For Fun or Reward

I just watched a great TED Talk by Daniel Pink. He reminded me, and gave me scientific evidence, of something that I already knew. I don't do anything very well when it is reward based. I just thought it was me and never considered it could apply to other people. As a note, students are considered in other people.

I have told my kids of the time when I turned down more money to teach in California because I didn't like the trees and living in the desert wasn't what I wanted to do. I wasn't stupid about it. I didn't go all hippy and give up material things, but money wasn't the driving force behind my decision. I could have pursued higher paying jobs but teaching offered me incentives that I preferred. More freedom, time with family, less stress in a sense and a satisfaction I couldn't get elsewhere. I coached and volunteered, not for the money but for the experience and satisfaction of knowing I was helping shape or enhance lives. One could argue that these are rewards but they are intrinsic.

Shortly after being hired as the tech director I was told they changed my pay scale to equal that of teachers. This meant that if I got my masters degree I would make a lot more money. I went to talk to the superintendent to see if he truly understood what I could be paid. He didn't, but he still said it would benefit us all if I did. I asked him, "Will my plate get bigger? Will I be able to get more work done?" Needless to say, besides more money and the worry of now making too much for them to keep me, I would not have gotten any more work done. A few years later the recession hit, and had I been making more money they would have replaced me, I have no doubt.

Another example is a year after starting the archery team at the school where I teach, the superintendent and some board members wanted to pay me. I told them I didn't want paid. They told me no one does anything for free and I should be paid. We actually argued over it. My argument being that any amount they paid me would be insignificant and there would be expectations. I just wanted to help students succeed in something and not have to worry about being an employee. I finally won because they determined they didn't have the funds anyway. This just shows the depth of the belief that external rewards, rather than internal, drive people.

I never was successful doing anything for profit outside of my regular job because the money was never enough to make a change. I had to give up too much of what I enjoyed and since the money from my job was enough to provide for my family, I wasn't that driven to make more. I worked outside of my job many times but it was to show my kids what it means to be dedicated to providing for your family and to test the waters for other endeavors, but I never stayed at them once the crisis was over or I determined a future wasn't there.

Intrinsic reward will always far out way external rewards for most people. It is the feeling of satisfaction that we yearn for.

Everybody wants to play Mozart

Everybody wants to play Mozart, nobody wants to play Twinkle Twinkle.

This is what proponents of technology use in schools seem to be proposing. I know they aren't suggesting students should skip learning to multiply before doing calculus but with all the talk about SAMR and TIMS and how technology should be integrated into classrooms, it is easy to get that idea. Taken out of context or out of application, pushing technology for the sake of technology can be destructive to the learning and the teaching process.

Even PBL, which promotes the use of projects to teach all subjects, occasionally refers to the time teachers need to teach a concept and for students to practice those concepts. Unrestrained or uneducated administrators and teachers might get the idea that SAMR should be applied in all instances. This puts undo pressure on the teacher and diminishes the value of the teaching process. Teachers need to be taught that they are still needed to teach but also taught when to let go and allow students to be creative. I will say as I always do that technology is a tool that only works when correctly used where needed.

Teaching and practicing Twinkle Twinkle, multiplication tables, sentence structure and other basics are necessary before students can move on to Mozart, multi-step problems, and writing paragraphs. I just hope people realize it is also necessary before students move on to technology use and more creative endeavors.