Student Laziness Is a Myth. Here’s Why

Kyle currently serves as the Secondary School Principal at an international school in Germany.

At some point along my journey as an educator, I made the conscious choice to believe that student laziness is a myth. But, Kyle, … come on. Surely, you’ve had lazy students in your class. EVERY class has those students. I must confess, on the surface, it sounds naive, shortsighted, and even downright foolish. One might argue that I allow myself to be duped and that I am far too easy on my students. Like anything, there is much that lies beneath the surface.

Let’s dig into how I arrived at this seemingly unrealistic belief. But before we do, I must share another key belief as it has shaped much of what I do: Our beliefs drive our behaviors.

If you believe in the power of formative feedback, you are likely to take a significant portion of your time to provide constructive, meaningful, and action-oriented comments on your students’ work. You are also likely to confer with your students, one-to-one, on how best to implement your suggestions or how to take the next steps. If you believe that the teacher is the ultimate authority in the class, you are likely to have rigid behavior-management strategies in place. If you believe the school/home partnership is crucial in the success of every student, you are likely to engage in open and timely communication with parents.

Whatever your beliefs, they drive your behaviors.

The belief that laziness exists will limit the behavior of any teacher who encounters it, and that is harmful. Essentially, it is a teacher’s get-out-of-jail-free card: If a student does not complete a task on time, and if laziness is the culprit, then giving a zero or assigning detention is the right tool for the job. Laziness, as a character trait, is something that needs to be punished in one way or another, for if left alone, it will only grow into the impediment of a successful life beyond school.

The viewpoint that a given student is lazy leaves no room for inquiry, no room to investigate, no room to discover what really may have gotten in the way of that student’s success. On the other hand, when a teacher holds firmly to the belief that laziness is a myth, they are compelled to inquire: What stopped my student from succeeding?

The answer could be related to a myriad of issues. The student might be struggling with self-efficacy, dealing with anxiety, or managing an undiagnosed learning difference. The potential struggles of today’s students could undoubtedly be the nature of a blog post in-and-of-itself. The point here is that the belief that laziness is a myth compels an educator to take action. It compels an educator to connect more deeply with their student. It compels an educator to discover the underlying cause of student failure.

Fast forward into my journey into educational leadership. I shared this belief with colleagues early on, and, as one can imagine, it got a few side-eyed looks. I can vividly remember having this conversation with a particularly energetic chemistry teacher who had an extraordinary pragmatic and logical world view. How on earth was I to convince him that laziness is a myth? Then it hit me—Pascal’s Wager!

Allow for a brief interlude for those of us who are not fully up on our 17th-century French philosophers. The following is no doubt a watered-down version of the overall premise, BUT it serves as the foundation of my argument on why it is a safe bet to believe that laziness is a myth. However, Pascal was not discussing the existence of laziness but rather that of God.

For Pascal, the wager was simple. A person either believes God exists, or does not. The case of God’s existence is equally simple: God either does or does not exist. The outcomes are therefore only four and have been placed into the following matrix to demonstrate the results of either gain or loss in an infinite or finite amount. Before continuing the read, do spend a moment to fully comprehend the four quadrants, assessing the outcomes of belief in and existence of God.

While we chuckled in person or virtually shared into a Zoom chat, we were met with shallow acknowledgement of stressors and then back to work we went. Education has had key shifts, and 2020 was different from those previous shifts. Between school shutdowns, an unprecedented mistrust of community toward educators, and political divide in society, it is no wonder sessions opened with tiptoeing around the needs of educators. These challenges have persisted while changing the landscape of our schools.

A more accurate check-in might look like this:

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Fisher, B.

When considering these squares from real voices, it may be hard to identify with one. We must brace ourselves for deeper challenges, including a looming fiscal cliff. As budgets tighten, critical resources dwindle. Support that offset behavior and mental health are among the first to go. Our teachers, academic counselors, and administrators will be left with the task of serving as ill-prepared and ill-equipped behavioral interventionist, mental health professional, and social-skills instructor. That goes in tandem with expectations of taking students with learning gaps to higher academic levels.

While well-meaning districts and leaders have facilitated after-school yoga sessions, like many other ideas, it falls short. A group of teachers, paraprofessionals, and principals from Southern California have provided insight into actionable steps to go beyond check-ins to address the impact that a post-pandemic world has had.

Getting source

Beth Fisher

Align the Currently Existing MTSS System

Schools have some version of a multitiered system of support (MTSS). Implementation falls short from three factors: 1) lack of common language and common understanding of the components of and alignment to MTSS; 2) ineffective communication across all levels of the school system; and 3) identified Tier 1 strategies need not be implemented universally.

Strengthen Classroom-Level Processes

Teachers have observed high levels of aggression, anxiety, developmental delays, relationship problems, and trauma among students. As teachers better identify challenges, they have found the most effective tool in addressing and reducing the symptoms of behaviors was consistent and clear classroom structures and routines. Schools that had strong schoolwide Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support (PBIS) systems realized more success through implementation across the school.

Implement Tiered Levels of Support

It seems the understanding of tiered levels of support is limited to identifying that there are up to four tiers of support. There is a need to establish a common language and a common understanding. Students cannot access services that adults cannot speak to clearly. Teams should look at already existing proven frameworks such as PBIS, trauma-informed practices, Zones of Regulation, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to align tiers of intervention to their MTSS framework.

Empower Teacher Assessment to Connect to Services

An ineffective process is the student study team. Teachers identify academicTeachers identify academic, behavioral, mental, or social challenges. They then follow steps outlined that, at a minimum, can take up to 12 weeks from referral, identification and implementation of interventions, and meeting to discuss outcomes. Many times a full year was wasted because teachers could have been provided the tools to act immediately. The elephant in the room: Teachers expressed signaled mistrust in their ability to serve a student just in time. Schools need to overhaul their student study-team system to allow teachers to have immediate access to implement interventions. One suggestion is to follow the Everyone Graduates Center ABC Model developed in partnership with John Hopkins University.