Recently I was asked by a fellow teacher and coach to explain how they could help their students with struggle based learning. As a student, teenager, and someone who has dealt with system 2 type learning, this is was my reply (modified of course):

Teenagers as a whole lot are LAZY!! We are given everything we want at the snap of our fingers. Want an answer to a question? Google it; want to watch a show without commercials? get Netflix; want to see your friend? Facetime them; we never had to wait for anything in our lives.

Same as kids in the movie business: they are told who to be, how to act, what to say, what to eat, who to hang out with – they work so hard but have zero rest, and eventually, they snap! A great example would be Disney stars Miley Cyrus, or Demi Lovato etc etc.

Our school system operates the SAME EXACT WAY. You are told what material to learn and exactly how to learn it; you are told to hang out with smart kids and to leave the troublemakers out of sight; you are told that retakes don’t happen in the real world and that you have to get it right the first time to have any kind of success. When that is taken away, when we are left to fend for ourselves, we have no clue how to do it.

When you apply that struggle based learning, kids are turned off by it because they want what is easy – they don’t want to struggle, not even a little bit. Everyone’s “Zone of Proximal Development” is different and can not be generalized into one category thus benefiting every single person. The same rule applies to school – we all can’t be taught the same way. Of course this 100% customized, individual, non GMO, gluten free, what have you, learning plan is unrealistic for a public school with 2000+ kids, but it can be looked at on a smaller accord.

We have to look at our successes, our stresses, and our goals at a smaller level to obtain that ultimate desire – for you, that is for every student to learn and thrive off of system 2 based learning.

In reality calculus, algebra 2, trig, geometry, or what have you, is not essential to our lives, and unless you are a mathematician or something like it, you are never going to have to work out limits and derivatives in your life going forward. But what is essential is the problem solving skills we learn from them. KIDS DON’T REALIZE THIS AT ALL! It’s unfortunate that in America we water down our students and through common core make them robots that spit out material without actually understanding what we’re doing. The graphing calculator (inspires) is a prime example of this. So how I would approach your problem is yes, make the kids struggle a bit, then give them the answers. Ask them why something that was spat out at them works – when they can’t answer it, show them why they need to figure it out themselves by giving them real life scenarios.

For example: if you have nothing in your fridge you want to eat, you shouldn’t just call McDonalds, nor should you just not eat, you should find another solution that gives you the energy you need.

The fact of the matter is Mcdonalds isn’t going to be open forever (2020 anyone?) and that giving up is going to get you nowhere. It is problem solving, even on that smaller level, that is going to be how you are going to thrive.

This, I feel, is the hard part: your students might not like your teaching style, they might roll their eyes, or cry at their low grade… but if they’re smart, they will take what they learned with them into their real life.

With mental health recovery, you can’t make someone want to recover, and the same idea goes with this – you can’t make kids want to learn. But when they figure out that real learning isn’t a number on the top of a paper, they will be eternally grateful, even if they don’t fully realize it.