03/22/2026
10 Education Misconceptions
#3: Learning Can--and Should--Be Fun
Or, “Why can’t my kid learn calculus through video games?”
WHAT IT IS: The idea that learning ought to be enjoyable and that frustration, boredom, or discomfort can (and should) be avoided.
WHY IT'S APPEALING: Where to begin? First of all, as homeschoolers, we're not getting paid to teach our own kid(s). Convincing them to do something they don’t want to do takes time and energy. It’s much more viscerally satisfying to watch your kid enjoying a game of Alphabet Bingo or happily absorbed in a video than to watch him struggle with the concept of sounding out the word “mat” or “fine” or (gulp) “enough.” In other words, “fun” learning is more fun for parents, too.
WHY IT'S WRONG: Learning is generally not fun. It can be rewarding, inspiring, and (sometimes, to some people) enjoyable, but it is not inherently fun.
Learning is the process by which we move information from our short-term/working memory to our long-term memory. We take in information from our environment—say, by reading a chapter in a textbook or watching someone work through a math problem on the whiteboard—and it enters our working memory. Then—by processes which I will soon explain—we move it to the long-term storage facility in our brains.
Sadly, there’s a catch: our working memories are extraordinarily feeble. Research shows that working memory can hold about 3 - 7 discrete items at a given time. It’s a wonder we can learn anything. The brain, luckily, has a few tricks up its sleeve:
(1) Prior relevant information. While our working memory is severely limited, our long-term storage is theoretically unlimited. Thus, the key to teaching students new knowledge or skills is to leverage what they already know. (This, by the way, is why the “just-in-time” — a.k.a., “my kid can just Google it”—approach to learning doesn’t work.)
(2) Chunking. This is when we take discrete bits of information and combine them into “chunks” — that is, we recode multiple items into more meaningful units of information.
(3) Schemata. A ‘schema’ is a fancy word for a knowledge framework: that is, a way of categorizing and organizing information (for example: incorporating cats, dogs, and gerbils under the larger concept of ‘mammals.’)
An effective teacher will use various techniques to stretch the limits of students’ working memories, such as ensuring that the student has prior relevant information (by building foundational knowledge) and providing an accurate framework with which to organize new facts. But even with these techniques, learning still feels hard. It takes effort, concentration, and the willingness to delay gratification.
(For background on why learning feels hard, check out this article by Carl Hendrick:
https://carlhendrick.substack.com/p/why-does-thinking-feel-so-hard).
A brief digression: LEARNING THEATER
Nobody wants to deal with bored, reluctant students, so there is a trend toward substituting actual instruction with “fun” educational activities. I call this “learning theater” because these activities offer superficial performance instead of real learning.
What does “learning theater” look like? Classes where kids “learn about France” by eating croissants. Or how about that old standby, the baking-soda volcano? Nowadays, there are also pricey “science kits” in which an “experiment” is 95% completed, and the child is expected to attach a few rubber bands or clips (“Wow, my kid made a nuclear reactor!”). Don’t even get me started on “coding classes” where a tablet app instructs kids to move a blue square onto a green circle (“’Look you programmed the robot to move in a straight line!”)
The problem with “making learning fun” is that, in making something truly fun, one has to remove the learning component. A kid who just dumped some baking soda and vinegar into a paper-maché volcano model is probably not going to be able to explain the principles of plate tectonics.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Learning is not inherently fun; even bright, enthusiastic students will experience discomfort, boredom, and frustration. If you try to avoid this by making everything fun and easy, you will be substituting learning with “learning theater.”
Not only that, but you will be teaching your child that boredom, discomfort, and effort are to be avoided at all costs. Teaching your child that some things in life are difficult but worth doing anyway is an important lesson.
