School of Thought 2.0 (Logo by Parkersburg South High School student Rayna Short)

STUDENT INTRO: School of Thought this week is brought to you by PSHS junior, Carter Scott. He is a member of both the track and soccer teams and plays indoor soccer. Carter is a volunteer at the local Humane Society, has several hobbies like listening to music, playing with his dog, being outdoors, and enjoys spending time with friends.

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In life, there are many things that go hand-in-hand. A toothbrush and toothpaste, paper and pencil, forks and spoons. A fourth example of this comparison would be school and stress.

According to an article on Thriveworks.com written by Delaney Hammond, “49% of students experience stress caused by school on a daily basis.” That is practically half of the student body that is being affected by stress that is directly caused by school on a daily basis.

One of the biggest factors that cause this stress is the workload. The majority of this work consists of high-point assignments, tests and quizzes, the day-to-day class activities, and homework. One thing all these tasks have in common is that they are all graded with the letters A-F. From my personal experience with school, I’d say that around 90% of all assignments are graded solely on doing the work to the best of your ability. The letter grades are awarded based on your demonstration of what you have learned in the class, although not all students can effectively learn that way.

That’s where the other 10% of that 90 comes in. That other ten percent consists of activities and events that are mostly based on participation. Said activities can be anything ranging from a mock trial in a debate class to a live radio show held by prominent figures of history in a social studies class. Even if activities like these aren’t graded with the letters, it doesn’t mean that there is nothing being learned; furthermore, kids could potentially benefit and learn more from these types of activities than they would learn from the usual month-long periods of grueling note-taking and testing.

There are four main learning styles: Auditory, Visual, Reading + Writing, and Kinesthetic. These participation-based activities are more often than not able to appeal to every single one of those different learning styles. Take the debate mock trial for example — auditory learners can learn through the directions given by the teacher and via the arguing that goes on throughout the course of the trial. Visual learners can learn through the imagery that is prominent throughout the trial itself. Students who learn via the style of reading + writing can learn through the notes that are taken throughout the trial (there’s a lot). The notes from the trial are different than notes taken in a normal class because in a normal class you’re just writing down whatever the teacher says, not actively engaging in the activity. However, in the mock trial, you’re note-taking whilst engaging in the activity with your fellow classmates. Finally, kinesthetic learners can learn through engaging in the trial and arguing with their peers. Retaining the ability to appeal to EVERY one of the four main learning styles is very rarely found in “normal” assignments.

Another reason that these participation-based activities are so impactful is that they can allow much more freedom and creativity compared to the other class assignments. In most of the classes you have, you are given an assignment that has you bound by rules. You’re given a paper, the paper has directions, there’s no creative freedom. Almost the exact opposite is true for these participation activities. Take the live radio podcast for example. The directions were to make a podcast/talk show with figures from history. This prompt gave our class an opportunity to not only have a ton of fun, but to also have creative freedom in the learning environment. In that project, I chose to portray William Taft, the US’ 27th president (although, most people probably know him as the president who got stuck in the bathtub). I had a great time during this project, and I learned a lot. Having a deviation from the usual work at school is not only very refreshing, but it’s also a great way to improve a student’s outlook on school. Instead of waking up dreading the test at the end of the day, you could wake up and excitedly gather your oversized coat and huge pillow and prepare to get yourself stuck in a bathtub (we used a laundry basket as a bathtub).

Finally, these types of activities can help relieve the burden of stress created by the work-intensive classes. These activities can give you a sort of “escape” from the usual workload. Another stress reliever is the fact that there’s no pressure for you to perform well while doing these activities. This alone could also subconsciously make students perform better and put more effort into these activities due to the lack of pressure. Instead of stressing over getting that A, students can enjoy creative freedom as well as a deviation from the day-to-day tasks and still learn.

Overall, I want to clarify that I’m not saying that tests, quizzes, and day-to-day class work are not important. “Regular” schoolwork is still very important; however, what I am saying is that these participation-based activities shouldn’t be written off as unimportant, in fact they should be used more frequently in schools. Due to these activities’ abilities to appeal to every learning style, promote creative freedom, and craft a stress-free learning environment, it’s easy to see how they could be a very beneficial addition to a teacher’s lesson plan.