“Study skills are boring!” That is what most students tell me

Boring!? These are skills that can help them get better grades
and spend less time on homework how can they be boring?

Honestly, there is a good explanation for the bad rap that study
skills have developed over the years because a lot of boring
things are labeled as “study skills.” Learning how to use guide
words in a dictionary...a necessary skill, but boring! SQ3R a
reading strategy with many merits, but leaves me asking, “Who
wants to take the time to do all five steps?” Boring! Identifying
the main idea and supporting details on endless worksheets?
Another important skill, but still boring.

There is a broader and more important role study skills should be
playing in the lives of our middle and high school students,
especially in our current Information Age, when we must prepare
students for many careers and jobs that do not even exist yet.
Study skills are:

* The skills required to be an independent learner. * Skills
that build confidence. * Skills that develop efficiency. * Skills
that improve performance to prepare our students for high-stakes
tests and the globally competitive job market of the future. *
Skills that enable students to be proactive, make good decisions,
and think critically.

The LAST thing they should be is boring!

We were all born with a natural desire to learn. Infants,
toddlers, and pre-schoolers love to explore their world and take
pride in learning new things. Just yesterday, my four-year-old
was so excited about learning that he stood on top of his chair
and raised both arms in triumph exclaiming in a
‘na-na-na-na-na-na’ tone, “I learned a new wo-rd! I learned a new
wo-rd!” THAT was utter exhilaration over learning!

But, sometime in the elementary years, most students lose that
enthusiasm for learning, usually because they lose all of their
choices. Learning becomes dictated by their teachers, school
districts, and state-mandated curriculum. They are suddenly
swallowed into a bureaucracy of texts, tests, and lectures that
would bore any rational human being.

Much of these mandates and “lack of choices” are and will remain
out of students’ control, but there is a vital component we can
offer students to bring some pizzazz back to learning. Teach them
study skills principles and strategies to be organized and learn
efficiently. Show them they have the power to beat the system.
Well, maybe not beat the system, but at least work with the
system strategically to be successful. When strategic learning
enters the picture, students regain some control. They develop
personal power. And they learn important life-long skills that
will someday help them manage a home and career.

These may sound like lofty concepts, but they have real, concrete
implications. For example, as parents and educators:

* We can acknowledge that organizing papers and school-work is
difficult because traditional systems actually complicate the
process. We can then explore principles for organizing and
strategies to simplify the process. * We can acknowledge that
text-books are boring. But, if students understand how to
maximize their brain’s learning process, they can be strategic
readers and exponentially increase their reading comprehension
while only reading a fraction of the text. * When we want to say,
“Why can’t you plan ahead?!” we can pause and understand that
they have never really learned how to plan ahead. Armed with that
perspective, we can help them discover how to prioritize their
time and think proactively. There is a commercial that depicts
two professionals heading into their office building at the
beginning of the day. They are both neatly groomed and dressed
professionally. You can presume from their appearance and
surroundings that they are well-educated people. They are both
half-way up an escalator when the escalator suddenly stops.

They look shocked and bewildered. “I don’t need this!” complains
the woman. “Figures!” grumbles the man. They look around in panic
and start feeling around for their cell phones, but both discover
they have forgotten their phones at home.

As the commercial continues, these two “smart professionals”
remain stranded for what appears to be hours, yelling and
screaming for help and wallowing in their unfortunate sorrow that
they are stuck on an escalator. That’s right it’s an escalator,
NOT an elevator.

Are you wondering why they don’t just stand up and walk off?

That’s the point of the commercial...some solutions are so
blatantly obvious to some, but not to all. Students, in
particular, are commonly stuck on their own escalators, running
for help every time they get stuck and not employing any
strategies or critical thinking to move forward.

Arming students with study skills --skills for thinking
strategically about organizing, managing time, and learning--
gives them the power to simply stand up and walk off their own
escalator.

Taking control over their learning? Learning how to ‘play in the
system’ with strategy? There is nothing boring about that!