Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Why do I need to learn this? After coming up to the board to complete a sample problem, a student in your middle school algebra class becomes frustrated when she cannot solve the problem. In her frustration she remarks "Why do I have to learn this stuff, I'm never going to use it anyways!" After giving her several every day scenarios that require the use of algebra she is still not convinced and refuses to do her work. Now other students are complaining about the same issue and classroom participating is declining as well as student grades. How do you resolve this issue? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) It seems like this behavior is not due to students not having a purpose. The students are using this "lack of purpose" as an excuse because they either do not want to do the work or because they don't understand it. Try reteaching the lesson or grouping students to work together so they have a better understanding of the content.