Motivation

I just recently had a bit of a "disagreement of opinion" with someone over motivation.  This person insisted that children who have little parental support and/or involvement in their education do not have enough motivation to perform well on their own, therefore they need incentives to do well, such as prizes or parties, or whatnot.  Well, I cannot disagree more!  

I stated that why would you toy with a child's intrinsic motivation by saying "if you do well on this test, I will give you -fill in the blank-".  I just do not feel like that is what we should do as teachers.  This person responded to me- oh you must work in an area with high parent involvement, you don't know what it is like in my district.  Again, wrong! 

I work at a school in a very poor area.  I have students who would rather be at school than at home because their home environment is not a good one.  I have students who eat breakfast and lunch at school and that is all they get to eat each day.  I have students who have parents who work two or three jobs just to pay rent so they do not have time to be involved in school.  None of this means that my students will not succeed unless I bribe them to!

I learned recently to LET GO, to GIVE IN, and to TRUST my students to make the right choices.  They understand- even at first grade- that there is a cause and effect for everything.  My students know that if they choose not to read then they will not become a better reader.  They also know that they need these skills and that they need to work hard to get them.  All of this is not because I gave them a prize or a party, but because I express to them each and every single day the importance of what we do in our classroom.

After writing all of this, and thinking through this conversation again and again, I am reminded of one of my favorite professors from college.  He was very big on the motivation research in education; the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and the how's, why's, and what's behind it.  I'd like to think he would be proud to hear me say all of this right now :-).  


Children are likely to live up to what you believe them to be...