Many people are discussing the changes that are happening in education toward a more relevant, personal learning system.  Some believe that this push to make learning more interesting and engaging for students will stunt their ability to persist when they have to do more rote boring tasks that are inevitable in the realities of the world and their futures.  Laura Hanby Hudgens argued in a recent Washington post article that our focus on instructional innovation has gone too far in blaming teachers for this lack of interest in school and that we need more balance where student responsibility and motivation are concerned.  At first glance one might think students who complain about rote, boring instruction are entitled, spoiled little brats who just want what they want (I frequently have this initial thought when faced with some reluctant students). But, I’m not convinced.  The world has changed and students can get information from any variety of places, so yes, they have a choice.  A choice many of us never had.  Hudgens points out that there is value in “buck[ing] up and say[ing], ‘This is hard. This is boring. I don’t want to do this. But I’m doing it anyway. And I’ll do my best’ ” in her article Do teachers care more about schoolwork than your kids do? Here’s how to fix the apathy problem.  Hudgens isn’t the only one having this conversation.  Even some advocating for school transformation are struggling with this question.

I did the math, just for fun; I spent approximately 12,600 hours in school from kindergarten to 12th grade.  Many of those hours were likely spent passively sitting in a classroom without any accountability except a test at some future time.  There is an implication that students who push back at this type of learning are not self-motivated and aren’t willing to take responsibility for their learning but I think the exact opposite.  Sure, they are not passively sitting by; they are taking initiative to get their needs met.  They need to learn in a different way because their world is different and they are telling us loud and clear.  Not motivated? To learn what we want them to learn maybe, but I think it would be a stretch to say that kids who think they deserve to have personally relevant learning opportunities are not self-motivated.  And at this point, I’m not even sure that we know what today’s students should be learning.  Today’s learners will likely be creating their own jobs, so they probably have at least as good of an idea if not a better idea than we do about what is valuable, right?

The argument that rote learning gives students an opportunity to learn to perseverance is misguided because it assumes that just because a learning endeavor is creative or fun that it won’t prepare students to persevere. At a recent exhibition of learning put on at our high school, I interviewed students about their process in a very self-directed academic task where they had total autonomy over the topic and the product.  Every one of them experienced frustrations and obstacles that they had to work through in order to get to a final product.  They learned how to persevere and were actively engaged the entire time. Students should be given opportunities to take responsibility for their learning by having choice and autonomy about what, how, when, and where they learn.  Teachers should provide students with opportunities to engage in learning tasks that are authentic and long-term so they can experience perseverance and follow through.  Just because a child engages in learning that is personally interesting doesn’t mean they won’t encounter steps that will require self-motivation and perseverance. 

The argument that life is sometimes just a bunch of hoops is not true.  We get to make choices.  Yes, there will be things that we will have to do to get to the end but if the end is something we are passionate about then we will be self-motivated to do those things.  Eric Toshalis discusses the issue of motivation in a video from the 2012 Students at the Center Symposium in Boston, MA. I challenge anyone to come up with something they absolutely had to do in life that didn’t lead them to an ultimate goal that was relevant for them.

I feel bad for people who think they have no control over their life circumstances; who think they have to just “buck up”.  No, no you don’t.  I want the kids who live in my community to feel in control of their lives.  I want them to know that I believe in them and that I trust that, while they may need guidance, that they know what is best for them.  In a recent conversation with a history teacher who took a great risk and had great success in offering a very open ended project to her students, she said, “I just trusted them; it was that simple”. I want them to know that we trust that if they make a mistake, they will learn from it.  I want the kids in my community to be happy.  I have worked for sixteen years as a special educator with the students who have had the least success as students and I can tell you by the time they are teenagers, they are miserable.  I have worked very hard to help them “get through” high school, many times asking them to “buck up”.  Have I helped them be self-motivated? No. I have added to their belief that they have no say and no choices about their lives.  I have limited their self-confidence and ability to be self-directed. I’d much rather see a happy student that is motivated to learn what they want to learn than a miserable student who knows how to “buck up”.   

We need to be teaching in a way that is going to help your students be the creative, self-directed, empathetic human beings they will need to be in order to be successful in our ever changing, global economy, whatever that looks like. These are the classrooms and teachers we should be paying attention to.  If we talked about all the amazingly self-motivated students and innovative teachers half as much as we talk about all the unmotivated students and test driven schools, we could learn so much more.  Hudgens argues that the conversation needs to change.  We agree on that.  We need to start talking about what’s working instead of what’s not.  Put a #SpotlightOn all the amazing learning and achievement that is happening in your classroom.