We need to shift to a new way of learning

By Gabrielle Norton 

05/27/2024

As the date of my graduation rapidly approaches, I have taken time to reflect on my past school experiences. I realize that a lot of my school days have been spent staring at the clock and counting down the hours until dismissal. 

I have always been a good student but I have never really enjoyed school. Sure, I’ve liked some classes and of course I don’t hate learning, but I hate sitting still. A lot of students would agree with me when I say, sitting for six hours or more in a classroom is simply unattainable. 

The traditional six hour school day has been accepted as the normal in education. I believe that this model is outdated and ineffective. According to Microsoft, the average attention span tends to be around 8 seconds. The idea of students sitting in nine class periods being fully engaged for the whole day is unrealistic. 

On average I would say at least half of my six hour school day is spent doing work or watching videos for classes on my chromebook. Looking at the screen of my chromebook in a classroom where the blinds are barely open is depressing. The digital age has made school worse for people like me, who don’t find benefit in sitting all day, trying to learn. 

Instead of moving around and doing labs, most labs have gone virtual. This has led to more time sitting and looking at a screen. Talking to classmates and moving around the classroom for discussions has been replaced by many of my teachers posting as they post a question on Google Classroom and looking at students' responses from there. 

One time, it was a beautiful day outside and my classmates and I asked my teacher if we could go outside and do our lesson from there. She responded with “I would love to but the internet does not reach out there.” I found this incredibly frustrating because yet again I felt like a robot, stuck sitting all day in a dark building doing all work digitally. 

The sheer length of screen time during the school day contributes to the skyrocketing amount of students who report feelings of burnout and exhaustion. Sitting in front of a screen for this extended amount of time is mentally taxing and physically taxing, often leading to problems such as eye strain and chronic headaches. 

The dominance of screen based learning in schools leads to students lacking essential skills such as critical thinking, creativity and basic social skills. 

I believe that there are alternative practices schools could implement in order to engage students. 

One thing I believe that schools and teachers should implement into their classes is more active learning methods. Incorporating more project based learning, group discussions, hands-on activities and real world applications of the subject will keep students engaged and ready to learn. 

This would get students out of their seat, talking to other students, off of screens and ultimately provide students with a better learning environment. I appreciated the classes I took that were more discussion and project oriented. 

Schools should offer more opportunities for students to get out into the community during the school day. If schools organized more field trips and other learning experiences outside of the classroom students could gain new perspectives and understandings of what career/path they may want to pursue after high school. By offering classes that collaborate with local organizations, businesses and other community members, students could participate in meaningful community projects that could intertwine their knowledge with a real world setting. 

I would love to take a class like this as would many other students. I believe that an opportunity to go out in the community and help others could teach students lessons that are far greater than what is in the curriculum.

I believe that schools should implement “technology-free” zones in certain classes, areas in the building or during certain times of the day. These technology free times would encourage students to talk to each other and improve their communication skills. I wish that this was the case during my high school experience. 

If schools implement these alternatives to sitting in class using technology all day, students will learn in more collaborative, dynamic ways that prioritize student engagement and well being.