without “innovative ” programs or inspired teachers. Let’s compare these “innovative”programs to a huge buffet. Regardless of how delicious it may appear, unless the guests are hungry, no one will eat. So it is with learning. Until the student becomes curious about knowledge, there will be no learning. The best initiatives must come from the students themselves.

It is time we shift our emphasis from the excuses of why the public school system is not producing educated students, to programs that directly motivate students to learn. The first step is to teach students the art and skill of studying. Does your child know how to study? (continued)