Takeaways from Chapter 6 of Why Don’t Students Like School? By Daniel T. Willingham

Do students need to become “experts” in the things they are learning in school?   

I believe that students do not need to become “experts” in the things they are learning in school. School is the place where students get to learn new and exciting things through many different trials and errors. If teachers and administration were to impose expertism for all students they would never be able to earn. It would almost always mean failure for students. Students need a place to start in their learning process and school is a perfect place to start. Teachers allow students to learn new things in a way that doesn’t force the students to always be perfect. When you are trying new things there will always be mistakes made. Willingham talks about how experts are expected to have 10 years of background knowledge and practice engrained in their brains. Students don’t have nearly as much of that information as experts do so we shouldn’t expect them to be experts. Instead teachers should encourage kids to be excited to learn and build personality in their times of youth. Teachers can cultivate that by creating a safe environment for students to learn by making mistakes. They can also encourage kids to do extra work beyond school by becoming interested in ideas that spark imagination and curiosity. That way students are encouraged by new ideas in their future.