CHAPTER 2

The Problem with

Schools

My teaching experiences in different parts

of the world convinced me that something is
wrong with English education. Everywhere I
went, it was the same situation. The students
were bored, frustrated, stressed, and
nervous. Most students, even after years of
studying English, failed to speak the lan-
guage fluently. You are not alone, because
it’s a global problem.
One of my students, Seiko from Japan, de-
scribed this combination of failure and stress
as “English trauma.” Seiko said that she
hated English. She felt that learning English
was boring and stressful and speaking
 28/352

English was even worse. In fact, the thought

of speaking to a native speaker immediately
made Seiko feel extremely nervous and shy.
Seiko felt she had developed a psychological
problem with English and had named it
“English trauma.” A “trauma” is a deep
wound or injury. “How sad,” I thought to
myself, “that so many people now think of
English as a kind of injury or mental
disease.”
Throughout my teaching career I’ve met
many students who had similar feelings
about English. I discovered that Seiko was
not alone. Rather, “English trauma” is a
global epidemic. Though most people feel
they must learn to speak English, very few
seem to enjoy it. Most who learn the lan-
guage struggle with the same feelings of
nervousness and frustration that Seiko had.
As I encountered this problem more and
more, I began to look for the root causes. I
realized that before I found a solution, I
 29/352

needed to understand the problem. Just as a

doctor must first diagnose a disease before
treating it. Think about it. What is the cause
of all this misery and failure? Why do so
many people fail to speak English effortlessly
despite years of study? What is wrong with
English education?
The first and most obvious problem I
found with schools was the way in which
they teach English. Most schools, everywhere
in the world, use the grammar translation
method. As the name implies, the focus of
this method is on grammar analysis and the
memorization of translated vocabulary. This
method breaks English into an endless series
of grammar formulas to memorize. Of
course, each grammar formula has excep-
tions and these must be memorized too.
Schools like the grammar translation
method because it appears to be serious, aca-
demic and complex. The grammar transla-
tion method fits the way schools teach most
 30/352

subjects — with textbooks, lectures, notes,

memorization, and tests. The only problem,
as you know, is that it doesn’t work. In real
conversations, there simply is no time to
think about grammar formulas and their ex-
ceptions. The failure rate for this method,
therefore, is absolutely horrible. Despite the
failure of most students to speak English flu-
ently, schools continue to use this method.
This is an epic failure of our education
system.
Recently, because students find the gram-
mar translation method so boring, some
schools have added “communication activit-
ies” to their curriculum. Occasionally, the
teacher puts the students into pairs or
groups. The students then read or repeat dia-
logues from a textbook. Sometimes they
might answer a few questions from a work-
sheet. Of course, these activities are unnatur-
al, nothing like real English conversation.
Consequently, the failure rate of
 31/352

“communication activities” is just as bad as

grammar translation.
Obviously the English teaching methods
used in schools do not work. That was easy
to see. I knew it. The students knew it. And
many teachers know it too, though few will
admit it.
However, as I continued to investigate the
problem with schools, I found even deeper
problems in the education system. These
problems are less obvious, but in many ways
far more damaging to the students. I call
these problems “the hidden curriculum” be-
cause they are the hidden lessons taught by
schools.

The Hidden Curriculum

Most schools, everywhere in the world, share
a similar hidden curriculum. One element of
this curriculum is student passivity. In
schools, students are trained to be passive,
 32/352

not active. They sit in chairs, in rows. When

they are young, they are told to be quiet and
obey the teacher. As the teacher lectures, the
students take notes. Later, they are told to
memorize these notes in preparation for a
test. The message is clear — learning is a
passive activity. You listen to the teacher,
you take notes, you memorize the notes.
The problem is that speaking English is
not a passive activity. You must connect with
other people. You must constantly ask and
answer questions. You must communicate
ideas, emotions, and descriptions. You must
be ready for the unexpected. You must be
spontaneous. You must actively interact.
English is not something you passively study,
it’s something you do.
Related to the problem of passivity is the
issue of energy. Sitting for a long time is a
low-energy activity. The longer you sit, the
more your energy drops. And as your energy
drops, so does your concentration. What’s
 33/352

worse, we know that some learners need

physical movement in order to learn effect-
ively. These people are called “kinesthetic
learners.” The truth is we are all “kinesthetic
learners” to some degree, because we all be-
nefit from physical movement. Schools stick
us in chairs and drain our energy. Eventu-
ally, an inactive body leads to an inactive
mind.

The One Right Answer Mentality

One of the greatest flaws of school education
is the idea of “one right answer.” One right
answer is a powerful part of the hidden cur-
riculum. It is a result of using textbooks and
tests.
In school, you are frequently taught that
there is one, and only one, correct answer to
a question or problem. For example, you
may be asked to choose the correct verb
tense on a test, or you may be taught
 34/352

“proper” English greetings. The hidden mes-

sage is that the teacher’s way is always right.
Real life, and real English, is not this way.
For example, sometimes I will tell a story us-
ing the present tense, even though the events
happened in the past. This is a technique
commonly used by native speakers.
However, when English learners hear these
stories, many are confused and upset. They
are convinced that the past tense is the “right
answer” and the only correct way to tell the
story. Some get quite upset and even argue
with me about it. These students are so con-
vinced that there is only “one right answer”
that they will argue with native speakers!
These students have been trained to be-
lieve that there is only one correct way to say
things in English. The truth is there are al-
ways many ways to say the same thing. We
can change verb tenses in order to change
the feeling of the story. We can use different
vocabulary and different phrases. And we
 35/352

even break grammar rules all the time! ‘One

right answer’ thinking limits and confuses
English learners. Effective communication
requires flexibility while the “one right an-
swer” mentality trains students to be rigid
and unimaginative.
Connected to this problem is another dan-
gerous part of the hidden curriculum — fear
of mistakes. This is one of the most negative
and traumatizing messages taught in
schools. How is the fear of mistakes taught?
Through tests and corrections. In nearly
every school all over the world, teachers reg-
ularly give quizzes and tests. The teacher
asks questions and the students must
provide the one right answer. Of course, the
one right answer is always the teacher’s
answer.
What happens if the student provides a
different answer? They are punished with a
lower score. Students are smart, and they
quickly understand that in school, mistakes
 36/352

are bad and must be avoided. They also un-

derstand that truth is unimportant and the
best way to succeed is to simply give the an-
swer that the teacher wants. Even worse is
when a student, already feeling nervous, tries
to speak English with the whole class listen-
ing. They are just learning, so of course they
will make mistakes. When the teacher cor-
rects these mistakes, the student is embar-
rassed and becomes even more nervous.
Eventually, most students try to avoid speak-
ing English because the situation is so
painful.
By punishing and correcting mistakes,
schools punish risk taking. Little by little,
they train students to avoid risk and avoid
doing anything they can’t do perfectly. Yet
there is no perfection with English speaking.
Even native speakers make mistakes. We
make grammar mistakes. We mispronounce
words. We forget vocabulary words. It
 37/352

doesn’t matter, because we are focused on

communicating, not on tests and grades.
Of course, the fear of mistakes goes far
beyond English class. After years of school,
most people learn to avoid risk in most parts
of their life. School trains them to be passive,
rigid, timid, and obedient. This not only
hurts your English speaking, it also harms
your career and limits your success in all
areas of life. Fortune favors the bold. Those
who are active, flexible, and passionate are
the ones who achieve the greatest success in
life. The passive and obedient rarely live
their dreams.
You will make many mistakes as you im-
prove your English speaking. There is no
need to be upset by this. The truth is, most
native speakers don’t care. They don’t care if
you make grammar mistakes. They just want
to communicate with you. They want to
share thoughts, ideas and feelings. They
want to communicate with you as a human
 38/352

being, not as an “English student.” To com-

municate effectively, you must forget the
idea of perfection and learn to be flexible.

The Dirty Secret of English Teaching

If the hidden curriculum is so bad, why do
schools and teachers continue to follow it?
The truth about our education system is that
the curriculum exists to benefit the schools,
not the students. Teachers use these meth-
ods because they are easier for the teacher,
not because they are good for the student.
The hidden curriculum creates passive stu-
dents. It creates obedient students. Passive
and obedient students are easier to control,
making life easier for teachers and school
administrators.
Textbooks, for example, make the teach-
er’s job much easier. By using a textbook, the
teacher doesn’t have to plan new lessons for
every class. Planning lessons is hard work,
 39/352

and a textbook makes it much easier. The

teacher can simply follow the textbook with
minimum effort. Many teachers are little
more than textbook readers. Every day they
read the textbook to their students, slavishly
following the lessons. In my opinion, they
can barely be called “teachers” at all. Perhaps
we should call them “textbook readers”
instead.
Another benefit of textbooks, for the
schools, is that they standardize learning. By
using a textbook, the school ensures that
every English class is learning exactly the
same thing. School officials like this because
it makes testing and ranking students easier.
Schools are like factories, the bosses want
everything to be the same.
The same is true for tests and grades.
These provide little to no benefit to English
learners. In fact, as we have discussed, tests
and grades increase stress and create a fear
of making mistakes. Tests and grades are a
 40/352

primary cause of “English trauma.” On the

other hand, tests and grades are a powerful
tool of control for teachers. When students
fear bad grades, they obey the teacher more.
They learn that the teacher is always right,
because if they don’t agree with the teacher’s
answer they are punished with lower scores.
Grades are a means of ranking students.
Most teachers and administrators are fo-
cused on ranking students rather than help-
ing all succeed. In many schools, the official
policy is that a certain percentage of students
in every class must get poor grades, a certain
percentage must get “medium level” grades,
and only a small percentage can be given ex-
cellent grades. In other words, the system is
designed to create failure for a large number
of students.
While working at a university in Thailand,
I was told directly by my boss that too many
of my students had high scores. My boss in-
sisted that I fail more students in my class. I
 41/352

was shocked and angry. I quit the job rather

than purposely fail dedicated students.
Sadly, this mentality of “designing for fail-
ure” is present in most school everywhere in
the world. Schools benefit from ranking and
controlling students.
The grammar translation method also be-
nefits the teacher but not the student. By
teaching grammar rules, the teacher can
simply lecture from the textbook. Because
linguistics is a complicated subject, the
teacher appears knowledgeable and thus es-
tablishes a position of superiority over the
students. Even if the teacher is a non-native
speaker with terrible English ability, he or
she can pretend to be an expert by teaching
complex grammar from a book. The shock-
ing truth is that many non-native English
teachers, in fact, speak English very poorly.
By focusing on grammar they disguise their
inability to speak well.
 42/352

What about communication activities?

Surely they are designed to help students.
Actually, they are not. These activities, as we
discussed previously, are unnatural. They are
nothing like a real conversation, and thus do
not prepare students to have real conversa-
tions. However, communication activities are
great for teachers. The teacher puts the stu-
dents into pairs or groups and asks them to
follow a textbook activity. Often, the stu-
dents simply read a written dialogue from
the book or answer pre-written questions
from the book. The advantage for the teacher
is that once such an activity is started, the
teacher can rest and do nothing. While the
students go through the textbook activity,
the teacher relaxes. It’s a secret among Eng-
lish teachers that communication activities
are a great way to waste time and avoid
work.
One particularly horrible version of com-
munication activities is the use of movies.
 43/352

Used correctly, movies can be a powerful

English learning tool. Most teachers,
however, simply use movies as a way to
waste time. They put in a movie, turn out the
lights, and push play. For the remainder of
the class, the teacher happily does nothing.
The students are usually happy, too, because
watching a movie is far more interesting
than grammar, even if they can’t understand
most of the film.

Passive Low Energy Benefits the

Teacher
Finally, let’s look at the low energy situation
in most schools. From childhood, students
are forced to sit for hours, motionless in
chairs. They are told to be quiet and obedi-
ent. By adulthood, most people are thor-
oughly trained. They accept passive lectures
and low energy as a normal part of learning.
 44/352

Why would schools and teachers want low

energy? Again, because low energy students
are easier to manage. A teacher must work
much harder with curious, energetic stu-
dents. Sadly, most teachers prefer the easy
way. It’s much easier for them to lecture
quietly to passive students.
The truth is that many teachers are tired
and stressed. Because of this, they constantly
look for ways to make their own job easier.
Their first concern is not the students. They
are not obsessively focused on getting better
results for the learners. Rather, they just
want to get through their workday as easily
as possible. There are many reasons for this
situation, but the end result for the student is
boredom, frustration, and poor results.
This is the ugly truth of education. This is
the reason you cannot speak English well,
despite years of study. This is the reason you
find English to be stressful, difficult, and
 45/352

boring. This is the cause of English trauma.

This is the source of the problem.
Happily, there is a solution. The Internet
has made independent learning easy for all.
No matter where you live or what you do, it
is possible to master spoken English without
schools. All you need is an Internet
connection!
In the next chapter, I will introduce the
solution to English trauma. You will learn
how to heal and how to finally get the results
you want with English speaking.