Motivation?

Question: Why are American students lacking in motivation?

The above question is a blatant generality. I know it. However, I’m willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that everyone reading this post will have, at one point in their careers, have struggled with the challenge of motivating a student to do what they want them to do. I think so much of what we do is motivation; so much of what our parents must do at home is motivation. The connection between student achievement and success on assessment (including standardized tests) has to lie with motivation. For years, Americans have been relegated to the shadows while our competitors in other countries consistently beat us with regards to achievements in practically every aspect of education. The answer has to lie in motivation.

Now, don’t get me wrong. For every news story about how American students are falling behind our Asian competition, there is a complimentary story about an inspiring teacher or coach who gets their class or team to succeed when either everyone else has given up or the odds are insurmountable. Well, as I sit here in the hospital waiting for the nurse to come back with our new son, I’ve been reading of one such story, so I thought I’d share it with you.

Have you ever read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson? It’s the story of a mountain climber who gets lost on his way down from the summit of K2 who stumbles into a Pakistani village; first he is captivated by the villagers’ hospitality, but as he recovers from exposure, he begins to realize the educational system the Pakistanis have in place, which is next to nothing. Because the village cannot afford a teacher, the Pakistani government provides one, albeit at a rate of one dollar a day; the teacher does not even stay for a period of time, either. The village shares the teacher with another village and the students in this village only see the teacher three days a week. Mortenson describes what the children do when the teacher is absent:
After the last note of the anthem had faded, the children sat in a neat circle and began copying their multiplication tables. Most scratched in the dirt with sticks they’d brought for that purpose. The more fortunate, like Jahan [the village chief’s granddaughter], had slate boards they wrote on with sticks dipped in a mixture of mud and water. “Can you imagine a fourth-grade class in America, alone, without a teacher, sitting there quietly and working on their lessons?” Mortenson asks (32).
The novel details Mortenson’s attempts to build a school in this remote village in the mountains of Pakistan. He goes through frustration with fundraising, confrontations with village elders, and other problems before he can build his school, and what starts out as one school, becomes over 50. I picked the passage above to share because I felt the answer to the question I asked lies in this passage. Kids in Pakistan are so grateful for every shred of education they receive; they will draw their math in the dirt to continue the education. Would our kids go so far? Of course, some would. Who is ultimately responsible for this motivation? (I guess I’m ending a question with a question, so sorry about that.)