What Motivates Learning?

Why I Learned

I feel fortunate to have grown up when and where I did. The civil rights era and the anti-war movement of the sixties and seventies is often put in terms of the ongoing unrest. What is under covered is the individual idealism that grew out of these movements. Although my father was involved in the heat of urban upheaval as a civil rights arbiter, my growing up was somewhat sheltered. I played with friends, explored the woods around me, engaged in personal interests such as art and sports, and was privileged to spend a month on vacation on the Pamlico River in eastern North Carolina during the summers.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

However, what that boat did was awaken me to the natural world.

The summer after sixth grade, my dad gave me a 12 foot Sears run about with a four horse Mercury outboard. This may have been the most consequential gift I received growing up. It was not an expensive boat, and it was not fast. However, what that boat did was enhance my introduction to the natural world.

The Pamlico River

As a brackish body of water between the inland Tar River and Pamlico Sound, the Pamlico River’s tributaries included marshes, cypress swamps, and creeks with miles of lily pads that exploded in color every summer afternoon. As I explored the waters my first motivation was to find the mythic bass comparable to what I had seen in old photographs of my grandfather’s exploits. Instead, what I found was a natural wonder that inspired subjects for my painting and drawing while introducing me to the beauty of the natural world.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

I was learning that I could have a voice.

My exploration of the Pamlico River showed me that my work with friends in the Ecology Club while in sixth grade was important. The environmental advocacy that came along with our monthly publication was given agency through my exposure to nature. I was learning that I could have a voice.

My True Motivation

A great deal of my motivation to learn came from the freedom to explore things around me. Having the time to use my imagination was critical to my intellectual development and it helped me envision what I could become. School and learning responsibilities like homework and chores were important, but finding wonder in the world gave purpose to the discipline I was taught by teachers and my parents. Life was my classroom.

Secondary Education Changed, But Not Really

My first encounter with sixth grade as an educator occurred during my first assistant principal assignment. Public schools traditionally experienced the most significant number of dropouts in ninth grade which was the oldest group in the junior high configuration. The key argument to move to middle school was that we could realign to 6th through 8th grade while establishing time to mentor students and give them the opportunity to mature socially and emotionally before they experienced the rigors of high school. This isn’t what happened.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Instead of establishing some hybrid instructional format meant to help 6th graders

transition to secondary school, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools put those

young students into a format that included changing classes, negotiating

lockers, and encountering giants with deep voices.

When we moved 6th grade to middle school, we chose to put 11 year olds in a secondary school setting. Instead of establishing some hybrid instructional format meant to help 6th graders transition to secondary school, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools put those young students into a format that included changing classes, negotiating lockers, and encountering giants with deep voices. Adding insult to injury, we moved to four ninety minute periods that doubled up on reading and math while reducing opportunities for social studies, science and elective classes such as the arts and vocational activities.

We Will Pretend You Are Old Enough

Instead of engaging more with students in intimate class settings, we made school and learning more rudimentary, driven by high stakes testing through a college prep curriculum. Instead of focusing on the social and emotional transitions required for early adolescent success, we introduced pre-pubescent children to an adolescent environment and all its distractions. As attention became a challenge, we forced middle school students to sit in class studying one subject for a longer sitting.

Strategy Devoid of Evidence

Brain research now claims that executive functioning, responsible for organization and reasoned decision making, does not fully mature until around 25. Meanwhile, schools have moved to rigid instructional practice that ignored the data around student interest, attention, or behavior.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

I saw no evidence that intensified college prep resulted in better academic

outcomes in high school or college.

I saw no evidence that intensified college prep resulted in better academic outcomes in high school or college, much less student interests in inquiry. In fact, I witnessed one vison of education that trapped students in one form of learning while missing out on the experiences that motivated cognitive growth.

We have models for Meaningful Learning

I recently visited the independent school where my oldest teaches sixth grade social studies. Yes, there are academic demands, but what excited me was a playground along a creek where students built forts from natural materials and a maker space where they explored constructing devices with a variety of materials. There is no reason this can’t exist in a public school.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Although it is important, knowledge cannot be limited to memorizing facts in a book.

Although it is important, knowledge cannot be limited to memorizing facts in a book. One of the detrimental aspects of our digital technology is that we mistakenly act as if we no longer need to learn from interactions with nature. If we want our children to realize the best in themselves, they must be allowed to explore their world.

© Paul A Bonner