A Motivation Problem

I've told this story before, but it bears repeating.

I once randomly met a teacher from a local high school at a social event. I knew that one of my young relatives, then a 15-year-old, attended the school, so naturally I mentioned him.

The teacher shook his head, then said, "I worry about that kid." 

I didn't know the boy well, but I'd been seeing him at family gatherings two or three times a year for over a decade and I'd never noticed anything to worry about. Yes, he was a bit "nerdy," but in the absolutely best sense of that word. I knew him as a boy of passions. It seemed like each time I spoke with him he was enthusiastic about some new hobby or other -- outer space, collecting knives, electric trains, bicycles, playing guitar -- all self-motivated. He was, in a nutshell, the type of kid this play-based educator didn't worry about in the least.

When I asked his teacher for more, he answered that he was "too quiet" and "shut in," that he didn't seem particularly engaged with school, and that he had a "motivation problem."

I countered by telling him about the intellectually curious boy I knew.

"I had no idea," the teacher said, "I wish he'd open up to me!"

As luck would have it, I saw the boy a week or so later, I shared what his teacher had told me, saying, "I think he just wants to know the real you."

The boy grimaced. "I don't want my teachers to know anything about me. If they know what I like, they'll use it against me." He explained, "Whenever teachers know what a kid likes, they try to take it away and use it as, like, a reward for good grades or something." 

In my own mind, I added, Or threaten to take it away as a punishment. 

It was a keen insight. I didn't try to talk him out of it.

I was reminded of him yesterday when a reader commented on one of my posts from earlier this week. Her son's IEP (Individualized Education Program) calls for regular "movement breaks." She's recently learned that his teachers were dangling these mandated breaks as a "reward" for completing this or that assignment. Now, I don't know the law where she lives, but in many places an IEP is a legal document. Withholding movement from anyone should be criminal, but in this case it very well might be.

And lest you think this is a one-off, every day young children are having their recess time -- their free movement time -- taken away or curtailed for the very same reason. One of my former preschool students had his "outdoor time" revoked because, as his teacher said, "He won't sit still in class." Movement is not a choice. It's a necessity. There has never been a scientific study done that finds that holding a body still improves cognitive function. Indeed, the research finds just the opposite: every human ever tested thinks more clearly while their body is in motion. An educator who restricts a child's movement isn't after thinking, they're after obedience, which is thinking's opposite.

As my young relative figured out for himself, standard schools are so addicted to rewards and punishments that they are "worried about" self-directed learners. They are so committed to carrots and sticks that they simply can conceive of a child who is motivated from within. Our schools are so afraid of children actually thinking for themselves that they treat even that -- free thought -- as a kind of stimulus-response behaviorist tool. Once you've obeyed me, I'll let you think. When I ring this bell, you will drool.

What an incredible waste of childhood. What an incredible waste of life. The last time I touched base with my young relative he was off on his motorcycle for a weekend of rock climbing with his girlfriend. 

I've never taught a child who was not a self-motivated learner. I've never been tempted by rewards and punishments. Our play-based preschools are models of the way schools could be. 

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I've been writing about play-based learning almost every day for the past 14 years. I've recently gone back through the 4000+ blog posts(!) I've written since 2009. Here are my 10 favorite in a nifty free download. Click here to get yours.

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