If there is not an inherent attracting power in the material then … the teacher will either attempt to surround the material with foreign attractiveness, making a bid or offering a bribe for attention by ‘making the lesson interesting’; or else resort to … low marks, threats of non-promotion, staying after school …. But the attention thus gained … always remains dependent upon something external…. True, reflective attention, on the other hand, always involves judging, reasoning, deliberation; it means that the child has a question of his own and is actively engaged in seeking and selecting relevant material with which to answer it.-John Dewey, 1915
This quote begins chapter 11 (Hooked On Learning: The Roots of Motivation in the Classroom) in Punished By Rewards by Alfie Kohn.
I admit I’ve used bribes to get a short term effect. Stop screaming while I’m on the phone and we’ll go to the park later, let me use the bathroom in peace and I’ll read you another story, stop playing and eat your dinner and I’ll make a dessert. But bribing kids, especially with nasty food, for good grades just irks me. I’m not a fan of grades themselves. They don’t always show that a child has learned the material, simply that they can spit it back out in an accepted manner. I’ve known a few straight A students who were barely able to function in the real world, but they could test well and always turned in their homework so their grades looked great.
It seems to me that helping kids love learning would create better adults than helping kids chase after that carrot. Help them hold on to the wide eyed wonder that they had as toddlers all through out their years. Because the world is an amazing, creative, beautiful, magical place. Learning about it should be breathtaking, they shouldn’t need a Big Mac for correctly marking the little circles on a piece of paper.
Yes I’m an idealist and a dreamer, but I think it is possible. I know that I’ve learned more as an adult motivated by my own interests than I ever did as a student motivated by rewards. I was one of those straight A students, with a high GPA, ACT scores that got me into any school of my choice, and more scholarships that I could count. What did it all mean? That with the right rewards hanging over my head I could jump through hoops like a pro. It was like teaching a rat to push the red button for a treat. What joy comes form pushing the red button alone? None, so there must be that treat to entice him to push it.
Learning for the love of learning is a far greater reward and more powerful motivator than anything external could ever be.
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December 8th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Ugh - UGH!
I’m linking to this in a homsechooling post on Monday.
We’re one week into Sonlight and still gushy in love. We’ve just started working through Sequential Spelling, and are all loving it. No grades - just immediate correction of mispellings … and they build on one another in a logical sense (not necessarily in the way traditional curriculums introduce words).
And it’s fun, to boot! ha!
December 9th, 2007 at 5:38 am
I can’t seem to find it, but there was a great conversation on this topic several months ago amongst the education blogs I read. Probably spurred by this book, but the discussion was interesting.
Here are my two cents to that old discussion.