“I Don’t Like Physics!” — But You Haven’t Even Started It

I was seated quietly in one of the JSS3 classes today, doing what teachers often do in moments of observation — watching students interact when they’re not aware anyone is listening. A small group of them were having a surprisingly serious discussion: they were already categorizing subjects they think they will like or dislike in senior secondary school.

❌ “I don’t like Physics.”

❌ “Biology has too much note.”

❌ “Any subject with plenty writing is not for me.”

What struck me most wasn’t the statements themselves, but the confidence with which they said them. These are students who haven’t even crossed into SSS. They haven’t taken one lesson in Physics, haven’t written one Biology note, haven’t solved one Economics problem — and yet, conclusions have already been drawn.

It made me pause.
Where is this coming from?

Is it what they’ve been told by seniors who struggled and projected that struggle?
Is it parents warning them ahead of time because they once found it difficult?
Is it teachers who sometimes unconsciously transfer their own bias with a careless comment?
Or is it just the human tendency to fear what we haven’t yet experienced?

Whatever the source, it proves one thing clearly:

Opinions can be inherited without experience.

And so I stepped in gently. Not to scold — but to reset perspective. I told them, “You have no business disliking a subject you haven’t even started. You owe yourself the chance to try first before you decide.”

I encouraged them to walk into SSS with curiosity, not with fear or inherited judgment. To give each subject at least the dignity of a first encounter before rejecting it.

We also talked briefly about the new curriculum structure — how workload is now redistributed and not as overwhelming as they may have heard from older siblings. Their faces softened a bit. You could almost see the anxiety release when information replaced assumption.

The Bigger Picture: Adults Plant Seeds Without Realizing

What we — teachers, parents, uncles, cousins, neighbours — casually say about school subjects is shaping children’s mindset more than we think.

When a parent says,
“Physics nearly killed me in school — just pray you pass,”
a child hears: Physics is a threat. Avoid at all cost.

When a teacher jokes,
“Art students are unserious ones, science is for brilliant people,”
a bias is created long before the student even sees an art textbook.

When seniors in school say,

“Biology is just notes and notes until your hand breaks,”
the future student enters class already exhausted — without a pen lifted.

Children rarely start with their own opinions — they borrow ours.

We Must Change the Culture of Fear Before It Becomes a Belief

Every time we talk about subjects with fear, exaggeration, or ridicule, we shape a child’s academic destiny before they have a chance to explore it. And then, later in life, we wonder why they lack confidence, or why they choose courses not based on passion or strength, but based on fear-avoidance.

Instead of conditioning them to dread, we should be:

• • Reframing instead of frightening
• • Guiding instead of imposing
• • Informing instead of intimidating

A student may eventually decide that Physics truly isn’t their thing — and that’s fine — but let it be after engagement, not before exposure.

Dear Parents, Teachers, Elders — Our Words Are Curriculum Too

We don’t only teach with chalk; we also teach with our tone, our memories, and our casual comments.

Let us speak with responsibility.
Let us encourage open exploration.
Let us allow them to discover their own strengths — free of our fears.

Help them choose subjects based on informed experience — not inherited anxiety.