When we hear kids say “school’s boring” or “I can’t wait until I don’t have to go anymore” or any variation of the “I hate school” theme, what’s the response?

Often it’s something along the lines of:

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, all kids think that/say that.

Well, I didn’t like it either, kid, but I survived and you will too. 

You may not like it, but you have to go anyway.

 

Sound familiar?

Right. Therein lies the problem…

As a society we have come to accept K-12 education as is, in the way it’s always been done—a system that hasn’t changed in 100 years—even though kids express frustration and dissatisfaction with their educational experiences on a regular basis. We hear these in individual conversations, but it's time we roll them all up into a collective plea for change because

school no longer works for how our children learn now and will work and live in the future.

 

Yet our children are spending nearly 1,000 hours of their 6,000 waking hours per year in an experience that many of them don’t enjoy—or outright despise—some of that time.

And maybe it’s not that kids hate school per se, but maybe they don’t feel SAFE at school.

Between ever-present bullying amplified by social media, continuous school shootings, and many other issues, who would?

Maybe our kids are doing their best to learn, but they’re challenged by distractions in the classroom, or they can’t access the tools and resources they need to succeed (i.e. broadband and devices) which leads them to feeling greater levels of frustration and despair. 

TOP 5 REASONS KIDS DON'T LIKE SCHOOL

  • Lack of safety (violence, school shootings)
  • Bullying (social media, peer-to-peer)
  • School is too hard (anxiety)
  • School is too easy (boring)
  • Disconnection (too many worksheets, too much homework)
 

If your teacher gave you an assignment that required online access to complete and all you had was your mom’s phone once she gets home from work at 9pm, how would you feel?

While we don’t expect all kids to love school—or even like it every minute of the day—imagine a day when our education system supports all kids in their learning, no matter who they are, where they are, or how that learning is taking place?

What if instead of accepting things as they are, we said NO MORE to the idea of ‘I Hate School’?

We are being called to come together as a society of citizens who care about the future of our country, workforce and children, to put a stake in the ground and change the discourse around how kids are experiencing school today.

It’s time to...

unite people.

elevate voices.

and serve as a public service announcement that we can, and will, do better.

 
 

“No More I Hate School” is a social movement designed to:

  • bring awareness to the importance of what students are saying
  • bring awareness to the importance of what teachers are saying
  • provide all stakeholders—students, parents, educators, everyone who cares about the future of our country—with simple, accessible resources to inform and inspire
  • document and share school success stories (there are a lot of them!) in an effort to first change the narrative and second to change our collective approach to how school is currently being done in America

So where do we start?

…with your child, with your student, with any kid who’s a part of your life in some way and enrolled in a school of any kind—public, private, charter, homeschool, full-time online, remote learning environment.

If you’re hearing some version of “I hate school,” the place to start is to ask:

Why?

If you’d like help navigating this conversation and what to do next, we invite you to download our free resource, School Shift Toolkit.