Quote:
Originally Posted by davidthefat
That is admirable, but, as I stated before, it takes away from the true essence of education. Sure, I may have a romanticized ideal of education, but that, to me, is a better motivator. Some teachers try to incorporate some kind of reward system where it is stickers, extra credit, some kind of fake currency to "buy" prizes at the end of the month or anything like that. But I have noticed that while these may be good motivators, I see a deeper implication that I do not like. Some students get to the point that they become so obsessed for those extra points. I believe it promotes materialism. That is why I rebelled and refused to participate for those. I hurt myself in the process; the class was heavily based on participation and received a D in that class...
There really needs a better motivator for students, a better way to fuel their subconscious and give them a sense of purpose. Perhaps, give students more freedom and choices in class.
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You are without question romanticizing education, and that can be quite harmful. Formal education for the vast (and I mean vast) majority is not a lifelong quest but a means to an end. I understand that you never stop learning and that even when out of school you still learn things every day (in fact you probably learn more every day) however this is not where the education system fails, the smartest people in America still have opportunity, those that want to pursue academics for their entire life have as many if not more opportunities now than they did in the past, information is freely available like it never has been before. The problem is the 99% (made up number not a statistic) who do not want to learn for the sake of learning they want to learn for what it can give them. I loved school, I enjoyed going to school and learning every day, however I never had any intention of pursuing an advanced academic degree (M.S. M.F.A PhD etc.). I have had the goal of being an engineer (or for a while a scientist) since I was young. I knew for a long time that I needed to go to college and do well to meet that goal. That was my reward, it was big picture but that was it. The system is really failing the people who don't have that goal to motivate them. I had a friend in elementary school and JR High who wanted to be a Mechanic, his Dad was a Mechanic without a High School degree. My friend simply could not see why it was necessary for him to learn all of the things required of him that he wouldn't use. Academics never came easy to him and he didn't enjoy school. He could however be motivated by small rewards, we had uniforms, one teacher offered to allow us a day where we could wear what we wanted for those who completed all of their home work every month. That was enough to motivate him to complete that work. This type of reward was enough to motivate him. Of course there will always be that top tier of people (including Richard Feynman) who will be motivated strictly by the pursuit of knowledge. Unfortunately but realistically they are the exception, not the rule.
David,
I understand that most of what I typed agrees with your post. I think it is important that you recognize that there are all different types of motivation for people, some may be nobler than others but it is all a means to an end, as long as people are learning everyone is winning.
I believe your rebellion and lack of participation may be your rationalization of why you didn't want to do the work more than anything else. As with the reasons to do well there are many reasons to do poorly, some more noble than others but in the end you didn't to the work because you couldn't be bothered, when that happens, in the best case you are hurt by it, in most cases you as well as the people around you are hurt.