"I Hate School, Mom, It's Boring and Stupid!"

You sure this is not about my son??? My boy will be 13 soon and in middle school and I hear daily how much he hates it and his problems with the "authority figures" at his school.

Unfortunately the best advise I can give you is keep the doors to communication open and TALK, TALK, TALK. I feel that the public school system is NOT a good system for most boys (no matter how talented or smart). The biggest problem I see is the lack of appreciation for the difference between boys and girls in a learning environment. I believe boys need more time to get the willies out. Boys are NOT pleasers like girls. (Please understand I am talking generally about boys and girls.)

If you can afford private, you may find a better environment, I wished I could pull my son out of the public system. I know that several of my friends have been pleased with private schools, but one must understand what the school's priorities are...will you end up with more or less homework?

It is tough, but staying in touch with teachers and communicating on a regular basis will help. And try to stay centered and get to the bottom of what the real issues are (What is stupid/boring...)

C. (the only female with 5 males, luckily 2 are cats and 1 is a dog)

I took my daughter to work on "take you child to work day". She was introduced to someone from each department. The computer room, the legal department, accounting department, etc. Each department told her what it took (school wise) to have a job like thiers. I was very suprised when she was influnced most by one of our attorneys. I was also had several jury duties at the time. This also influnced her. This influenced her to take speech and debate in high school.
She graduated form UT with a communitions degree, government degree and a minor.

So, introduce them to different professionals. Who knows, who may be their inspiriation. Also, get intouch with counslers at school. They can also help out. My daughter had a great relationships with her counslers.

I think it is not hard to see that kids (and boys especially) can have a hard time being enthusiastic about learning in an environment that stiffles their natural urges like being outside, or further pursuing topics that interest them). My child goes to a wonderful private school, which probably isn't for everyone, but it is centered around learning through kids' natural curiousities and allows them to play outside as much as they need to. To some, that may sound like recess all day, but with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1, teachers are able to bring science, math, peer relationship lessons and other skills in an outdoor learning setting when the kids are outside. More info is at http://www.samschool.org.

We have 3 kids...1 boy and 2 girls. My oldest is the boy and he is also very bright and in the gifted program at shcool (originally against his will). Here is what I had to do...(not easy at all). Last year (2nd grade) he hated school so much that he disengaged and started getting bad grades, was very stressed and even had difficulties with friendships. I took him out. I knew he was bright enough to catch up and I pulled him out in February . I gave him 2 weeks to settle and then we "homeschooled" for 2-3 hours a day. He got tired of this routine very quickly and hasn't complained about school one time this year. I made sure that the homeschool work was more challenging than his other school work and gave him more responsibilty around the house. His grades are better this year and although he still struggles to do his best because school isn't his favorite thing...he knows that if he doesn't perform well then he'll be sitting at the kitchen table for up to 4 hours doing harder work. (Lots of work for parents, but I thing it will pay off).
Good luck!
By the way,
My girls love school ...I personally think that the way our public schools are structured it is girl-oriented.

I don't really have any advice, my 8 year old has the same attitude most days. And if there's not much time for recess, then it's been a not-good day. I don't know, I've tried to make more time at home for us to do stuff together, but I'm a single Mom, so it's a little different. We've talked about how things could be different, what would make it better. Mostly longer lunch and longer lunch time, of course. They really don't get a whole lot of play time, or time to just hang with their friends. He's gotten in trouble in class for horsing around with his friends and when I explained that class is not the time for it, he asked when is the time? I said recess or lunch, and he said that's barely any time. I think school should be about 8 to 5, like the parents job (selfish, I am, it would so simplify my life), but the kids would not be so rushed and instead of 20 minutes for lunch and 20 for recess, they could get 45 or so, and really feel like they had some time to just hang and goof off! But that's just me, I guess. Good luck.

Well I J. am 11 years old and i can tell u straight up why your children say that school is boring
1: well, we have to get up to early in the morning and that can have a big effect on you for doing that 5 days a week and you can have low grades, so across the USA they have been changeing when school starts
2: u go 2 school...and teachers sit there and r mean most of the time (well @ least @ my school) and then u have to do work
3: KIDS/BULLIES!!! its like i mean u cant go up to them and tell them to stop and like they r going to stop but yeah there are ways...
4: then we come home and we have all of this homework... i mean like we just got OUT OF SCHOOL and now theres MORE?!i might of well just live @ school and come home on weekends
5: then dont forget about tennis PRACTICE and CHORES
so those are at least 5 reason y school is even worse nowdays
Thanks 4 reading!!!
~J.
____@____.com.. :)