Striving
last_modified_at: 2024-09-28 01:46:27
last_modified_at: 2024-09-28 01:46:27 —
When people say kids aren’t motivated they are lying to themselves.
Kids love to learn but they hate school.
They hate school for several reasons, but the one I’ll focus on here is that schools academize interesting things and ruin them.
I have seen time and again in my career working with kids for over 20 years, that all kids are constantly striving for something.
They want to learn, grow, get better, be better, do better.
This striving extends to adults as well.
At my conference earlier this week, a participant came into my session and looked wiped out. I commented on her slouched appearance in her chair and asked why she felt that way.
We bantered for a bit and then continued on. Later in the day, she said that my presentation was much different than the one that wore her out.
The one that wore her out required nothing from her. The presenter gave notes, typed up, the slide deck printed out, and she just sat back, and didn’t think or take action because the presenter had done everything for her.
Shortly after my presentation, she was “leaning in” - a classic sign of interest and enrollment. I asked her why she chose to be engaged in mine.
She said, “In the other session, I didn’t have to do anything, as it was all done for me. So, it became boring. You had no hand outs, no pictures on your slides, and you told lots of stories…
“I had to constantly stay engaged and take notes of what I was learning in the moment.”
Matt Damon’s Mom, Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige said this week that we don’t know exactly how our brain actually makes learning happen, but we do know that it happens.
We don’t know exactly why we all are always striving, but we are. We are seeking towards centropy, where nothing ends or corrodes in a world of entropy, where everything rots, decays and goes to disorganization.
Our inner desire to get better, improve, learn, and grow is innate in all of us. We need schools that facilitate and not schools the denigrate it.