Learning lasts when teachers are 'brave enough to be boring'

Brett Benson used to be a fun teacher, he writes on his SOL in theWild Substack. "My classroom was loud, colorful, fast-moving." But students didn't remember much. Now, the seventh-grade World History teacher is proud to be boring.

"Real learning demands focus and time not constant novelty and high energy," he writes. In his classes, students are "working. Thinking. Recalling. Writing. Connecting. Wrestling with ideas long enough for them to stick."

There's lots of routine, because "predictability frees up working memory for actual thinking," he writes.

He doesn't try to "out-entertain screens." He tries to be consistent and clear.