How many kids hate school: What Can a Parent Do When Your Child Hates School

National survey: Students’ feelings about high school are mostly negative

Ask a high school student how he or she typically feels at school, and the answer you’ll likely hear is “tired,” closely followed by “stressed” and “bored.”

In a nationwide survey of 21,678 U.S. high school students, researchers from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the Yale Child Study Center found that nearly 75% of the students’ self-reported feelings related to school were negative.

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 through 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 both public and private schools. The researchers found that all demographic groups reported mostly negative feelings about school, but girls were slightly more negative than boys.

“Overall,” said 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 (always) how often they felt 10 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 next most-reported emotions — all just under 50% — were stressed, bored, calm, and happy. The ratings scale supported the findings, with students reporting feeling stressed (79.83%) and bored (69.51%) the most.

When those feelings are examined with more granularity, said Ivcevic, 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.” Feeling “interested” or “curious,” she noted, would reveal a high level of engagement that is predictive of deeper and more enduring learning.

She added that many of the negative feelings may be interrelated, with tiredness, for example, contributing to boredom or stress. “Boredom is in many ways similar to being tired,” she said. “It’s a feeling of being drained, low-energy. Physical states, such as being tired, can be at times misattributed as emotional states, such as boredom.”

The researchers noted that the way students feel at school has important implications in their performance and their overall health and well-being. “Students spend a lot of their waking time at school,” Ivcevic said. “Kids are at school to learn, and emotions have a substantial impact on their attention. If you’re bored, do you hear what’s being said around you?”

Public attention has turned recently to early start times for high schools in the U.S. and how that contributes to sleep deprivation among students, which is associated with a number of other health risks — including weight gain, depression, and drug use — and poor academic performance. The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that high schools start at 8:30 a.m. or later, but the vast majority start earlier.

“It is possible that being tired is making school more taxing,” Ivcevic said, “so that 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 their 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 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. RULER doesn’t claim to prevent tiredness and boredom, but it is designed to help students to find an outlet for their feelings and to support teachers and students in developing emotion skills to promote greater engagement and enhance academic performance.

Percentage of students ages 12-18 who reported being called hate-related words at school, by type of hate-related word and selected student and school characteristics: 2017

Percentage of students ages 12-18 who reported being called hate-related words at school, by type of hate-related word and selected student and school characteristics: 2017

Table 230. 35.

Percentage of students ages 12-18 who reported being called hate-related words at school, by type of hate-related word and selected student and school characteristics: 2017

[Standard errors appear in parentheses]
Student or school characteristic	Total, any hate- related words1			Type of hate-related word (specific/characteristic targeted)
				Race			Ethnicity			Religion			Disability			Gender			Sexual orientation
1	2			3			4			5			6			7			8
Total	6. 4		(0.34)	2.8		(0.24)	1.7		(0.21)	0.7		(0.11)	0.7		(0.13)	1.0		(0.13)	0.8		(0.13)
Sex
Male	6. 0		(0.41)	2.9		(0.32)	1.7		(0.27)	1.0		(0.17)	0.8		(0.16)	0.4		(0.12)	0.6		(0.15)
Female	6.9		(0.50)	2.7		(0.38)	1.6		(0.27)	0.5		(0.12)	0.7		(0.20)	1.6		(0.25)	1.0		(0.21)
Race/ethnicity
White	6. 1		(0.48)	1.6		(0.26)	0.7		(0.20)	0.9		(0.19)	1.1		(0.20)	1.0		(0.18)	1.2		(0.21)
Black	7.4		(1.03)	5.0		(0.87)	1.6	!	(0.50)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	1.6	!	(0.57)	‡		(†)
Hispanic	6.3		(0.74)	3. 3		(0.52)	3.3		(0.55)	0.4	!	(0.21)	‡		(†)	0.8	!	(0.25)	0.5	!	(0.19)
Asian/Pacific Islander	4.7		(1.21)	4.0		(1.13)	2.4	!	(0.96)	1.5	!	(0.61)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)
Asian	4.8		(1.24)	4.1		(1. 15)	2.5	!	(0.98)	1.6	!	(0.62)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)
Pacific Islander	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)
American Indian/Alaska Native	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)
Two or more races	11. 4		(2.50)	7.9	!	(2.48)	4.9		(1.45)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)
Grade
6th	6. 7		(1.20)	2.3	!	(0.72)	1.0	!	(0.47)	‡		(†)	1.3	!	(0.53)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)
7th	7.3		(0.95)	3.2		(0.71)	2.2		(0.60)	0.5	!	(0.24)	1.0	!	(0.34)	1.1	!	(0.35)	1.0	!	(0.37)
8th	7.0		(0.89)	2. 9		(0.65)	1.3		(0.34)	1.4	!	(0.42)	0.8	!	(0.30)	0.9	!	(0.35)	0.8	!	(0.31)
9th	8.2		(1.07)	3.6		(0.71)	2.2		(0.59)	0.9	!	(0.39)	‡		(†)	1.7		(0.47)	1.0	!	(0.35)
10th	6.3		(0.86)	2.9		(0. 68)	1.8	!	(0.56)	0.8	!	(0.29)	0.8	!	(0.37)	1.0	!	(0.37)	1.2	!	(0.41)
11th	4.7		(0.90)	2.2		(0.54)	1.4		(0.40)	0.5	!	(0.21)	1.0	!	(0.45)	0.8	!	(0.31)	‡		(†)
12th	4.6		(0.82)	2.2		(0.58)	1.5		(0. 45)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	0.6	!	(0.28)	0.8	!	(0.32)
Urbanicity2
Urban	6. 8		(0.65)	3.3		(0.48)	2.3		(0.46)	0.7		(0.18)	0.5	!	(0.15)	1.2		(0.27)	0.9		(0.25)
Suburban	6.3		(0.45)	2.8		(0.32)	1.5		(0.23)	0.8		(0.17)	0.7		(0.16)	1.0		(0.17)	0.8		(0.16)
Rural	6.2		(0. 99)	1.7		(0.49)	1.1	!	(0.40)	0.5	!	(0.21)	1.6	!	(0.53)	0.6	!	(0.29)	0.9	!	(0.38)
Control of school
Public	6. 6		(0.35)	2.9		(0.25)	1.8		(0.22)	0.8		(0.12)	0.8		(0.14)	1.1		(0.14)	0.9		(0.14)
Private	3.8		(1.00)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)	‡		(†)

†Not applicable.

!Interpret data with caution. The coefficient of variation (CV) for this estimate is between 30 and 50 percent.

‡Reporting standards not met. Either there are too few cases for a reliable estimate or the coefficient of variation (CV) is 50 percent or greater.

1 Students who reported being called hate-related words were asked which specific characteristics these words were related to. If a student reported being called more than one type of hate-related word–e.g., a derogatory term related to race as well as a derogatory term related to sexual orientation–the student was counted only once in the total percentage of students who were called any hate-related words.

2 Refers to the Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) status of the respondent’s household as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Categories include “central city of an MSA (Urban),” “in MSA but not in central city (Suburban),” and “not MSA (Rural). “

NOTE: “At school” includes in the school building, on school property, on a school bus, and going to and from school. “Hate-related” refers to derogatory terms used by others in reference to students’ personal characteristics. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey, 2017. (This table was prepared October 2018.)

Every sixth Russian child does not like school.

Study

. The parents of the students themselves admitted this and explained the reasons

A survey among Russians revealed how many children hate school most often reported by parents of students in the fifth to ninth grades. This was revealed in the course of a survey conducted by the job search service SuperJob. These studies are at the disposal of RBC Life.

17% of parents said that their children do not like or even hate school. Moreover, 1% of them feel hatred for school days. 35% of parents of schoolchildren claim the opposite, that their children love school, and every tenth child not only loves, but even adores.

1,600 adult Russians living in various regions of the country, including parents of students, took part in the survey. Almost half of the respondents (46%) called their children’s attitude to learning calm. One in four (25%) said that their son or daughter loves school, but “without fanaticism.” A strong love for learning, teachers and classmates in their child was noted by 10% of respondents.

Parents of junior and high school students (15% and 14%, respectively) often talk about their tender and reverent attitude to school as to their own home. The middle link, the fifth-ninth grades, is much more likely to admit that they dislike the educational institution, 20% of the total number of respondents turned out to be such.

Respondents cited the attitude of teachers towards children, lack of interest in learning, laziness, strict discipline, heavy workload and bullying (harassment and bullying towards one person in the team) as the reasons for the negative attitude. – RBC Life ).

“According to the study, the problem of negative attitudes towards school did not arise today. Remembering their school years, 6% of Russians spoke about their hatred of lessons, teachers and the entire educational system, and 15% said that they did not like school. Every third was calm about the school, another 31% liked it, but without fanaticism, every ninth loved it very much, ”the authors of the survey explained to RBC Life.

Russians under the age of 34 were more likely to recall hatred and dislike for school than others. Respondents over 45 years of age more often admit that they love “without fanaticism” for that part of the biography.

Earlier it became known that the school curriculum will include the works of Soviet classics, including the novel by Nikolai Ostrovsky “How the Steel Was Tempered”, the story “Russian Character” by Alexei Tolstoy, the story by Sergei Smirnov “The Brest Fortress”, “The Young Guard” by Alexander Fadeev, prose and poetry about the Great Patriotic War, including Yuri Bondarev’s Hot Snow and Konstantin Simonov’s Son of an Artilleryman.

In addition, the Russian Ministry of Education has approved a new educational module for schoolchildren, which includes a lapta. Learn the rules and play it will be in physical education classes.

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Eva Akimova

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90,000 Most Russian teenagers do not like to study at the school

February 15, 2019 13:18

:18

Moscow schools – combination incongruous / frame from the series “School” (2010)

The All-Russian Popular Front (ONF) conducted a study in the field of education. The monitoring showed that in Russia the number of children who like to study at school has decreased from 35 to 28 percent. At the same time, more than half of the students complained about the lack of time in the day to do homework, their number increased from 58 to 65 percent. The number of those who lack time for their favorite activities has also increased (from 50 to 59percent). This was reported in the press service of the ONF.

In addition, the survey revealed that in 2018 the number of teenagers who attend school under duress increased in the country (from 12 to 16 percent). In general, almost half of Russian schoolchildren, 48 percent, attend school with pleasure. They noted that they rarely have a reluctance to go to lessons.

At the same time, 48 percent of students complained about the lack of interesting lessons. Another third noted that the school curriculum lacks subjects useful for the future profession with an increasing workload. From 15 to 19percent, the proportion of schoolchildren who are forced by teachers or parents to participate in competitions and olympiads has increased.

Schoolchildren note an insufficient number of interesting lessons (48%), a lack of subjects useful for their future specialty (31%) and an increasing workload. The percentage of schoolchildren who are forced to participate in olympiads and competitions by teachers or parents is growing (from 15% to 19%), the report says.

It is noteworthy that 5 percent of the children “do not like studying at all”, another 2 percent admitted that they could leave school before graduation.

Speaking about the introduction of computer technologies in education, almost half of the students (47 percent) spoke in favor of the introduction of digital technologies in education, provided that they are used only in the first half of the lesson, and the second will be interesting for the teacher. At the same time, every fifth schoolchild believes that a computer is not appropriate in all subjects and not in every lesson, and 7 percent of students would completely abandon the computer in favor of classes with a teacher.

The survey also showed that schoolchildren would like to reduce the academic load by reducing the number of disciplines, while adding to the program more relevant and necessary for career guidance. In particular, they suggested adding financial literacy classes. In addition, students encouraged to present the material in a more interesting way, based on the interests of young people. In the course of the survey, teenagers expressed the hope that all their wishes would be taken into account when drawing up the national program “Education”.

– As the national project is implemented, the requirements for the school will grow. She will be expected to have a high level of involvement of children in volunteer projects, good performance in viewing online lessons, and the introduction of “numbers” into education. It is important that in the pursuit of performance indicators, children do not suffer from the activities carried out. The best school in the world will never be the school where learning is not interesting.