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I wish it were a surprise, but students’ feelings about high school are predominantly negative.
Over the years, I’ve learned that “boring” means something different to each student.
“Boring” is the tip of the iceberg—it’s what the student says on the surface, but the underlying reasons can be more complex.
In a nationwide survey of 21,678 U.S. high school students, Yale researchers found that most of their days are spent “bored,” closely followed by “stressed” and “tired.”
DITTO
Ask high school students NOT in the survey; they typically feel the same.
The study, which appeared in the January edition of the Journal of Learning and Instruction, also involved a second “experience sampling” study in which 472 high school students in Connecticut reported their feelings at distinct moments throughout the school day. These momentary assessments told the same story: High school students reported negative feelings 60% of the time.
“It was higher than we expected,” said co-author and research scientist Zorana Ivcevic. “We know from talking to students that they are feeling tired, stressed, and bored but were surprised by how overwhelming it was.”
Students were recruited for the survey through email lists of partner schools and social media channels from nonprofits like the Greater Good Science Center and Born This Way Foundation. The students represent urban, suburban, and rural school districts across all 50 states and public and private schools.
GIRLS MORE THAN BOYS
The researchers found that all demographic groups mainly reported negative feelings about school, but girls were slightly more negative than boys.
“Overall,” co-author Marc Brackett, “students see school as a place where they experience negative emotions.” In the first online survey, students were asked to “think about the range of positive and negative feelings you have in school” and provide answers in three open text boxes.
They were also asked to rate on a scale of 0 (never) to 100 (permanently) how often they felt ten emotions: happy, proud, cheerful, joyful, lively, sad, mad, miserable, afraid, scared, stressed, and bored.
In the open-ended responses, the most common emotion students reported was tired (58%). The following most reported emotions — all just under 50% — were stressed, bored, calm, and happy. The rating scale supported the findings, with students feeling most stressed (79.83%) and bored (69.51%).
Ivcevic said that when those feelings are examined with more granularity, they reveal something interesting. The most-cited positive descriptions—calm and happy—are vague.
“They are on the positive side of zero,” Ivcevic said, “but they are not energized or enthusiastic.” She noted that feeling “interested” or “curious” would reveal a high level of engagement that is predictive of more profound and more enduring learning.
TOO TIRED
She added that many negative feelings may be interrelated with tiredness, for example, contributing to boredom or stress.
“Boredom is similar to being tired in many ways,” she said. It’s a feeling of being drained and low-energy. Physical states, such as being tired, can sometimes be misattributed as emotional states, such as boredom.”
Obviously, the researchers noted that students’ feelings at school have important implications for their performance and overall health and well-being.
“Students spend much of their waking time at school,” Ivcevic said. “Kids are at school to learn, and emotions substantially impact their attention. If you’re bored, do you hear what’s being said around you?”
Advocates continue to push harder for earlier start times for high schools and continue to show sleep deprivation, along with several other health risks — including weight gain, depression, drug use, and poor academic performance as consequences.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that high schools start at 8:30 a.m. or later, but the vast majority start earlier.
EVEN HARDER
“It is possible that being tired is making school more taxing,” Ivcevic said, “so it is more difficult for students to show curiosity and interest. It is like having an extra weight to carry.”
Unfortunately, she added, decisions about school start times are often not made with students’ health and wellbeing in mind.
“There has been a movement in recent years to move school start times later,” she said.
“The reasons for not moving it have nothing to do with students’ wellbeing or ability to learn.” Instead, these decisions are often driven by concerns about athletic programs, extracurricular activities, and transportation.
At the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, where Brackett is the founding director and lead developer of RULER, an evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning, the goal is to give students and staff the tools to use their emotions wisely.
HOW TO DEAL
RULER doesn’t claim to prevent tiredness and boredom. Still, it is designed to help students find an outlet for their feelings and to support teachers and students in developing emotional skills to promote greater engagement and enhance academic performance.
So perhaps, with changes and tweaks, we can at least get to the happy, happier, happiest place soon.
This column is by Ritchie Lucas, Founder/CEO of the non-profit The Student Success Project. He can be reached by email at ritchie@studentsuccessproject.org and on Facebook as The Student Success Project.
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