By Hamida Osman

'Boring' is one word that haunts many teachers, particularly when it is used to evaluate them or critique a course that they have painstakingly put together.

What exactly does this word mean? The dictionary meaning is: 'not interesting' or 'dull'. Now whoever said that all lectures and classes must have a scintillating star-like quality about them or that they always be interesting or worthy of captivating a student's interest? Not only has it become the prime focus of our planning to make sure that no lectures are 'boring', we must also make sure that we withhold the teaching of all information and skills that helpful as they may be, do not meet the approval of our young masters.

There was a time when we too were students. How different the times were then. We would not dare to question our teachers' methods or way of teaching for we naturally assumed that teachers - who sometimes had more experience than we had years to our credit - almost certainly knew what they were doing and talking about in class. We respected their profession, their age, and their experience.

Regardless of whether our teachers were young or old, interesting or boring, we looked up to them as our mentors. We gave them all the respect that we would give to our elders, our parents and our guardians. We learnt from different kinds of teachers and took the best from each. Our main concern was to do as well as we could in every subject and be a credit to our family, our teachers and our school.

Schools were respected institutions and our teachers, reservoirs of knowledge. Regardless of their accents, their years and their manner of teaching, we gave each one the respect that was their right for we considered that since they enriched our lives in terms of knowledge, skills and experience, they deserved our undivided attention in class and our gratitude throughout life.

Times have changed. Now our students are our teachers. Teachers need to respect their feelings, empathize with their sentiments and change to accommodate their preferences. If they find reading and writing boring and uninteresting, the teacher must devise new and modern ways of teaching a lesson. They must change their style, alter the syllabus and rethink their teaching strategies so that classes are more fun and less 'boring'.

There is no doubt that classrooms are more interactive today than they were in the time when I was a student; from being teacher-centered, classes have now become student-centered. All this is fine and there is no harm in having fun while one is studying but must we be slaves to enjoyment?

At the primary and secondary level, building fun activities into the learning process works and the children, who at that age are easily distracted, benefit greatly from role-play, singing or just doing what they want. At college level, where studies are quantitative as well as qualitative, there is a dire need for developing reading and writing skills.

Brainstorming, presentations, discussions could all somehow be incorporated in the course but if the objective is for example, to write reports or research papers, then they have to be taught the formats, the tools and the content. This could sometimes be interesting, but is quite often not. Should the students then give up on learning such skills because doing so does not quite fit into their scheme of interesting things?

Today the teachers are more challenged than their students - there is a kind of role reversal in which we, as teachers and parents, are giving in too easily to make life more palatable for young people. All children must learn from doing activities themselves, they must understand that learning can often be boring, just as surgery can often be painful, but we may need both to survive.

We cannot, as parents and teachers, assure interest and enjoyment to our children and students at all times as though that were our only reason for existence. We have learnt from experience that we need to adjust to all kinds of situations, that we can learn from every kind of experience, that we are enriched and influenced by all types of people in all walks of life.

Life is not just sitting in front of a television with the remote control in our hands. It is not about changing channels at the touch of our fingertips or finding new programmes because our attention span is so short that we cannot watch any programme consistently for more than a few minutes. At a time when there are so many choices, when we are given so much independence, we need to sit back and ask ourselves if we need to be constantly entertained, and be forever the centre of attraction.

Must people all around us cater to our interest just so we are not bored, must they fall in line to our demands when we do not even know what we want? We, as teachers are not averse to change, for change is what we are exposed to every time one class passes out and another comes in its place, but not all change is good. There is a lot to be said for teachers who make their classes a fun-filled experience, whose classes are interactive and where some activity leaves behind a lingering sense of fulfillment, but there is also a lot to be said for teachers who are dedicated, hardworking and committed to their objectives and who expect their students to be likewise.

In a writing class, for example, students grow more aware of language manipulation as they write but they need to persevere and work patiently at improving their skills and this may not exactly be interesting, and may well be boring because it does not give immediate results, but it is necessary if we want to develop language competence and effectiveness.

Students must understand that if they have strong goals for intellectual and personal growth, they strengthen their commitment to excellence. Attitude does matter. It is acceptable if they say they find reading and writing difficult and even impossible at times. It is not acceptable to begin every class by saying "This is boring" or "I dislike this class" or "I do not need this subject". Negative feelings such as these get in the way of positive feelings and actions.

Not everything in life is interesting; in fact, the routine in life may be drudgery but without a routine, we would simply not be able to function. If students do not find a course 'interesting' in terms of their attitude and they need to be entertained to find a motivation for a particular subject, then there is a commitment problem.

There is no harm if teachers make a special effort to make their classes interesting, but that should not be the main aim of education. We need to tell these young people that life is not an instant recipe for success, we need to work sometimes together and at other times alone to engage our minds constructively, to change our attitudes and to accept learning in any form.

Is it only important for teachers to change in a way that they hold a group of students spellbound or is it necessary also for students to become more interested and more desirous of improving their skills, regardless of whether such a pursuit is boring or not? The choice may not be palatable, but then who said that education was a joy ride.