"Why Are We Learning This?"

Photo credit: http://www.glasbergen.com/math-cartoons/

It's a dreaded question asked by students in school, especially in a math classroom. "Miss (blank), why do we need to know this?" Student motivation is one of the most important aspects of a successful classroom, so we need to keep in mind that students want to learn things they don't only need to learn, but want to learn. By making the material relevant to their lives, we can better get through to them.


I thought this cartoon was a good way to sum up the fact that the way teachers sometimes believe students need to learn the material because they just need to learn it, no questions asked is very different from the way that students perceive school and learning.