Our educational system has no shortage of flaws. Class sizes are too large. Teachers don’t have enough resources. Textbooks are digital (read: awful) or nonexistent. The science of effective learning is rarely utilized. Strategies for behavioral change and productivity are almost never taught. Very few classrooms are able to support mastery learning. We allow students to become tech addicted without teaching them to be tech savvy. I could go on.
So should we work to improve our educational system? Of course.
But should we just passively suffer while we wait for it to change? Absolutely not.
Because you can change faster than the system.
What Students Can Do
As a student, you can take matters into your own hands. You don’t have to be a victim. You can choose to be in charge of your learning and your success. Just as when you have a bad teacher, a bad school system is an opportunity to develop the skills of independent learning.
Although your class size might be too large to receive one-on-one attention from the teacher, it’s likely that there are opportunities outside of class for such attention: before-school office hours, help during lunchtime, after-school tutorial. And if these opportunities are unavailable to you, be resourceful: use the many excellent teachers whose videos are freely available on YouTube.
Your school doesn’t teach you how to learn? Read this blog or take Learning How to Learn on Coursera (it’s free) and start using the science of effective learning both in and out of class. Take notes and ask questions. Engage in both massed practice and interleaving to form stronger memories. Use spaced repetition to walk the mastery path. Do brain dumps and take practice tests to improve your recall.
Success is yours for the taking.
What Parents Can Do
As a parent, you can and should fight to improve our educational system, but it is not helpful to blame teachers, schools, or the system as a whole in front of your children. Such blame gives kids an out – an excuse to throw up their hands and stop trying.
Instead, your job is to keep the child’s focus on what they have control over. You need to encourage your child to be an active agent in their own success, not a passive victim of a broken system or an inadequate teacher. Ask, with empathy, “What are you going to do about it?” If they struggle to generate useful ideas, ask guiding questions. Resist the temptation to tell them what to do.
At the same time, you can facilitate better learning by greasing the wheels of success. Craft and maintain a fully stocked home study space. Purchase used textbooks to make up for the school’s digital or nonexistent textbooks. If accessing one-on-one help from the teacher requires getting to school early or staying late, figure out the transportation issue so your kid knows that’s not an obstacle.
And, as always, you can lead by example. Model being resourceful. Model using strategies (rather than brute-force willpower) to change your habits. Model a healthy relationship with technology. Model resilience in the face of discouraging circumstances.
Proactive Patience
Changing your own behavior is hard. It’s slow, difficult work. But compared to changing the entire educational system, it’s very easy.
So while you advocate for improvements to our schools, classrooms, and curricula, change what you can at home. While you patiently wait for institutional change, proactively work on yourself.
Chris Loper has been working as a tutor and academic coach since 2014, racking up over 13,000 hours of experience supporting students.
Along with Greg Smith, Chris is the co-creator of Parenting for Academic Success, a series of classes that create empowered parents, confident students, and harmonious families.
Chris writes the popular self-improvement blog Becoming Better, where he also offers habit coaching, helping busy adults with habit formation and productivity.
Chris’s most recent endeavor combines his academic and habit-formation expertise to help students thrive in college. Visit SmartCollegeHabits.com to learn more.
In 2021, he published a humorous memoir titled Wood Floats and Other Brilliant Observations, a book that blends crazy stories with practical life lessons.
He lives in Issaquah, WA, where he is the owner of South Cove Tutoring.