WHY DO STUDENTS SIT LIKE LOGS?

In Papua New Guinea there are reasons why many students sit like logs in class. The main reason is that they have come in from rural schools and do not have the written, spoken, listening and writing skill to contribute in class.

They sit and pretend to work. They may have no idea of what the teacher is saying. When time to complete written exercises from the blackboard, they spend the first 10 minutes ruling up their writing book and ten minutes copying the questions into the page.

By that time, the teacher has started to write the answers on the blackboard. So the village students copy the work into their pads. They can go the whole year without writing a single thought of their own.

Such students hide in the gardens on test day. Some will stay and complete the test if it is only objective questions. There is no difficulty in ticking responses. A student does not even have to understand the question.

There is another reason why students sit like logs. There is a culture in the class room by which no bright student responds to questions of the teacher. The class culture can be for everyone to sit like logs. Any student who breaks the rule will be punished by other students.

I recall one grade 7 student at Bumayong High. She was full of enthusiasm. Any questions from the teacher would evoke a response from her.

It took her about 3 weeks to sit like a log as the rest of the class was doing. I have seen her over the years. Last time found her doing her Masters at the University of Papua New Guinea. She succeeded in spite of the logs in her class.

I found the way to get over all this was to raise the level of enthusiasm of classes so that students became highly motivated to respond.

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1 Sep 2011 ... FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS HOLISTICS. faith, hope,

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I know how it feels to have people trying to bully me into silence. They have been trying to silence the Positive Living message for over a decade without success.

My daughters have done it the hard way too. They contributed in class until told to shut up " you white bitch" by other students. They sit like logs too. If students survive into the higher grades, the pressure drops.