“School’s Boring!”: What Your Child Really Means!

We have all heard kids say that something is ‘boring’, that they don’t want to do something because they would be bored and are uninterested.  But should we believe what they say?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Children do get bored in school.  Either the work is too easy or they are not interested in the subject or thye just don’t want to learn that day.  More often than not this is the result of poor teaching but even the best teacher has to teach boring stuff on occasion.

Sometimes ‘boring’ can mean much more.  It can be an indication that your child has a learning problem and this is the excuse he or she is using to avoid having to deal with it.

Children are ‘bored’ when -

*  They don’t understand what they are being told

*  They can’t pay attention to waht is happening

*  They need to get some exercise rather than sitting still

*  They can’t do the work but don’t want to admit it

*  They want to get out of telling parents about thier day

*  They find work too easy or uninteresting

*  The teacher is not very good

*  They are asked to do repetitive work

*   They don’t understand why they have to learn this stuff!

So, being ‘bored’ at school is a way of hiding a problem of some kind.  Often the problem is with your child’s ability to learn.  If your child uses this excuse on a regular basis you need to find out more, you need to find out what it is that is causing your child to be ‘bored’ at school.

How can you do this?

Ask your child to tell you more, try and get more information about WHY he was bored.  If your child cannot tell you offer some suggestions and ask him to chose the one that is nearest to his thoughts.

For instance you could ask if your child was bored because-

*  The work was too easy/too hard

*  He didn’t like the subject/teacher

*  Other kids were messing around and causing problems

*  He wanted to be doing something else

* He hated school and was never going to go back!!

This should at least get the conversation started and give you a chance to find out why your child is bored and what you can do about it.