As for children slacking off because they’re supposedly discouraged by not having the same cool gadgets as everyone else; that’s just plain depressing. If they don’t feel that they can be seen if they aren’t decked out with the latest and greatest technology, they should investigate taking courses online (in some cases they will even provide the technology needed and reimberse you for the costs.)

In closing, as a high school student coming from a less than priviledged family, I find students demanding money to do their work more than a little insulting. I mean, I’m doing the work for free. Maybe it’s about time I start demanding equal treatment?

I’m the President and Founder of a US-based company that has built a very comprehensive and successful social skills education curriculum that re-grounds students in those critical interpersonal skills and character traits that will make them successful not only immediately in their school “careers” but long-term as they leave school to enter the job market.

I can say that our programs help students understand “what’s in it for me?” if they do a good job, show respectful and appropriate behavior, and focus on positive attitudes instead of following the tenets of an increasingly rude, crude, and indifferent society.

And, what happens when schools implement it is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

* Time on task increases
* Discipline problems drop as much as 80%
* Student, teacher and staff morale improves
* School culture is transformed
* Absenteeism drops
* Academic achievement goes up — double-digit or more improvements in test scores even in the first year and the improvements continue as the school remains on the program.

And the best part is, the kids DO it because they are motivated by the right reasons, not because someone has paid them off to do it. So, this model is scalable, repeatable, and sustainable, which a “buyout plan” such as “pay for performance” initiatives aren’t.

Elona had suggested I include my website address for anyone who wants more information so here it is: http://www.socialsmarts.com

I’m also happy to answer any inquiries, but in general, our philosophy is that it’s high-time we re-civilized the schools because our kids, our families, our communities depend on it.

http://www.pressuredparents.com & http://www.kathyseal.net (click on Motivated Minds on the lower right hand side of the home page)
You can check out my blog too at http://pressuredparents.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php or on my website above.

Happy reading, and thanks Elona!

Kathy

“What drains this excitement — research shows that intrinsic motivation declines steadily from third to ninth grade — is a curriculum that doesn’t connect to children’s goals and interests, and the increasing dependence on grades, competition or awards as motivators.”

But that’s only part of the problem

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-grolnick5-2008sep05,0,2652576.story

Looks like Obama may nominate Arne Duncan, who backs one of these programs in the Chicago schools, for Sec. of Education.

There are teachers who know how to get kids motivated, and there are programs to teach teachers how to build kids’ self-motivation. Seems like the money would be better spent there, because self-motivation goes on and on, while money gets exhausted. And there’s not guarantee that the motivation the money stimulated will remain once you take away the dollars…

Kathy
PS My books talk about how to motivate kids to learn: Motivated Minds: Raising Children to Love Learning and Pressured Parents, Stressed-out Kids.

I don’t think that the ways that people learn is all that different, either. We’ve simply become so overburdened with details that we’ve forgotten to ask questions like, “How does the mind develop?” or “What does it mean to be an educated person?” Even simple questions of method, like “Where did this antagonism between teachers and students come from?” seem to elude us.

Once more people start asking those questions honestly, I think we’ll find our way back. But it won’t be politicians and bureaucrats that do it for us. It will be small pockets of disillusioned yet idealistic people who sense that something is terribly wrong, yet have the overwhelming compulsion to rebuild the walls of this delapidated fortress.