High school can be a try­ing time for a teenager. Every­day a student can face sleep de­privation, domestic problems, personal strife and the complex structure of inner-high school relations. However, most stu­dents come to school to learn so that they will be successful as mature adults. The teach­ing staff of Port Angeles High School comes to work each day facing many challenges. One such challenge is motivating apathetic or uninterested students to rise to their fullest potential and perform at their very best so that they can become contributing and productive members to that of their families and their communities someday.

Apathy is a lack of in­terest, enthusiasm, or concern and is a continual problem at PAHS and most high school classroom settings across the United States. Not only do uninter­ested students hurt their own future prospects, but they can also distract other students and frustrate teachers. Something students occasionally forget is that teachers are very passionate about their practice and that they don’t come to work each day for a paycheck—they come to better the lives of their students and instill in them a passion for the life-long pursuit of learning.

However, few teachers feel comfortable expressing how they feel when they are confronted with either uninterested or unwilling stu­dents. I had the opportunity to ask several PAHS teachers for their opinion on the subject of apathy in the classroom so that PAHS students might have a better understanding of what educators have to put up with on daily basis. The PAHS teachers I interviewed asked to maintain their anonymity in their responses in order to maintain the trust of their personal relationship with that of their own students. Therefore in order to respect their wishes I have placed every quote on an equal footing and all responses will be by “a teacher”.

The question that presses on the minds of students, both active and apathetic is: Why? Or to be more specific: Why do you believe students oc­casionally lash out or appear disinterested? Many respons­es were given by the teachers I interviewed, but one of the popular ideas was that, “Fam­ily issues can cause students to lose heart” or as another teacher put it, “I generally see these students as being angry about some serious bummers that have happened in their lives and they let that anger control or destroy their lives. Sometimes students eventually realize that stuff hap­pens, but they are not going to let that stuff keep them from be­ing the successful person they can be.”

Teachers are fully aware of a student’s woes, but sometimes an educator cannot be as effec­tive as he/she wants to be. One teacher said, “I believe each per­son has a different learning style or ‘bent’ (the way they are/act as a person). This is sometimes hard to reach when we (teach­ers/educators) have to teach our lessons. We miss being person­able with students and are ‘me­chanical’...we focus so hard on delivering our message. Then, students may become frustrated with the process or the knowl­edge given to them. Students know when we are genuinely in­terested in what they learn, and in who they are.”

When a student is sitting in class and then someone disrupts the lesson with unruly behav­ior or spends the entire period complaining, it can grate on a person’s nerves. Some students believe that teachers willingly ignore apathetic students there­fore giving them free reign to ruin the learning experience of others. However, this is not the case because when teachers were asked the question: If you were in the position of a student, how do you think you would feel about apathetic students? Teachers said that they under­stood the plight of the struggling academic and appealed to apa­thetic students and their friends. One teacher informed me that, “I would want to continue to be challenged in my academic class. There is not much one can do with or for a person who will not do what they are capa­ble of doing. If one of the apa­thetic students were my friend, I would certainly try to encour­age that person and try to be an academic support for them.” Another teacher expressed simi­lar notions, “I was in that place in both instances. I wanted to learn. I wanted to make sure I got something from my teacher each day. I wanted to ask ques­tions and I did not like it when someone tried to keep me from knowing/learning what I needed to learn. But, their apathy was there’s and not mine, so, I went ahead anyway. This didn’t stop me from caring about them as a person or as my friend.” How­ever, there are some individuals you just can’t help, but feel sorry for their situation as one teacher put it, “I would be very upset if they were denying my opportu­nity to learn and fulfill my future goals. If the apathetic students were not disrupting my oppor­tunity to achieve then I would just feel sorry for their lack of vision.”

An important fact to re­member is that teachers are human beings who feel frustra­tion and sadness just like any­one else, so it is unfair when students have the mindset that teachers are incapable of becom­ing emotionally upset. Teachers come to work every day to help their students, but the job of a teacher can be hard in the face of apathetic students. I asked the question: How frus­trated do you as a teacher be­come when faced with apathetic students or students who disrupt the learning process? One teach­er remarked, “Teachers invest an incredible amount of time, energy and love into the lessons they create and develop for stu­dents. Many times lessons are developed with certain students in mind with an intent that the lesson will address a specific need for a specific student while benefiting the entire class in that subject. When students will not do what they are able to do and even express, ‘I don’t care.’ and then will not even try, it truly [is a significant challenge for that of any] teacher.” But even in the face of these countless trials, teachers remain strong and understanding, one teacher took a stand by saying, “Most of the time students who are apathetic just do not have goals for the future because they are struggling with personal or family issues in the present. I hope to inspire students to get a vision for the future and how what they are doing in the class­room will affect their future.”

When it comes to ways to curb the apathy problem at PAHS one teacher gave a brilliant ex­planation of how teachers teach and the way some teachers look at discipline, “These are two dif­ferent types of questions/topics. First of all, I believe ALL stu­dents can learn at one point or another. Students’ apathy may be due to several causes and/ or issues. One of these could be the style or way of teach­ing the subject. My style may not be a students’ style, so it’s up to me to meet their style. I like making things ‘fun’ if not more ‘engaging’ for the stu­dent. I also will find a way to cause a student to be engaged in class and make them feel they are an important part of my class (and, they are im­portant). Their apathy may go away in most cases. Also, some students process differ­ently—they may need more time to figure things out before they can do quality work. (I was one of those students). Secondly, I try not to get too engaged in disruptive students. But, I’m one who will put the proverbial foot down and will not tolerate disruptions. There’s no place for disrupting a class. There’s no place for being disrespectful to me. I’ll call them on it and they usu­ally respond in a positive way. If they can’t, then, I’ll call home...contact an administra­tor...meet with parents and an administrator, or finally, ‘send them packing’. So, to answer your question about frustra­tion---I usually don’t get frus­trated...just ‘challenged’.”