The Secret to Ending Student Apathy
- jwink90
- Jul 25, 2024
- 2 min read
A few months ago I received an early morning phone call from my daughter who said,
“Dad, my tire has a flat. Can you help me come and change it?”
Instantly, I jumped out of bed, got dressed and ran out the door to meet her and helped her change her tire. When I got there, my daughter had everything ready for me to change the tire. We changed it together, and she was off and on her way, driving her car with now a tire full of air.
As I reflected on that moment, I thought about a school I had worked with that was struggling with student apathy. They just didn’t know how to get kids motivated to learn. They couldn't get rid of the pervasive apathy about learning.
As I process the flat tire and this school with a flat in their learning, I had this thought. Apathy is not a thing that you can get rid of. It is an absence of some thing you need. Like a tire without air, a student without spirit is apathetic. There is no such thing as light and dark. There is only light and the absence of light; therefore, you are not inspired or apathetic. You’re either inspired or you’re not inspired. Students who are apathetic are absent of the spirit necessary to learn.
You either have spirit inside you, or you don't.
So how do we change the apathy in the classroom?
You do it the same way you change the tire. In our Relationships for Learning course, we teach educators how to build the most powerful relationships that end student apathy.
First, you have to identify what is causing the flat in the child’s life. It could be low tire pressure and just needs a boost of air, or it could be a nail in the tire or it could be a complete blowout. No matter what the cause of the flat is in the students spirit it is up to us to change the tire in the life.
Second, it is not the child’s job to change the flat in their spirit. Just like I ran to my child’s aid with a flat tire, we as educators must render aid to our students and lead them in infusing spirit in their souls. Identify the source of failure in the child's spirit and address that first.
Third, fill the student up with inspriation and encouragement. Spirit is full of inspired belief that musters the courage to try.
Fourth, don't stop believing in your ability to inspire. The tire doesn't fill up instantly. It fills up with our persistence to continue to push air or spirit into the child. It may take longer than you think or want, but you have to stay committed to inspiring them.
My daughter was off and running to work, not because she had the air, but because I had the initiative and desire to see her succeed. If we want students to continue down their road to excellence, we have to recognize apathy is nothing more than a flat tire and do what every it takes to render aid and fill their souls back up with encouragement and spirit.
Don't give up; they are waiting on us to inspire them.
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