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Politics K-12 kept watch on education policy and politics in the nation’s capital and in the states. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: Federal, States.

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Are Kids Just Plain Bored? Is That the Problem?

By Michele McNeil — November 08, 2007 1 min read
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Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, told attendees at a forum yesterday in Iowa what he thinks is the No. 1 problem facing America’s schools.

Kids are bored.

He called it a “huge, stupid mistake” that schools have changed their curriculum to include so much emphasis on math, science, and other core classes at the expense of subjects such as art and music, which may keep students more engaged in school.

There’s no easy fix to student boredom, especially from the president’s vantage. Do you agree with Huckabee that part of the problem with schools today is that kids are bored? And is adding more music and art back to the curriculum part of the solution?

A version of this news article first appeared in the Politics K-12 blog.