Fun is overrated

Same old, same old. (image credit)

Because I began my career as a music teacher, I’m sensitive to pressure from parents to make learning “fun.”

Learning an instrument (or anything) can be enjoyable, satisfying, and invigorating. It can also be frustrating, overwhelming, and exhausting, even when it’s going well and you love what you’re doing.

Yes, learning can be fun, too. But it isn’t inherently fun, and fun is not the goal.

To try to make things fun for kids all the time is sort of like feeding them sweet snacks constantly. It doesn’t allow them to develop a taste for anything else. And yet, even young children have a surprising capacity to appreciate other flavors.

Learning doesn’t have to be a curated experience designed to make math or reading or French seem like an episode of a kid’s favorite TV show. Learning can be like life — a buffet of interesting options which may delight or challenge the palate.

When a teacher drives herself crazy trying to make each lesson fun (it is happening today in classrooms all over the place), she is actually cultivating disrespect. Her students can sense the desperate desire to please them and make the lessons relevant to their interests. This devalues the subject she’s teaching, along with the teacher herself.

Moreover, the teacher is also showing disrespect to the students, believing that they only care about fun. In fact, students care about their own growth and learning if they’re given an opportunity and a context to do so. That doesn’t happen in a classroom that’s trying to be a carnival.

Ironically, the harder we try to make something fun, the less fun it actually is. It’s like a protein bar that is meant to seem like a candy bar. They have the same chocolate coating, but when you bite into a protein bar expecting a candy bar experience, it’s a big disappointment.

Even worse, once students become habituated to expect fun and thrills in the classroom, it takes more to satisfy them. “What else have you got?” If the teacher has expressed a commitment to make class fun and relevant to their lives, the students end up calling the shots, and nothing is good enough for them.

The sad part is, this isn’t what the students want. They love to be challenged when they believe that they have the tools to succeed. Some of my best experiences as a teacher and student were in the midst of intense work. There was nothing fun about them in the conventional sense, and yet everyone involved was fully engaged. When you care about what you’re doing and can see the progress you’re making, it’s hugely motivating — no fun required.

Kids don’t need to be entertained all the time, and teachers cannot compete with the quality of the entertainment that’s available these days, anyway. Instead, we can awaken and inspire students to take an active role in their learning and their lives. There can always be touches of the unexpected to lend a sense of fun and playfulness to the proceedings. But the fun is not the main course.