Apathetic people or those who are normally unconcerned and indifferent can be just anywhere. Being with an apathetic person can pose a lot of problems and misunderstanding. In the context of the classroom, where cooperation is needed, it will be very hard to related with apathetic students. But there are ways in which students, teachers and parents can avoid these people. They may either elude them or just be part of their lives and encourage them to start reaching out their hands to others. First, we have to understand the status of student apathy in different educational institutions in the country. By looking into the context of learning by which the level of student apathy is high we can see that there are many factors playing important roles. It can be noted that the cases of student apathy is high in the low-income and low-performing high schools (Thompson 50).
While many teachers blame the students or their parents for the apathetic characteristic of the students, teachers cannot deny that they also have large responsibilities in handling their students and guiding them in the classroom. Blaming normally happens especially when African American and Latino students have low grades and poor performance in school. Teachers blame students for not valuing education and for being lazy; parents, on the other hand, are blamed because they don’t care (Thompson 50). What teachers can do is to change their mode of teaching and increasing their efforts to deal with their apathetic students. In cases of educational institutions where student apathy is extensive, teachers have to quit blaming students and parents and ponder on their own method of dealing with these students. In order to avoid the increase in the number of apathetic students in the classroom, the teacher should look into the needs of the students which are not met at home or in school. They could also talk to students and their parents in order to discuss the problem and think of an effective way to deal with the student’s apathy.
Parents also have the same responsibilities as teachers. If their children show signs of being apathetic, they should have open communication with them in order to understand their situation. They should also coordinate with the teachers to know how their children perform in school. We can say that most apathetic students have problems at home or maybe they just need more help and support from their parents. With this, parents should be ready to guide their children and encourage them to do their best in school and in other activities. Parents can also influence their children to cooperate and to exert more efforts in school. In this way, student apathy can decrease if not totally avoided.
Because of certain school activities requiring group work, students cannot totally avoid working with their apathetic classmates. However, if they get to choose their group mates then it will be easier to avoid their classmates who show apathetic characteristics. But students can also influence their apathetic classmates to perform better in school. While it can be really tough to work with people who are not willing to cooperate, with enough time and effort, these apathetic students can still improve and do well in school.
Being apathetic is relative and most of the time a person may seem apathetic in the eyes of another but look normal for some. The stress of being called an apathetic person can really put down a person and would not do anything good for that person’s improvement. It is always healthy to exercise our social skills even with those people tagged as apathetic because we can never tell, maybe one day we may turn out to be the only person who can bring out the best in them.
Work Cited
- Thompson, Gail. “Beneath the Apathy.” Educational Leadership 65.5 (Mar. 2008): 50. MAS Ultra – School Edition. EBSCO.