There are, I think, two kinds of boring that we can encounter in school. Some tasks, like memorizing multiplication tables, are inherently boring despite any amount of window dressing that might be attached to it (flash cards, reader rabbit type drill programs), but they are necessary as the foundation for higher learning that is interesting. There are also the boring tasks that are there to serve the structure of the system; a lot of what we do in terms of student assessment serves the educational structure instead of the student (what the hell does a 64 mean anyway? we might as well assign them colours - at least it would make report cards more aesthetically interesting). You’re right - the structure doesn’t scale. I’ve been the 1 in the class of 30 or more students, and I’ve always felt I was shortchanging them.

Boring is a very interesting topic, I think, and some ideas are falling into place that I’ll post in the near future.

I posted this somehwere else, the current system cannot scale. Most people agree that more individual customization is the best way to get the most benefit from learing, but one teacher and 30 kids is already past the limit. We need more people involved with kids and their learning, in different ways, all through their life.

It is wrong to say you need to make someone into a lifelong learing. Humans are built to learn be default. If they aren’t learning something is wrong. To imagine they need to be taught to learn is a big mistake.

I don’t disagree with you about nurturing the desire to keep learning continuously, if that’s what people want. But I also wanted to make the point that some tasks that are necessary in life, such as scrubbing toilet bowls or washing dishes or planning meals and shopping for groceries. Schools don’t necessarily need to teach students how to do these things (although all of them would have fallen within older Home Economics curricula), but we do need to teach students that some things that are neccessary for life can be kind of boring to do.