Watching other kids in class seeing them not caring or wanting to do their school work is upsetting, never knowing what they’re going through or why they may be affected by student apathy.
Students´ indifference is shown in many ways whether it’s lack of motivation, less interest in the environment, or barely showing interest in their school work. In an article released by the Student Centered World, student apathy is becoming more of an issue since the pandemic in 2020 as well as phones and social media being a big problem with it too. Kids are going to school but acting as if they don’t want to be there, which has become a huge issue and can lead to bigger problems in the future.
“During the pandemic we lost a lot of the human connections and motivation.” stated Carrie Yespy Triton High Schools social councilor. “Getting to stay home for an extended period of time may have made people less motivated.”
Student Centered World, an organization of teachers who create shareable lesson plans to increase student motivation, stated that apathy has never been reported in history ever before until around 2008 on a survey, ever since then it has become worse over the years. Covid seemed to have a big impact on everyone and truly affected many kids and teens all over. It’s been a challenging ride for students to come back from, as well as having technology thrown in their faces when we were kids which has been a big cause as to why a lot of students are unmotivated, causing student apathy to become a thing.
“Student apathy is shown by student absences and tardies, when students are not motivated to put any effort into their work and it can be very noticeable by the way a person carries themselves.” Ms.Mansfield, a special education teacher, had stated her opinion.
Education Week, a resource for teachers on information and educational news for students K-12, did a survey where 58 percent of high school teachers said the students show little to no care, as well as 72 percent of them said the students are distracted by cellphones.
phones have been one of the biggest issues making kids feel insecure and worthless when watching others on social media, same with the pandemic where it had caused everyone to stay in their house for almost a whole year before being able to somewhat come back to school. Even when coming back it was only for two or three days a week all this has had an impact on them and has made kids and teens lose motivation causing them skip school, classes, failing academics and other things which revolve around student apathy.
Other people believe that the pandemic was one of the biggest parts of student apathy getting worse as well.
“One-hundred percent While students were at home they retreated to their cell phones and social media to maintain real life connections to the outside world.” said Mrs. Pacheco, the vice-principal. “In the process they grew addicted to their devices. Their hours of screen time include viewing social media influencers who often promote things that go completely against what we are trying to achieve in a school environment [devious licks]. In addition, the overwhelming presence of phones within our school is a distraction to the students, faculty, and staff.”
Education to the Core, a website to give teachers help on students and resources for work, stated that building connections with students, listening to them, celebrating and letting them know when they are doing a good job, and finding out their interests can be beneficial for ice breakers and helping them learn to be more interested.
Tyler Jacobs a IA teacher for Ms.Mansfield had stated “motivation almost always occurs intrinsically — students have to learn what motivates them and work to cultivate that interest. Of course there are things that teachers can do to improve kids’ motivation, but I also think that they (kids) place too much emphasis on teachers creating motivation for them instead of creating it for themselves.”
