If the students were already educated from home

BarcelonaI've always thought that if we focused more on teaching in high schools and students were already educated at home, we would see exponential improvements in results. If we look ridiculous in the PISA reports, it's because learning the content is no longer prioritized. This is unthinkable at university. I have a relative who is a university professor, and I asked him how he handled the issue of cell phones, now that we've banned them in secondary school because they're distracting. He confessed to me that many of his students don't even know their names. He teaches classes without taking attendance, and sometimes they take notes, sometimes they fall asleep, and sometimes he sees how they waste time on their phones. The red line is not to interrupt the teacher's concentration. Therefore, the priority is "teaching."

It is evident that high school and university are different stages and in theory students of adult age and academic concerns already dominate learning to learnBut in secondary school, there are so many fronts to tackle that it's difficult for the subject matter to gain the prominence and respect it deserves. Now, everything is dominated by diversity management, and everything revolves around the guidelines of educational psychologists—and therefore, emotions.

Trying to teach

A class hour in high school is the five minutes it takes students to enter and sit in their chairs, another five to get their materials out, five to take attendance and check for visible cell phones. They need another five to clean up, and five before that, they're already huffing and puffing because they're tired. The remaining half hour is supposed to be spent completing the material, but not without a thousand interruptions. They need to go to the bathroom, they need to charge their Chromebook, one person is making noises, another is throwing a projectile at the other, the disruptive one who needs to be expelled, the one who calls for a mid-explanation, and the ones who chatter away incessantly, which is almost all of them. Often there isn't a minute without noise. In fact, when the miracle of absolute silence occurs, they get scared and immediately have to verbalize it.

In some groups, you know you only have ten minutes of their attention, so we immediately assign exercises to see if they've understood anything. They enjoy doing exercises more than listening to the teacher because they can chat while they're doing them. And if they don't understand, they copy, and then they play the trick that if you let them listen to music, they'll work better. Our teenagers, after doing homework with AI, can spend hours looking at it. reels Absurdities that last ten seconds. This is the reality we face in classrooms. A mixture of neglect on the part of families, who have believed (or have been told) that education was a matter for schools and colleges; schools and colleges to fully accept it; and a technological world that rewards immediacy, noise, and spectacularity.

But good learning requires time and patience. Playing with technological devices may make students have a better time in class, but it doesn't deepen their understanding or long-term memorization. On the one hand, we have an environment where concentrating is more difficult, and on the other, teachers still have to devote a significant portion of their energy to repeating ad nauseam that they must sit properly, that they must not insult each other or fight, that there are school rules to follow, which teachers and teachers must respect. If they can't be quiet and listen for more than five seconds, then learning is a pipe dream.

An added misfortune

In teachers' meetings, people talk about conflicts and bureaucracy, and there is no time left to debate how we can better explain the matterPerhaps because it's a difficult issue to resolve, gurus have sought to justify that, in a century where information is just a click away, what we should prioritize is student well-being by managing their emotions. In reality, we're being asked for an even greater miracle. They want us to awaken the curiosity to learn in students who lack patience, are accustomed to trivial news, and lack a solid foundation in values and attitudes.

Furthermore, in that country we have an added misfortune: among teenagers, being a poor student is considered a good thing. There are not a few Those who, lacking other skills, boast of crashing classes and are proud of being ignorant. Rather, they're waiting for us to give them the ESO certificate to do their dirty work. Nothing is more humiliating for a teacher than a student telling you that their parents earn twice as much as you do doing it. "business" of dubious moralityThat's a lesson we should learn. To change it, of course. Otherwise, we are and will always be a failed country.