I happened to catch “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” on Amazon Prime.   I forgot how great the film was, and it got me thinking about how boring school was already getting for my own children.  I took it upon myself to be their teacher this summer, and now that summer is beginning to wane, it’s not as easy as one may think to make learning happen.

Weeks ago, I had tried to give my two boys basketball lessons.   After a couple of minutes, one of them asked me.   “Why did you have to watch those YouTube videos, Dad?”  Was I almost done making them suffer will all of the drills?  Admittedly I was never much of a basketball player, but I always wish I had been.   Maybe I was just projecting my own schoolyard inadequacies by doing what was feeling like a failure of an activity.  “Can we go in now, Dad?”

Okay, I thought.  What could I do that was relatable?  We had recently watched the entire “Back to the Future” series, and I remember that move left me yearning to learn to ride a skateboard.   Somehow, that never happened though because I never wanted to risk the injuries.  I know my boys loved the movie so I bought them some skateboards and some protective gear, then looked up some skateboarding lessons on YouTube (without them seeing me do it this time).  Once I put my three part plan into action, little did I know that putting on all that protective gear would be such an endeavor.

After half an hour of finding shoes, taking elbow pads off of knees and wrists, and rotating wrist guards so they wouldn’t “hurt”, they were both sweaty and irritated before we even exited the house. We walked a couple blocks to newly paved streets in what was turning out to be an unusually blistering, hot morning.  “Okay, now let’s try to skate down the street,” I said trying to downplay the heat.

“Why are you making us skate in middle of street?  You want us to die!”

“My knees are itchy!  I have to take the pads off!”  The tantrums began, and about eight minutes later, mom was welcoming us back home “already?”

I gave myself about three days to help them forget their daddy-induced trauma, then  I decided to teaching them tennis since it was a sport I had spent lazy summers playing as a teenager.  Ah, the memories.  As I reminisced excited for them to learn,  my eight year-old was channeling John Mcenroe before he had even hit his first ball across the  net.  “Are you serious?   I helped (made) them push through.  Maybe it would build their “grit”, I thought.  But as I watched their sporadic tantrums it was clear the only one who was developing their “grit” was me.   “Why are torturing us!”

As a dad I had clear intention, a purpose.  You see, my boys seemed to only want to play video games or watch Youtube videos ALL DAY.  They’re actually both highly skilled gamers because when I play with them.  I never even come close to winning anymore.  Sometimes I have to hang out to watch my twelve-year-old to play my eight-year-old so that I can vicariously win through him after getting my ass kicked.

I try to curate alternative activities for my boys to give them an orientation of the physical world.  After all, our cells are made up of code too living in the ultimate virtual reality.  While their mom has taken upon herself to tutor and read to them, my goal has been to improve their spatial skills, hand-eye coordination, and balance so they can skillfully control those little bodies.  As their teacher, it’s difficult to feel I had mostly failed.  I was like an authority figure in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”.  That uncool.

Thirty years have passed since Ferris Bueller took his day off.  Despite all of the technology that has emerged, the school vibe has really hasn’t changed much.  My kids are bored like I was bored, and, at this rate, their kids will suffer the same fate as well.  The fun parts are “in between periods” that rarely have anything to do with learning.

One thing teachers learn fast is that there’s a lot of pressure to make your classroom look like rows of desks with a sea of thirty-eight quiet students who know answers to questions that a teacher uses to “check for understanding.” (yeah, the “Ferris Bueller Day Off” classroom) Even a slight hint of chaos or unrecognizable pattern happening is often perceived as incompetent by any modern administrator.

Is it possible to create a school system that would want to make Ferris Bueller stay in school?  I got inspired a couple of years ago when Elon Musk say in an interview that that if it is physically possible (like putting a man into space), it can be done.

“But, how?” one may ask.

Well, it hit me like the first domino as our summer took a dramatic turn.

“Let’s go to the park, dad.”

“Huh?  We can wanna play frisbee!” I exclaimed desperately, surprised one of them showed any interest in leaving the house.

“Uh, sure.  We can do that too while we’re there.”

As I shuttled my eight and twelve-year-old to play Pokemon Go. for the fifth time that day, it occurred to me that I was suddenly experiencing the quality time I had envisioned this summer.   We were laughing, joking around.  Pokemon Go uses a technology called augmented reality that when combined with street maps it redefines the immediate environment for its players.  While we were out there they found a few things and we went to a couple of “gyms” where they battled other players for domain.  Eventually, we went back to the tennis courts.  Apparently the kids from Tennis Camp had left something of interest for them that could only see with a phone. 

To proceed with their tennis training, we rented a ball machine this time, and they hit tennis balls for almost two hours.  Like most dads, I obviously love my boys, and it really matters to me if boredom becomes an obstacle in their lives, like it had been for me.  It turns out that purpose is what matters to them.   In our case, it was Pokeman Go that eventually got us to the tennis courts again. To make sure that my kids are safe while they are playing, I had to make sure I got the best tennis shoes for them which can be found on https://www.tennisinformation.net/best-tennis-shoes-for-plantar-fasciitis/.

As I watched them hit balls with their curly hair and focus on technique,  I found myself wondering if my kids would be boring rule followers or more like like Ferris Bueller to survive the stodgy, test-driven educational system that seems even more punishing than when I was in school.  Maybe, I thought, they would find their passion in life, like John Mcenroe.   “Can we go home now, dad!  I’m starving!”  yelled one.

“I want some water!” yelled the other.

So, yeah, maybe two hours is way too long to hit balls out of a machine on another emerging scorcher.  But then there’s the “grit” thing, right?  It’s turning out that I need it a lot more than they do, but it’s for the children.  It’s for a purpose.

Louis de Barraicua is a film teacher in Los Angeles and the cofounder of “Nube”,  a parent-managed learning platform that engages kids virtually and with purpose.    Reach out to the writer at reallylook@me.com