Last week I drew an elite eight playoff bracket with school subjects in place of sports teams. I picked eight subjects and randomly filled in the brackets. Students then began to vote. In the first round physical education (gym) turned Latin into a dead language. World languages conquered English Language Arts. Art topped science, and math eked out a win over history by a fraction.
In the semi-final round art was greater than math, and gym ran circles around world languages. The final match-up this week is art versus gym.
While not a scientific poll (clearly as science was a one-and-done), the results are hardly surprising. It was not lost on me that in the week when our sophomores were taking their high-stakes state graduation requirement, our students consistently voted for subjects not on the MCAS. It’s almost like the topics our students care most about are not the topics we test and test and test them on.
I said jokingly to a colleague, “I’m in my 50s, when I see my doctor she doesn’t prescribe more grammar lessons for me, she says I ought to exercise more.” Sitting at a desk for six hours is taxing for many students. More movement might benefit them as much as it would benefit me.
Several BPS sports teams won state championships this year. Charlestown and New Mission high schools won in basketball, and Latin School won in hockey. Since gym made it to the finals in my bracket, it seems evident that many students enjoy physical activity during their school day.
In the geographic center of my school is a busy hallway which connects the two main corridors. In 2000 our beloved (and recently deceased) art teacher Jeffrey Moy dedicated the walls in that hallway to student art. Seniors who took Moy’s art elective could paint their own 12” x 12” panel which would then be affixed to the wall as a permanent display.
It took two decades to cover one side of the hallway and the second side is making progress. I have been teaching in this building for 30 years. When I travel the hallway I see the works of art created by my former students. When today’s students travel the hallway they see the spot where they hope their art shall one day hang.
Art and gym are both fan favorites and often in the media. (The Boston Herald often puts the student-athletes on the Sports section cover.) Perhaps expanding opportunities for students to take art and physical education classes would increase student engagement.
I’ll bet most people reading this story remember daydreaming about other activities while sitting in school. Times have not changed. According to a recent survey of students in the secondary level, only 37% of the respondents find the things they learn in school interesting. When asked how often they use ideas from school in daily life, the response was only 22%.
Nationally high schoolers are about half as likely to have an arts class as compared to elementary school students. Ever since Sputnik’s launch in 1957, districts all across America promoted math and science over the arts, both liberal and performance. (Math did make it to the semi-finals in my bracket.)
So what to do? Certainly we need to teach students math, science, history, and languages. I suggest we stop teaching all our subjects in silos. Spend just one day in a high school and you will see first hand just how much students value music, dance, and short skits. Spotify and TikTok are the Twin Pillars of Hercules holding up the teenage world.
We must engage our students by making their learning fun. The students who like Taylor Swift ought to love Latin poetry! I’m serious, the lyrical patterns and grammar constructions are remarkably similar. A colleague of mine once taught the history of the United States through the lens of baseball, from its origins in industrial cities, through racial integration, to international play. You get the idea.
The best way to educate students is to get them interested and involved in their studies. The students have expressed their interests in two subjects over all others. I suggest we not ignore what the students are telling us lest they ignore what we are trying to teach them.
Michael J. Maguire teaches Latin and Ancient Greek at Boston Latin Academy, and serves on the Executive Board of the Boston Teachers Union. The ideas expressed here are his own.
