Schools stamp out intrinsic motivation in students!

This was originally posted on May 2, 2005 in my blog entitled Schooling ≠ Education.

If I’m responsible for my own learning then I am intrinsically motivated. If we look at the structure of public education and of most of western society – our businesses, our religious institutions, and our governments – we can see that intrinsic motivation is something that we say we value while at the same time we ‘motivate’ it right out of people.

One of the best works I know of that articulates this is Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes.

Education does nothing (or very little) to develop a human beings natural inclinations to learn, to grow, and to improve. And, at the same time, consciously or unconsciously; purposefully or ‘by accident’ – we are doing a lot to repress or stamp out these natural tendencies and replace them with external motivations and rewards (grades, points, gold stars, bonuses, prizes, and host of additional more subtle and devious devices). 

These devices influence our behaviour and impact our productivity as individuals and as a nation.

Back in 1996 we were working with what was then the Ernst & Young Management Consulting group. We were helping them develop a unique collaborative environment and practice for helping their corporate clients. As young consultants would come into this environment to see if they wanted to work there I would ask them, “what do you want to do?” and they would answer, “just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” 

Now these were the brightest of the brightest – MBA’s fresh out of college as well as seasoned consultants. Their intrinsic motivation had been ‘educated’ right out of them. It took weeks and months for the ones that were able to work in this environment to unlearn what they had learned and to get back in touch with the parts of themselves they had lost or denied in order to survive their education and get into the positions they were in.

David Langford – an educator and consultant – does a fabulous experiential activity in his seminars to get people to feel the insanity of this practice. Because, if you think about it, where does this kind of thinking lead us? Where will it end?

We haven’t seen anything like the ending yet but you can get a sense of where it might go when you see where some schools are finding themselves – paying students to come to school. 

And the flip side of this thinking takes us to an extreme that is so unthinkable but metaphorically already happening – we will kill young people if they don’t pass the test, achieve the grade, or make the team.

So what would it take for us to transform education so that every single person involved was intrinsically motivated? Was in touch with their natural tendencies and desires to learn, to grow and improve? What would a school look like if everyone that attended was there because they wanted to be there?

Who is responsible for students learning?

Originally published April 29, 2005 in my blog Schooling ≠ Education.

I just read an article in BusinessWeek about Arnold Schwarzenegger (Governor of CA) attempting to push pay for performance for California’s teachers. Nothing could be further from the ‘right answer’ for education. It’s upsurd to think that paying teachers to get students to perform on tests will improve the education system. Does anyone understand systems thinking? 

This argument is becoming more and more prevalent across the US. More and more communities are putting pressure on teachers to conform and as most people involved in education know, more and more emphasis is being put on standards and standardized testing to measure the ‘quality of a teacher’ and the ‘quality of a school’. 

From my point of view these people are asking the wrong question. Maybe the question that needs to be asked is: who is responsible for a learners learning?

Whatever happened to the idea of creating an environment where young people are curious and want to learn? What ever happened to the learner in all of this? The focus on testing and pay for performance for teachers will only make matters worse. We’re forgetting the most important person in the equation – the learner. 

Do test scores measure learning? knowledge? understanding? wisdom? Do test scores measure the performance of teachers?

Back to this ‘fundamental question’ – who is responsible for a learners learning?

Who is responsible for my learning? 

I am!

Find anyone that has been successful in school or any other endeavor and ask them who is responsible for their learning? I will bet money they will tell you they are responsible for their own learning. They may have had a person or two in their lives that encouraged them to take responsibility for their learning but I can bet they didn’t like nor would they tolerate someone else imposing their agenda for learning on them. I would bet that these people have had one or more incredibly powerful and influential people in their lives that encouraged them, provoked them, challenged them and probably pissed them off at some point. But these people were critical in their development and critical in inspiring them to learn and be successful in life. 

My own story is an example of this. About 33 years ago (in 11th grade) I woke up one morning and asked myself why I went to school – and more importantly – who I went to school for? As soon as I realized that I went to school for me, I also realized that I would no longer go to school for someone else (for teachers, for my parents, for society, or for anyone). 

That day I went to school and informed my teachers that I would no longer come to school for them – and hence, if I showed up in their classroom I was there to learn something, and they had better have something to teach – or I wouldn’t show up any longer.

After that day I began a journey that has included many mentors and coaches. That journey included meeting and being influenced by remarkable people from all walks of life. A few of these people are the likes of Buckminster Fuller and W. Edwards Deming. These people challenged me and they also had something for me to learn (lots of somethings!). And they inspired continuous learning!

Forcing teachers to perform by getting students to do better on standardized tests will not inspire anyone to do anything other than get a score on a test (and most likely inspire them to do anything possible to get out of that system as soon as possible). Drop out rates are already 30-40% in the US high school. That’s before No Child Left Behind and all this pay for performance bunk. If this kind of movement continues it will only get worse.