As a teacher, I hear about the boring school setting. Hey, I work there. I know a high school can be boring. The difference is, I expect it to be boring. Life is sometimes boring, and I actually think it is fine for school to be boring sometimes.

I cannot sing and dance and I cannot make a creative song out of every new grammar term or literary term. I will not accompany every lesson with a slide show or movie clip.

Parents and students have suggestions and some of them might work. All of the ideas are solutions to the perceived problem that school is boring. Aside from brain-based learning theories that suggest TV permanetly changes brain structures, TV has apparent consequences.

Editors know that viewers cannot stare at a straight shot. I enjoy TV in moderation and sit in awe of dancing, music, special effects and overall invention. This fanciness provides huge entertainment, but also huge expectations. If TV is the norm, I the teacher and human am not, which is not only problematic for school, but for jobs, colleges, personal realtionships, and life. Add TIVO and the like where students are used to pausing and rewinding...

The thing is, I am a straight shot. I can't have close-ups or fade away. The lighting doesn't change in my classroom nor does a VO blend in. A real person talks to hundreds of students a week who cannot be paused and they don't like that communication, that relationship, and yes, I do blame TV.