Dear Students. We lied.

 Photocredit: Roger Neubecker for slate.com

I think it’s time I come clean.

It’s about time we talk about the lie that schools have perpetuated since their inception.

Last weekend we were asked to think about the “why” behind our action plan. More specifically we used the Five Why’s thinking tool, meant to uncover the baseline motivation behind our action plan.  This time for reflection prompted me to sit down and unload a discomfort I had carried for many years.

As a student, I spent much of my time working hard to achieve. I was told that I had to work hard to get good grades. “Why did I need good grades?” I would ask.

“You need good grades to get into a good university”, school would reply.

“Why did I need to get into a “good” university?”

School scoffed, “To get a good job, of course”.

Finally I asked,  “Why do I need a good job?”

“To be happy of course.”

This all made sense. I wanted to be happy after all?

So, I worked hard and dutifully learned how to “do school”. All through school, I worked for those check marks and gold stars. But at the end of the 2012, I came out of it all and realized I had been duped. I wasn’t happy. Not at all.

Many conversations about school have begun to center on the factory model of education, birthed along with the industrial revolution. At that time, we needed workers. So, students were streamed through school, sorted and pushed into suitable careers. But of course, times are changing – to use the now-common contemporary cliche.

So when I came away from it all, and settled into my supposed “dream” career as a teacher, I realized that my objective success did not lead to my happiness. I longed for a world where hard work would receive due reward. I worked hard, so did I not deserve the gold stars and pats on the back?

Ultimately, my schooling taught me how to jump through hoops, and work for grades and achievement. In teacher speak, I was highly extrinsically motivated. School did not teach me how to “do life” – to find a passion that could stand alone from reward. I was not taught how to seek happiness through the pursuit of things that I valued. I did not see myself at school, and I did not find myself in it either.

So the why behind my action plan? I strongly feel that I can no longer participate in this lie. I could not live with myself if I continued to allow this culture into my classroom. One that is fueled on grades, candy and stickers. One that teaches kids that their value is in what others think of you and the numbers they stamp on you.

In response, my new HMW question:

How might we facilitate intrinsically motivated growth through personal goal setting, self evaluation and descriptive feedback.

Thank you to @adomina and @aleacock for letting my take my time on my soapbox and for pushing me to blog about it, and @lbettencourt for helping me to put my frustration into action.

So what do you think?