So You Think You Can Learn

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At age four, my mother decided that I was ready for kindergarten. However, to her dismay, I was not old enough to attend a public school. My mom was a stay-at-home-mom at the time, so she started to put me through kindergarten by homeschooling me. I enjoyed the one-on-one lessons and learning how to write in cursive and do arithmetic, as well as going on science field trips. Then everything changed when my mother decided that she wanted to go to college to become a nurse, therefore I would have to go to public school. By then I was in first grade, a grade ahead of my peers, so my mother gave me the options of either being in kindergarten with my peers or in first grade. I decided to study with the kids my age in kindergarten. Since I had already learned everything we were studying in class, I was ahead of everyone. I stayed on the advanced learning track, and am still on that track. When I was little, I wondered why most students weren’t as advanced as some students. When I reached middle school, I came up with the idea that Quinn Doherty, a student in the graduating class of 2019, later told me that he also had, maybe the school needed to be equipped with, as Quinn said, “teachers better trained to explain.” I kept that notion for a while, until one day as I was at school, I really started to pay attention to the way that the teachers were getting frustrated with the students. I realized that maybe it wasn't the teachers that didn’t know how to explain things well, but rather the students weren't paying attention. If there was a better classroom environment and different learning options, students would be able to pay attention better and learn more.

I've noticed, that my classmates who don’t pay attention that well are more apt to fail than exceed. All students learn a different way. There are three different ways to learn in a class; visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. If you are a visual learner, you learn new materials by seeing and reading. If you are an auditory learner, you can learn more fluently by hearing and listening. If you are a kinesthetic learner, a better way of teaching you would be through a more hands-on approach. If schools offered classes with teaching techniques based off the most suitable way for a group of students to learn, then students will pay attention more and absorb more education during school.

In addition to different teaching techniques, a better classroom environment is important to a student’s daily life. The environment can affect a student mood and motivation to learn. Classrooms that feel harsh and cold can make a student feel threatened by their environment, therefore they will not be as willing to learn and participate with the class. When the classroom is calming and more friendly, the student will feel more secure and willing to learn. Color studies have shown that colors affect your mood. Yellow brightens your mood and gives you energy, blue is the most productive color, green promotes tranquility and good health, pink is calming and warm, and lavender calms the nerves and allows relaxation. If schools painted the walls of classrooms colors that will improve the environment, grades will go up as well as the motivation of students to learn in class.

From the students side, the teachers need to work harder to teach us. But on the side of the teacher, Jodie Harnden provides the fact that, “It’s not that the teachers are bad at explaining, it’s that the students aren't listening.” Students are not listening! If the environment of classrooms was better and different learning options were offered, students would pay attention and listen more to what the teachers are saying. Maybe if we used these new techniques, we could revolutionize the modern classroom. It’s hard to imagine that such a small town could accomplish so much, but if everyone gave their best effort and worked together, then maybe we could be known as the generation most academically accomplished.