I spent much of Remembrance Day watching my two grandsons—3 years and 8 months. Most interesting to me was watching my youngest grandson try to crawl. He has rolling down pat. As a matter of fact, he figured out how to roll his way over and out of the barricade set up to contain him in the living room. His mother and I just watched in amazement, and then his mother retrieved him. But crawl? As much as he tried—desperately tried, many times—he just can’t do it…yet.
So, why is he so driven to learn to crawl? Movement is important to get what you need and what you want. (At 8 months old, he is already striving for what he wants—for him this is mostly whatever his brother has—and not only what he needs.) But, it is not just movement he craves—he has that—but rather more efficient movement. He is seeking to improve upon the skills he already has. Why? It seems that the desire to learn is not just driven by our needs; there must be a hard-wired component to it, as well. I am sure there are many Ph.D. dissertations on this topic, but I am almost positive that he has not read any of them. He doesn’t know why he wants to, he just does.
The whys might still be a mystery, but it is fascinating to watch him try to learn so desperately. At 8 months old, his motivation to learn is mostly internal, I suspect; I hope he is not worrying about meeting his grandpa’s expectations just yet. Watching him made me think about the last time I worked that hard at learning something and what so motivated me. And it made me think about my students and how they look at learning.
I have always said that I cannot teach anyone anything, but I can give them good reasons to want to learn. What I mean by that is that, as a teacher, I try to stimulate that hard-wired part of each student that creates the desire to learn. I have seen that same determined drive that I see in my grandson in some students when they try to solve a problem or complete a task. They, too, possess that same desperate need to “do well” or to “be successful.” Problem is, of course, I don’t see it often enough.
Stimulating a student to be motivated is ¾ of my job; the other 1/4 is helping them acquire strategies and techniques. If I can create in them the desire to learn and if I can teach them how to learn to learn, then I know I’ve given them a life skill that goes way past any memorization of facts or information. After all, information today is free or cheap. Wanting to learn and knowing how to do it is far more important.
How I wish I had that single-minded drive to learn new things that I see in young children! Perhaps we would be better off if, instead of always looking ahead, we could look back in our own lives and remember what it was that motivated us so.
So, why is he so driven to learn to crawl? Movement is important to get what you need and what you want. (At 8 months old, he is already striving for what he wants—for him this is mostly whatever his brother has—and not only what he needs.) But, it is not just movement he craves—he has that—but rather more efficient movement. He is seeking to improve upon the skills he already has. Why? It seems that the desire to learn is not just driven by our needs; there must be a hard-wired component to it, as well. I am sure there are many Ph.D. dissertations on this topic, but I am almost positive that he has not read any of them. He doesn’t know why he wants to, he just does.
The whys might still be a mystery, but it is fascinating to watch him try to learn so desperately. At 8 months old, his motivation to learn is mostly internal, I suspect; I hope he is not worrying about meeting his grandpa’s expectations just yet. Watching him made me think about the last time I worked that hard at learning something and what so motivated me. And it made me think about my students and how they look at learning.
I have always said that I cannot teach anyone anything, but I can give them good reasons to want to learn. What I mean by that is that, as a teacher, I try to stimulate that hard-wired part of each student that creates the desire to learn. I have seen that same determined drive that I see in my grandson in some students when they try to solve a problem or complete a task. They, too, possess that same desperate need to “do well” or to “be successful.” Problem is, of course, I don’t see it often enough.
Stimulating a student to be motivated is ¾ of my job; the other 1/4 is helping them acquire strategies and techniques. If I can create in them the desire to learn and if I can teach them how to learn to learn, then I know I’ve given them a life skill that goes way past any memorization of facts or information. After all, information today is free or cheap. Wanting to learn and knowing how to do it is far more important.
How I wish I had that single-minded drive to learn new things that I see in young children! Perhaps we would be better off if, instead of always looking ahead, we could look back in our own lives and remember what it was that motivated us so.
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