Help! I Can't Learn Anything Because I'm Disinterested

Todd's a student. A college student.
Which means he chose to keep going to school.

I find him lying on one of the couches in the student center with a book over his face.
I can see that he's sleeping - a direct result of being tired and trying to read while laying down.
So I approach him quietly and suddenly blurt out, "WHAT'CHA READING TODD?!?"

Todd is visibly startled and pulls the book down from over his eyes. "It's, um, psychology of somethin'."

"Looks like you've been stuck on the same page for awhile."

Todd sits up and flips the book toward his backpack, trying to wipe the sleep from his eyes. "I've got to take this course. I don't know why..."

And then he says THE PHRASE...wait for it...here it comes...

"I'LL NEVER USE THIS STUFF ANYWAY."

There it is. Classes just started and Todd has already checked out. He doesn't connect what he's learning to what he thinks he needs to know. He's going through the motions and it's putting him to sleep.

I don't think a teacher, professor, or instructor sets out to bore students. In fact, I believe most people in the passing-on-of-knowledge-business actually feel like what they're doing is making a difference. But somewhere, somehow something gets lost in the translation.

I created a diagram that helps me understand the learning/teaching process a little better...at least from a certain angle. I found that in both teaching and learning, my enthusiasm for the material or the process has an impact on how I learn. And how I teach what I learn.

It's true that while we are learners, we are also teachers at some level. And in order to be effective teachers, we must remain constant learners.

Emotion plays a key role in my learning/teaching diagram. I don't believe learning (or teaching, perhaps, more so) can be distanced or separated from emotion. It connects knowledge to heart, mind, and soul.

On one axis, I show that a person is either moving toward passion or apathy. Passion is the emotion of feeling very strongly about a subject. Apathy means...well...who cares what apathy means.

On the other axis, I mark the ends of the continuum with learning and teaching. I realize that you can probably do both simultaneously. But I've distinguished them here based on roles more than processes.

In my experience, the type of learning/teaching that makes a difference has occurred when I'm passionate about something. It fuels my learning/teaching in a way nothing else can.

Basically, I've observed the following:

1. When a teacher lacks passion for the material, he or she creates disinterested learners. The teacher's passion is contagious in the learning process.

2. When the teacher has a high level of passion in the material, it will make the information come alive and stir the interest and motivate the student in learning. If the teacher can connect the material to something the student is passionate about, the teaching will become inspirational.

3. A student's outlook on learning effects the way he or she receives the information. A teacher may only appear to be boring on an emotional level because the student has a high level of apathy for either the material or the process in general. For example, two students can sit through the same lecture or demonstration. The one who is motivated will find the teacher inspiring, the one who is disinterested won't make the necessary connections needed to find the learning experience meaningful.

4. The student has a responsibility to be teachable - to have a learner's mind. Like the saying goes, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." When a student has a passion to learn, he or she will more readily recognize and listen to teaching.

5. The goal is to move from "disinterested" to "inspirational."

An interesting exercise from this chart is to put a name or face in each of the quadrants. I can name people who are disinterested, boring, motivated, and inspirational. Think about what makes each person appear so. What characteristics do you seek to emulate? Which ones are you quick to avoid?

Another exercise is to recognize those moments when you personally live in a particular quadrant. What factors move you from apathy to passion, or vice-versa?

Perhaps you have some other observations in regards to the diagram. Feel free to share them in the comments below.
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Tim Milburn is a student leadership consultant and speaker. He is committed to developing lifelong leaders one student at a time. His writing and downloadable resources can be found at www.studentlinc.net.

Comments

[Rosa Say]

I instantly thought of my own two children (both in college) as you shared your story of Todd’s disinterest Tim – a mere two weeks into their fall terms, both have told me some variation of that “I’ll never use this stuff anyway” line, and my heart dropped (not to mention more thoughts of costly value-deficient tuition out the window). They both want to be in school right now, for like Todd, they chose to be there, and enthusiastically so; I didn’t coerce them. However their studies are this mixed bag of courses that they WANT to take, and those that they HAVE TO take, and apparently their professors in the HAVE TO category presented them with lousy first impressions, relegating them to the disinterested part of the spectrum for the rest of the semester unless they manage to get themselves self-motivated.

I think you nail the passion part of this, and I just base it on my personal experience in teaching MWA; seeing someone else’s passion for any learning makes you more open-minded, wondering “what’s in this for me?” I often have managers at my classes because their bosses made them be there, and afterwards it’s so rewarding to have them come up and say, “You do love management, don’t you. I thought this would be more flavor-of-the month stuff, but now I’ve got to take another look and make this work for me too.” They want my passion for my work, and what I teach becomes the means for that end.

[Rosa Say]

Hey Tim, I'm wondering: How did you respond to Todd? What happened next?

[Joanna Young]

Tim, hello :-)

I recognise a lot of what you're saying here, from different ends of the spectrum - and I loved your picture chart. It's an easy way for teachers and learners to think about how they can shift themselves (quickly) from a negative state into the learning zone...

I guess my question is around how much individual teachers and learners can change things when educational systems are making it hard for them - with a focus on tests, getting through exams, an over-loaded curriculum, long hours burning teachers out - how much can individual teachers (and learners) take responsibility for lighting the flame without burning out themselves?

Are there other models we can develop which make it easier for teachers (and learners) to inspire each other, to support each other, to take breathers, to acknowledge the stuff that's boring, to have fun?

Joanna

[Robyn]

Hi Tim, I couldn't agree more with your perspective and I love the quadrants you developed to illustrate your main ideas.

Over I lifetime, I've come to see that if learning is like having a tooth pulled I won't learn all that much. If I can get into the meat of a topic and play with ideas then I really have a takeaway.

Thanks for a very thoughtful post on how to make a difference as both a teacher and learner.

[dave]

Hey Tim, I am feeling the time and effort that you put into this essay clear over here across the US. Awesome! And to second Robyn's observation; most thoughtful!

It's a cold winter's day and you come in from a hard day of play. Mom has spent hours concocting a pot of homemade chicken soup. One spoonful and your taste buds IM your goosebumps. If Mom were to leave just one ingredient out, the soup wouldn't taste the same.

...and so it is with courses that we must take in school.

I wonder if this might be a consideration:

"Help I can't learn anything because you are not connecting with the mode of learning that works best for me."

I realize in school the student doesn't have much choice and the teacher doesn't have the time nor flexibility. But, in the business world we do.

[David Zinger]

Hi Tim:

A thoughtful post on the striving towards the left hand side towards passion.

I am so ingrained to read left to right that I would put passion on the right and apathy on the left but I would love to see passion before apathy.

One thing that increases my passion is not to expect to have it all the time but have it develop as I begin to learn and become more mindful.

I sometimes find myself saying this topic or person is interesting even though I did not recognize it when I started out.

Passion can grow for me with mindfulness and active engagement.

[tim]

Rosa:

As with most things, there will be courses that are necessary to take in order to graduate. I work at a Liberal Arts University so students are exposed to a wide range of topics and disciplines.

No one can be passionate about every topic. But one can strive to be teachable. If anything, a student is learning about areas where he or she would rather not spend more time. I think college has a way of helping students figure out what they don't want to do as much as what they want to do.

As far as my conversation with Todd. When he told me that he would never need this, I said something like, "Oh you mean the ability to read, summarize, reflect, and share what you know back to the teacher in some way?"

He said, "No, psychology."

I said, "Well, you'll probably never be my therapist, but at least when you meet a psychologist, you might have something intelligent to talk with that person about."

He just shrugged. I figure he needed more caffeine if we're going to continue the conversation.

[tim]

Joanne:

Good question. I guess my overly simplistic answer is: Be the change you want to see in the world.

I can name teachers who were inspiring ALL the way through my educational experience. And it wasn't just in their field of study. It included learning outside the classroom as well as inside.

Will it be difficult to change the system? You betcha. But I believe it's worth it. I have spent the last seven years working alongside academia on a University campus in the hopes of inspiring young minds. Some teachers get it. Some don't. And students can tell the difference.

Every inspirational movie that I've seen about a teacher has shown that teacher bucking the system...teaching to inspire...teaching students rather than a subject. I guess I want to be part of the group that shows up in a story somewhere down the line in that student's life.

[tim]

Robyn:

Thanks for the comment. Your point of getting a tooth pulled got me thinking - we often learn a lot from the painful things in life.

So how does that fit into the diagram?

I'll have to ponder that one.

[tim]

Dave:

Ah yes...learning styles and approaches play a HUGE role in how a student learns. In a previous response to Joanne, I mentioned teachers who I remember as inspiring. One of the things that seems to be common was that they were willing to come at the topics and issues from a variety of vantage points that captured our interest.

[tim]

David:

Good point. I like to think of the passion/apathy axis as a journey...you're either moving one way or the other.

I think all good teachers look for that "spark" of interest and then try to find a way to fan it into flame. Interest may be the most natural and necessary way of showing us that we're moving toward passion.

[tim]

Here's an additional resource from someone who has said what I'm saying...only he says it better and got it published on CHANGE THIS!

http://changethis.com/38.03.EdInnovation

[Joanna Young]

Tim, your response is not over simplistic at all, it's totally to the point. Thanks for teaching me so gently but effectively! I know that sometimes I let the creeping voice of negativity slope into my mind, allow the remembrance of years of bureaucracy and overwork and people burning out(me included)to limit my sense of what's possible.

I prefer your approach and I love your words - esp your last sentence to me:

"teaching to inspire...teaching students rather than a subject. I guess I want to be part of the group that shows up in a story somewhere down the line in that student's life."

Thanks :-)

[Rosa Say]

Oooh… money quote Dave: “I realize in school the student doesn't have much choice and the teacher doesn't have the time nor flexibility. But, in the business world we do.”

David, when you say, “Passion can grow for me with mindfulness and active engagement.” I sense you are not at all alone in that … we can sometimes think that passion is so elusive, but I think you are right - it’s our attention which is so flighty and noncommittal!

You know Tim, I like the thought that, “college has a way of helping students figure out what they don't want to do as much as what they want to do” making all of it valuable, and I agree with Joanna in loving your approach and outlook!

What a great conversation this is!

[Angela Maiers]

Tim,
I love your quadrant! I think it illustrates what we instinctively know about teaching and learning, but you have made it so clear. Your point about being the change you want to see is not at all simplistic. I challenge educators with that very task. If they are seeing something in their students that does not represent the "being" they desire, than it is a responsibility to "BE" the student, the learner, ... you want them to be. Great and thoughtful post.

[Angela Maiers]

Tim,
I love your quadrant! I think it illustrates what we instinctively know about teaching and learning, but you have made it so clear. Your point about being the change you want to see is not at all simplistic. I challenge educators with that very task. If they are seeing something in their students that does not represent the "being" they desire, than it is a responsibility to "BE" the student, the learner, ... you want them to be. Great and thoughtful post.

[Angela Maiers]

Tim,
I love your quadrant! I think it illustrates what we instinctively know about teaching and learning, but you have made it so clear. Your point about being the change you want to see is not at all simplistic. I challenge educators with that very task. If they are seeing something in their students that does not represent the "being" they desire, than it is a responsibility to "BE" the student, the learner, ... you want them to be. Great and thoughtful post.