How to motivate students when culture attacks ambition
From the Atlanta Journal
Constitution, October 6, 2010
By Etienne R.
LeGrand
9:06
p.m. Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The recent testing scandal in Georgia schools
has prompted a spate of articles focusing our attention even more sharply on
our nation’s education crisis and the significant need for school reform.
Both educators and policymakers continue the
heated debate about the need for more effective teachers, more rigorous and
relevant curriculum and the eradication of other underlying socioeconomic
causes that collide to contribute to our declining national competitiveness.
In a recent column, Washington Post economist
Robert Samuelson suggested the reason we have spent so much money on
educational reform with so little positive result may be that our educational
crisis cannot be blamed entirely on bad teachers, ineffective school management
or selfish unions.
“The larger cause of failure is almost
unmentionable: shrunken student motivation,” wrote Samuelson. “Students, after
all, have to do the work. If they aren’t motivated, even capable teachers may
fail. Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental
expectations; the desire to get into a ‘good’ college; inspiring or intimidating
teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school ‘reform’ is
that if students aren’t motivated, it’s mainly the fault of schools and
teachers.”
Wrong, he said. “Motivation is weak because
more students [of all races and economic classes] don’t like school, don’t work
hard and don’t do well. In a 2008 survey of public high school teachers, 21
percent judged student absenteeism a serious problem; 29 percent cited ‘student
apathy.’ ”
We agree with Samuelson, and since 2004 the
mission of the W.E.B. Du Bois Society here in Atlanta has been to ignite
academic ambition among more African-American youth so they graduate from high
school college-and-career ready. Our focus on student motivation and engagement
was buoyed by research findings in Laurence Steinberg’s 1996 book “Beyond the
Classroom,” which directly cited student motivation as a root cause of the
widespread poor educational achievement we are witnessing.
Among his findings from a study of more than
20,000 students in urban and rural school districts across the U.S., Steinberg
reports that one in five students says he doesn’t try as hard as he can in
school because he is worried about what others will say. Only 32 percent of
teens say their friends believe it’s important to get good grades and just 20
percent say it’s important to go to one of the best colleges. The number of
hours students say they spend working “hard almost every day” varies by ethnic
group, with African-Americans admitting the fewest hours per week working on
their studies. It is hardly surprising that the total number of hours spent
weekly on schoolwork pales in comparison to the time most students dedicate to
extracurricular activities such as sports.
Lest we forget, students must work to achieve
significant academic outcomes with the same motivation and commitment they
invest in sports and other extracurricular activities. We’re working to make
African-American students view success in the classroom as “cool” and desirable
as success on the basketball court or the football field.
Here’s what we have learned:
● In our culture, the reward system for
African-American youth is dangerously askew. Our young people get far more
powerful and effective reinforcement from their peers, the media and the
community at large for achievement in sports and entertainment than for success
in the classroom.
● Entertainers are much more powerful role
models today than they were a generation ago. I loved the Temptations, but
never thought of David Ruffin or Eddie Kendrick as someone to emulate. Today,
however, entertainers like T.I. and Lil Kim exert a powerful influence over
young people, and it’s often not a good one.
● Good students will respond enthusiastically
to opportunities to spend time with other good students, and high potential
students can be motivated to be better students when they are recognized and
rewarded for their effort and accomplishment in the classroom — just as we
recognize and reward effort and accomplishment in other arenas.
● It’s one thing to say we expect them to
achieve; it’s another to help students understand how achievement happens.
Through one of our programs, we are communicating to students that they
themselves are the difference between their success and failure. We communicate
the importance of developing such essential skills as group study and the
mind-set that with hard work and dedication, they can make anything happen —
even improve their grades. Students understand the connection between hard work
and practice and an improved free throw percentage, but lack the motivation and
discipline to work as hard in the classroom to master math or science.
We’ve heard from some students that studying
is just not that much fun, yet we know that building muscle memory through the
repetition of an activity can pay off on the court and in the classroom.
Education is the key to success and it is our
most urgent issue. Our work at the Du Bois Society inspires African-American
students — the most at risk among them — to strive for excellence no matter how
challenging their socio-economic circumstances may be because we know that
poverty is not destiny. We also know that when preparation meets opportunity,
we increase our odds for success.
Etienne R. LeGrand is president of the W.E.B. Du Bois Society in
Atlanta.
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