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A complex and unflattering conversation is happening around education. Jonathan Buchwalter, a history teacher posting as jonstertruck on TikTok, argues that learning has been reduced to a simplified game. In trying to make learning more accessible, students have increasingly been guided toward a “gamification” of education.

In his video, he describes students clamoring and begging counselors to gain access to his classroom. By stripping things back to a more traditional style where kids have to wrestle with challenging material and develop real critical thinking, Buchwalter suggests it may be more valuable than the educational system recognizes.

@jonstertruck

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♬ original sound – Jonathan Buchwalter

The Gamification Of Education

With a budget crunch, standardized testing to quantify outcomes, and progress created to deliver a dopamine response, Buchwalter describes the current situation:

“There has been this odd shift away from the academic skills that make someone a critical thinker and toward short-form content in the classroom. Whether it’s smaller and smaller articles, more and more scaffolding, or supports for students whenever they do any kind of complex task… Layers and layers of apps that all make a game out of the learning.”

A 2024 study in Frontiers revealed that the gamification of education was specifically used to increase attention and self-regulation. Facing a growing problem of student disengagement, schools hope this strategy will help motivate them.

Kids Want To Be Treated Like Adults

Buchwalter argues that kids actually want to be educated in the old school way. They want to be challenged, and they desire to learn critical thinking skills even though it might be harder.

“The reason that I’ve got a line of students every year that go to the counselors and beg them to be put in my history class isn’t because I’m the best teacher ever. It’s because I treat them like adults and they know that.”

But wanting to learn differently doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy. Many students have to overcome a learning curve to catch up.

“Most of my kids are sixteen or seventeen. They’ve been sort of indoctrinated into the gamefication of learning. And so those first few weeks of my class are really tough for a lot of my students. Because they’re used to the short form [of] everything and games, and I’m not giving them that.”

Even though the gamification of learning might improve engagement, are students actually winning the game of education? A 2025 study in Nature found understanding, critical thinking, and general knowledge transfer in decline. Students may, in fact, be focusing on “winning the game” rather than mastering the material.

Kids No Longer Focus On The Harder Stuff

Research reports mixed or contradictory effects on actual learning performance. Some studies hail student performance while others warn of shallow learning. Buchwalter doesn’t believe in the new system of education and claims his own experience in teaching shows why:

“The mythos built around it is that the kids can’t focus on the harder stuff, the more challenging stuff. And so we have to gamify to meet them where they are. But what I found because we do so much old school paper and pencil, reading and writing in my class. They can do it. They can. And they tend to do pretty well on it after a few weeks of friction. That once they learn what my expectations are, and they learn how to meet them, and they learn that my standard doesn’t move, they can meet my high standard. These kids are smart. These kids are sharp.”

A 2024 study in MDPI compared gamified learning to traditional education. Results showed that gamification improved engagement. However, traditional learning has established a solid baseline for academic performance. There are significant differences between participation and gaining depth, knowledge, and mastery.

Receiving An Education Or Getting ‘A’ Grade

With the current trend toward short content instruction, many wonder if the students are receiving an education or just a grade. People chimed in with their own thoughts:

“My best teachers were the ones that pushed me. Made me think. Made it challenging. I’m certain you would have made my best teacher list!”

“Community college English prof here. Most of my students have never read a book cover to cover before my class”

“Productive struggle is so important for learning!”

“Get textbooks and primary sources back in the classroom!”

“I’m in shock reading some of these comments, are they intent on purposely failing the youth?”

“We are in school to learn, not play games.”

“Say it louder for the people in the back, yes sir!!!!!”

“Me, a 12th grade literature teacher, BEGGING my district to let me keep teaching full novels and not just tiny pieces of them”

With competing ideas for educating the leaders of tomorrow, more teachers must share their own experiences like Buchwalter. Finding students apathetic to the system is concerning. Getting students more engaged is great. Graduating people who lack critical thinking skills or meaningful understanding is not only devastating for them, but represents a fundamental failure of the educational system itself.