Students too Passionate to Listen in Class

Since I was growing up, I have always admired the kids who sit in class and are totally engrossed in whatever they are reading to the exclusion of anything that the rest of the class is doing. They may or may not get good grades.  They may be "gifted"--or not.  They may not even learn the material that is being fed to them, little by little, but their eyes and minds are glued to the thing they love to learn about. They may be reading a Hot Rod magazine, a video game cheat book, science fiction or any one of a million topics. The point is not that they aren't paying attention to the teacher.  The teacher has a student who clearly wants to learn some subject so badly they do it without any regard for the consequences.

As we have been taught to believe, grades are the most important thing and good grades are the key to the future:  high test scores, honor roll, scholarships, the perfect college.  Everything leads to the dream job.

Students with the type focus and passion which leads them to just read their book often hear,  "If I catch you reading one more time...that book is mine."  Teachers seem to say that because they think, "What I have to tell you is so much more important than what you are doing." Or they may be thinking, "If I let that kid get away with it, everyone else may do it too."

I have seen students who read in the back of class because it is the only time in the day they have to pursue what they really want to do because, outside of school, they are in charge of their little brothers and sisters. How can I deny a student the one thing he or she really loves to do when I know they will spend the next six or seven hours trying to wrangle four siblings from school to home, feed them, try to get them to do their homework while doing his or her own homework and finally put them to bed?  At that point, I look at the time that kid spends reading at their desk as the only chance they have to be who they want to be and learn what they want to learn for the whole day.

What if students were allowed to follow their passion instead of having to sneak a minute of reading about their favorite topic here and there? Isn't there something to be gained by looking at that kid as the beacon for the rest of the class? There is a statement which goes something like, for every person who says something there are 10 or 100 or 1000 who are thinking it but don't say it. In this situation, every kid in class loves to do something. There are probably 10 or 20 or 100 (depending on class size) students who want to disregard what is really being taught and learn about what they love.  Most kids don't have the guts to do it. I know I didn't.

What if the class did a 180 and everyone worked on something they loved?  I know there would be a way to teach students how to read a map, create a control and experimental group, write a persuasive essay or to do any other skill that is taught in a regular classroom. The only difference is that kids would be asking to learn those skills and would use them in an authentic way.  Most people learn better by doing.  Following your passion leads to having greater depth of knowledge and ability to use the skills again and again.

Everyone loves to do something, but once you have studied it and learned it, that's great.  How does one person knowing about airplanes, carburetors or horses help other people?  The next step is what @schink10 calls "Compassion Based Learning." In Compassion Based Learning, students take what they have spent hours learning about and then do something to benefit others. They can teach others, volunteer, create awareness or many other things, but the main thing is that the learning doesn't stop with them.

With passion and Compassion Based Learning, wouldn't school be more valuable to everyone?