PLN 9

 Summary

"Schools would be great if it weren't for the kids" By Valerie Strauss is stating that the motivation of students is not what it needs to be and is affecting them.  Strauss is trying to explain her viewpoint by a sit-com, the big idea that the two characters are telling is that an average student does not care or is not "motivated" enough and everyone is blaming the student for that. Then, Strauss develops two great questions from a non-economist point of view. The first asks “Motivated to do what, exactly?" Anything they’re told, no matter how disengaging, inappropriate, or, well, demotivating (Strauss)? Then, the second question, informed by decades of progress in the field of psychology, is: “What kind of motivation are we talking about here?” In these these two questions Strauss is trying get what the motivation is to the kids and what kind of motivation to them.

Response

"Schools would be great if it weren't for the kids" By Valerie Strauss is correctly stating that students are not being motivated like they used to be. Strauss goes on to say about how she "...see students made to cram facts into their short-term memories for a test, practice a series of decontextualized skills on yet another worksheet, listen passively to a lecture...(Strauss)". Strauss is trying to prove how students to care or are not motivated to do any of these things. She then explains how the students are being threatened to be motivated but then Strauss says those threats are ineffective but counterproductive. Students are are being thought of only having one type of motivation, which is not true. Students need can be motivated by many things such as curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a ‘good’ college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure”( Samuelson). Students are getting  bad rep for not being motivated, but in some cases can be a true statement from different view points.