Apathetic Roots and Fixes

Apathy is amongst teachers' biggest complaints concerning students. Apathy, the absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement, is a detriment for any classroom. Mental and physical conditions (such as depression or drug use) can be part of such grave indifference, but other times a certain environment brews student apathy. Preventable apathy, the opposite of motivation and drive, is what teachers want to eliminate.

Teachers see apathetic students in lower grades, whereas elementary students regularly came to school eager to learn. Educators once shrugged at "senioritis" because it affected such a small minority for maybe a few weeks. More recently, apathy has grown into an issue across grades. Most significantly, the nature of apathy damages reading experiences and skills, which of course hurts early readers and then transfers into all subjects for the remainder of an educational career. Significant apathy toward reading led two teachers in the Midwest to create weekly family literacy newsletters. Teachers explained classroom goals and problems with a lack of individual learning; student apathy improved. Researchers also realized that not understanding the benefits and gratification of independent reading caused increased apathy. Once educators worked with parents, students' attitudes improved, as did overall classroom cohesion.

Aside from individual problems, student apathy hinders schools in several ways. The government allocates money to schools partially based on standardized testing. While testing, students often skip sections, sleep or refuse to participate. (Students' apathetic attitudes toward standardized testing, by the way, are teachers' biggest obstacle in considering merit-based pay or raises). Aside from skewing the accuracy of standardized tests, apathetic students disrupt class. Students who do not complete reading assignments cannot contribute to class discussions, but probably benefit from them. Such a situation creates tension and hostility among students. Teachers may be under fire for failing students, but apathetic students will refuse to study or complete homework. To compensate, teachers sometimes resort to lowering standards for more of a bell-curve. Lastly, apathy is contagious. Students struggling to survive will mimic apathetic students who never get answers wrong. Parents who claim assignments or school as silly teach their children that apathetic attitude. Once apathy infects a family or classroom, teachers can seldom fix it with a note.

Teachers can create positive learning environments, engaging lesson plans and interesting technological uses. Student apathy is beyond teachers' control. Sending home encouraging notes to parents worked in one research study, but those teachers warned that interventions were time consuming. Also, is this the proper direction for education, sending pep notes and charts home to parents? It worked, so educators will probably recreate this fix. Of course, the concept of teachers working to end apathetic attitudes that began in an environment outside of school makes a statement concerning education, one that is probably lost on apathetic parents and students.

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