How Can Schools Engage Students Who Are at Risk of Dropping Out?
Reading about the school in Japan, I feel like it is good the way they are focused on their students’ interests. I like the way they think about the students’ mental health, giving them breaks to get their minds off of the stress by incorporating video games into their studies. This can be seen as a reward to the students, making them want to finish their work quicker in order to get their own time. At this moment I feel like Wataru, where I have no motivation when it comes to school, from being a 4.0, to where I am at now, I am not proud of myself. I want to be able to feel motivated again. I wasn;t surprised by his reasoning behind not wanting to go back to school, because this is how a lot of us feel especially because of the pandemic. It feels as if everything is not the same anymore.
Schools should be more willing to incorporate ways for students to destress. Making the work more fun, or engaging with the real world in a way, may help those who aren’t motivated to get back on track. Another thing that may help is professors being more considerate of students, sometimes we got stuff going on and we may need more time for an assignment or just need a second chance to get a better grade. The way this private school was able to incorporate video games into their studies, students should be given their free time in order to help with their mental health. Things like this assignment itself, can be of help since we get to think about our lives and step away from our usual work. If I were to create a school around one of my interests, it would probably consist of music and fashion, two things that I turn to when I’m not in the mood for school.
I’m surprised and glad to hear Japan is taking incentives to help students with their mental health. But I feel like they should do more than just giving out rewards, we know that in most Asian countries like Japan and Korea, students are expected to spend their whole school day studying and they are told to attend prep classes that extend all the way into the night. That amount of pressure is not good at all and while its good to motivate kids to excel, trying to make them the best of the best is not good at all. I definitely think we should have classes that really are not just academic things, I’ve never been into fashion so I’m curious as to what that would be like.
I completely agree with all of your points. I am happy to hear what the school in Japan is doing for their students, and I wish more efforts were made to help students want to learn instead of having them fail out. If these efforts were made, I believe that the development of students will positively increase.