If you walked into a highschool classroom right now, what would you expect to see? Would it be students hunched over laptops and worksheets diligently doing their work? Teenagers raptly paying attention to the lecture their teacher is giving? Could it be students engaging in meaningful discussions about the topics at hand?
While there are certainly classrooms and students who would fit this description, it wouldn’t be the only thing you saw. In almost any high school classroom, you’ll see kids with their headphones on, staring at a phone screen while their work goes untouched. You’ll see kids chatting with their friends instead of paying attention to the content being taught. You’ll even see kids staring off into space or sleeping instead of doing any of the tasks they are assigned to or doing work to achieve success in schools, all while the teacher attempts to redirect their focus back to the lesson.
This isn’t necessarily the fault of teachers or schools, but may be the increasing levels of apathetic attitudes that students are adopting towards their schoolwork and classes.
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines apathy as a “lack of feeling or emotion” or a “lack of interest or concern,” and it fits a lot of students’ treatment of school. According to a PEW Research Center study, 58% of high school teachers say that students show little to no interest in learning in their classrooms.
The question on everyone’s minds is why are so many students so apathetic towards school. Unfortunately, there’s no one right answer for it. In fact, there are several reasons students may show a lack of interest or caring towards their education.
A significant reason students may be apathetic towards their schoolwork is the fact that they just don’t see why the work that they are doing or the content they are learning is important. When they don’t believe that what they are doing has worth, they tend to care a lot less about it.
Sophomore D’Anton Bateman is a student who, while he cares and puts effort into his core classes, shows apathy in his elective classes, including gym, orchestra and Spanish.
“I feel like the main core classes are really the most important,” Bateman said. “Other than that the other classes don’t really matter.”
Alternating attitudes according to the class is extremely common. Student’s interests vary, and sometimes those interests don’t align with the content in class. If a student is bored, or only taking a class to get the required credit, they won’t feel the motivation to participate and do their work. Some kids, like Bateman, check out during elective classes because they don’t understand the importance of them. Others do the opposite, and show the most focus during their elective classes because it’s the ones they choose out of interest in the subject.
And then of course, there’s also the issue that has been rehashed a thousand times over: screens and social media.
“The teachers have to compete with social media,” guidance counselor Theresa Covington said when asked about the leading causes behind student apathy. “Students having that overstimulation of screen time and wanting to be on social media, and then once they come to school it’s kind of that battle of being able to just sit there and focus versus not having that opportunity to engage with media, computers, TVs, games and things like that.”
These distractions easily take over student attention, especially when they feel like they are lacking a perceived purpose. When they don’t see the purpose, students tend to prioritize different things over their schoolwork.
“My family,” Bateman said. “I always prioritize them over anything.” He also spoke about how his job took priority over his schoolwork.
Even if they are not necessarily “priorities,” young people just simply have things they enjoy more than paying attention in their classes.
“Students want to gravitate towards things they really enjoy and they want to do,” ELA teacher Andrew Gallagher said about the subject of apathy in his classroom. “Sometimes your class tends to maybe not be what they gravitate towards.”
However, the combination of larger priorities, easy distractions, lack of interest in class topics and spotty motivation are both contributing to and caused by the mental health crisis in the country. According to a study done by the CDC in 2024, 39.7% of students experienced persisting feelings of sadness and hopelessness, 28.5% experienced poor mental health, 20.4% seriously considered suicide- and 9.5% had attempted it.
The rise in poor mental health has surely had an impact on how students react to school, as teenagers who are feeling poorly will be less likely to have the energy or motivation to put the same effort into school they would have otherwise. It is also hard when there are things happening outside of the school environment that distract from the work in school.
“There’s a lot of issues affecting our kids and their social-emotional mental health,” University City School District well-being specialist Darren Brooks said. “I think in a lot of cases this can have a negative impact. I’ve talked to several students and they say ‘It’s hard to focus on the math assignment when I don’t know what’s gonna happen when I get home today.’”
Despite it now being a couple years in the past, the effects on mental health from the Covid-19 pandemic are extremely significant.
“It [covid] played a major role in how students tend to have a lack of motivation sometimes or show apathy because during that time they had to deal with isolation and not having that social interaction,” Covington said. “It brought about anxiety, stress and even depression, and I see that that’s kind of continuing on.”
Apathy may seem like a daunting issue, but there are ways to try to help.
“Just being in tune and open to counseling,” Covington said. “And being in tune when students are going through anxiety, or you’re seeing certain flags with depression and just maybe seeking that help to support students.”
Creating a solid support system should be the number one goal when trying to make steps to improve your mental health, and in turn repair an apathetic attitude.
“Just being open and honest about what’s going on and just getting those resources [is most important],” Brooks said. “Getting the help to deal with and navigate those waters because it’s hard, I think, for teenagers (or anyone really) to try to handle it on your own. You know you need help; you need support.”
Teachers like Gallagher are trying to emphasize the importance and relevance of the content to their students so that they are more likely to engage.
“Generally speaking,” Gallagher says, “combating apathy is about helping students find interest in something.”